Nobody likes to think it is happening in their own shop. But when our customers start looking at what their counters actually do, four patterns come up again and again. None of them shows in the day’s total, which is why they last so long.

What owners have actually found

These are the four things Stock2Track customers have caught their staff doing:

• Deleting bills. The customer pays, the bill is printed, and later the bill is deleted. The goods are gone, and the cash is gone with it.
• Editing rates. An item is billed below its price, for a friend or for a share of the difference.
• Giving discounts. A discount the owner never approved, entered quietly at the counter.
• Keeping cash. Money taken from the drawer, sometimes covered by one of the three above.

Each one is small on its own. Together, over a year, they add up to real money. And they usually go on for months, because nothing about them looks wrong at the end of a busy day.

Why owners find out late

The day’s sales total looks normal, because a deleted bill simply isn’t in it. A discounted bill still adds up. A paper register shows what was written, not what was changed. And the owner is not standing at every counter all day, especially once the shop has a second counter or a godown.

So the question to ask is not “do I trust my staff?” It is “if something were changed, would I ever see it?” In most shops the honest answer is no.

Start with roles, not suspicion

The calmest fix is to stop the problem from being possible in the first place. In Stock2Track, the owner is the admin and sees everything. Everyone else gets a role, set up around the job they actually do:

• Salesperson: bills at the counter, but cannot change prices, give discounts the owner hasn’t allowed, or see purchase rates and margins.
• Inventory manager: handles stock and purchases.
• Accountant: works on accounts and reports.

The roles are configurable, so you decide exactly what each one can do, including whether anyone but you can edit an old invoice or delete one. Most misuse needs a permission that the person never needed for their job. Taking that permission away is not an accusation. It is just good setup. More on this on the user roles page.

The audit log: every action has a name and a time

Roles prevent most of it. The audit log shows you the rest. Stock2Track records the actions performed in the system: who deleted a bill, who changed a rate, who gave a discount, and when.

On the Cloud edition, the owner can read the audit log on the phone app, from anywhere. On the Offline edition, it is on the counter PC.

Stock2Track does not send an alert for these actions. The audit log is where you see them, so the habit matters more than the feature. Ten minutes a day is enough:

1. Look for any deleted bills, and who deleted them.
2. Look for rate changes made at the counter.
3. Look for discounts that are larger than usual, or given by someone who doesn’t usually give them.
4. Count the cash in the drawer against the day’s cash sales.

Staff who know the owner looks every day tend to stop. That is the real value of the log. Most of the time, it prevents the problem rather than catching it.

When the log shows something

Go slowly. A deleted bill can have an innocent reason, like a wrong item scanned and billed again. Ask first. If a pattern repeats, tighten that person’s role so the action needs you. The aim is a counter where the right thing is the easy thing, not a shop full of suspicion.

We have written about the wider version of this problem, and how each control tends to get worked around as a shop grows, in Every control you set will be tested. Our case studies show how particular businesses set up their controls. If you would like us to set up roles for your own counters, book a free demo.