You have a feeling, or a number that keeps coming up short. Do not confront anyone on a feeling. The POS records who did what, with a reason and a manager approval. Build the picture from the records first, calmly, and then decide.
Signs you are in this situation
- Cash Variance repeats on one person's shifts.
- One name dominates Reports → Refunds Register or Voids & Refunds.
- Reports → Staff Performance shows an unusual Voids count or a low Avg Check for one person.
- Corrections to paid tickets pile up in Edit History with vague reasons.
- High-value products are short at count while cheap ones are fine.
What to do right now
- Pick a date range of at least two weeks. Open Reports → Refunds Register and sort mentally by Operator: how many refunds, which Reason, and whether Restock was on. Refunds with restock off and no returned product are the ones to look at.
- Open Reports → Corrections and Edit History. Read the Reason on each and who approved it.
- Open Audit Log. Filter by All staff → the person, set Date from and Date to, and Apply filters. Use View diff on refunds, corrections and inventory adjustments to see exactly what changed.
- Compare with Reports → Payment Methods for their sessions: a cash sale later corrected or refunded is the pattern to look for.
- Compare with a physical count of the products involved. See The stock count does not match.
- Write down what you found with dates, ticket IDs and amounts before talking to anyone.
Decide
| If… | Then… |
|---|---|
| The records show honest mistakes (wrong item, wrong tender) and nothing missing | Training. Pair them with an experienced cashier for a week and re-check. |
| Refunds or discounts were approved with a manager PIN that the person should not have | The PIN is shared or was seen. Use Force PIN Change on that manager and stop PIN sharing. |
| The pattern is clear and the amounts add up | Follow your store policy and local process. Keep the exported reports as your record. |
| Lines are disappearing from carts before payment | Removing a line from a cart that has not been paid is not recorded. Control that at the counter: position, supervision, and reading the cart back to the customer. |
Afterwards, and how to prevent it
- Keep refunds, discounts and ticket edits at Manager level and keep managers few. Check Roles & Permissions → Permission Matrix.
- Never share a manager PIN. Approve in person.
- Make Refunds Register, Corrections and the caja Variance a weekly five-minute review.
- Set the Auto-Lock Timeout short enough that a logged-in screen is never left open.
- Use Export on the reports you reviewed and keep the files with the date.