Assuming I owned a restaurant with more than three employees, I would need to take many steps in order to protect my company from fraudulent use of cash. For instance, I would need to have technology in place to ensure that every order was accounted for. Much fraud in these businesses takes place because people are able to pay cash for meals, and without an electronic point of sale system, the “tickets” that reflect each sale can be destroyed, with the cash pocketed (Kimes & Collier, 2014). The business would need to have every order entered into a point of sale system so that there would be a record of that sale to match the money received for the sale. That way, if cash went missing, the company would know which server was responsible.
In addition, one control would be to have the same person looking over the register (Kimes & Beard, 2013). A single person would be responsible for cash payments at the register. This way, if the register came up short on cash, there would be an easy person to question over the disappearance.

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For payments, I would utilize a direct deposit system. No cash would be used for disbursements, except to the extent people take home tips from their work. We would utilize a system where direct deposits are made each week so that the record keeping would remain intact.

A weak control system could allow for many problems. For one, it would allow money to slip out the company in a business that already has slight margins. Importantly, there would also be deficits in record keeping. The company would need to keep good records on its expenses in order to take the proper deductions. The cash controls for the company would also allow the restaurant to keep up with its costs and its sales appropriately. This would not be possible without cash controls in place because one would not know quantity of goods sold.

    References
  • Kimes, S. E., & Beard, J. (2013). The future of restaurant revenue management. Journal of Revenue and Pricing Management, 12(5), 464-469.
  • Kimes, S. E., & Collier, J. (2014). Customer-facing payment technology in the US restaurant Industry.
  • Lohr, S. (2013). How Surveillance Changes Behavior: A Restaurant Worker’s Case Study. The New York Times, 26.