I made a mistake (cash error) in work

[oopsidisit]

I have made a very silly mistake in work. Completely my fault through carelessness but it was an honest mistake. Basically I put a card sale accidentally through the till as cash and now the till is £70 down. My boss knows and I told him that I was incredibly sorry. I haven't actually seen my manager in person but I am back in on Monday with him.

Has anyone done this before? Will I be dismissed? I'm very nervous and annoyed at myself all at the same time

It won't be down overall tough surely just needs adjusting? I wouldn't worry about it x

There is no money lost, just an error, please try not to fret about it.

It will be reconciled on the EOD, do not worry at all

Surely the card take is up £70 and it balances?

Oh OP - I used to do this multiple times a week when I worked in a corner shop 🤣 it’s not a big deal!! Don’t worry over it for a second.

No it's definitely down. It's as if the customer hadn't paid. She was busy with her small children and she set her card onto the card machine to pay contactless and I (with out realising at the time) hit cash button so when the receipt printed out neither her nor I knew what had happened but technically she didn't pay so the till is short money

Do you mean she tapped the card machine but it didn't take the payment?

But you will still have a card transaction for £70 presumably with a receipt in the till. So it will reconcile, it's not like it's vanished into thin air.

She is technically away and the items have t been charged to her card ( because I hit 'cash')

This happens at work a lot between different users. It's not a big deal although we deal with it at the time or when we cash up after sales, it's a simple fix then.
It's easily done- I wouldn't worry.

So are you saying the till is linked to the card reader and because you hit cash on the till it didn't process the payment on the card ? So the payment hasn't been taken ?

No, her card wasn't charged at all, this is the problem. She hasn't paid (my fault not the customers) it is the same senario if she was paying cash but didn't actually give me the money. The £70 isn't in the till

Yes, exactly this

Big businesses lose money. You admitted it and now understand how it happened. £70 isn’t a lot of money.

That's not at all how that works.

It seems that this is part of the danger of taking those tapping card payments.

I miss the days of those credit card imprinting machines where you actually signed it.

You immediately realised your error and told the boss. As others say, money was put in the wrong place, not lost or stolen. If things weren't adding up on a regular basis and it seemed you didn't understand the reasons why, or came up with a weird excuse, then they might question your abilities. But a one off mistake that you flagged up? Of course they won't dismiss you. Or even discipline you. I wouldn't. I would be pleased you readily and swiftly alerted me that it happened.

Oh! All you can do is explain how you have learned from this and how you will prevent this mistake happening again

I know I suppose that's it

Why? Customer only tapped the card up against the machine, but OP hadn’t pressed ‘card’ on the till so the card machine never registered that it had to take £70. A receipt came from the till because OP pressed ’cash’.

Are you serious? You think neither one of them would notice that they were tapping a card on an inanimate card reader, which wasn't lit up, didn't have a total on it, didn't say accepted or declined, didn't print a receipt.....

You reported it to your manager straight away. I'd try not to worry about it. Very unlikely that you will be dismissed. These things happen when you're running a business - plenty of people will have done similar before.

Yes I’ve seen/heard of that happening numerous times in busy supermarkets and shops? 🤣 Was it a silly error? Yes. Does it happen? Yes.

No you haven't. It's not a thing that happens
This isn't how card readers and tills work.

@ArminTamzerian the customer set her phone ontop of the card reader (her baby was unsettled and she was dealing with him) she wouldn't have noticed the amount on the small screen because her phone was covering it. I hit cash and a receipt printed out. I have never done this in the 9 years I have worked in retail but because a till receipt printed off ( cash and card receipt are the same) I had no reason to doubt anything.