AIBU to think when dealing with cash, mistakes will happen?

[Cussler]

In my job as a receptionist, I have to take card payments, cheques and sometimes a small amount of cash. And, we keep a small float for change, but we don't use a till.

I am well educated, but don't have a good head for numbers at all. I easily make mistakes, even when I double check.

Twice now, the float has been down by £10. I know I haven't stolen it, and there's very little opportunity for anyone else to steal it. I know it's probably that I have made a simple mistake while adding up the float, because while I'm cashing up I've often got people asking me questions, or the phone ringing etc.

But I have a horrible feeling my Boss suspects me of stealing He doesn't believe that I can make mistakes handling only small amounts of cash, when I am well educated.

I feel really upset that I've obviously made a mistake, when it's only something very simple. I mean I do have GCSE Maths FFS, and I can actually add up. My DH insists that even very numerate people can make mistakes when dealing with cash, and that no one will get it 100% right 100% of the time.

But not sure how to solve the situation at work

Use a calculator?

How are you totting it up to give the change?

If someone gives you a £10 note for a £3.34 bill do you add the 6p then the 60p then the £6? Or do you try to make the sum more complicated than it is?

Mistakes do happen when you're in your early days but once you are used to cash handling then mistakes should be negligible.

Yes mistakes will happen. But a business owner be, quite simply, daft to ignore regular instances.
Your job role includes making sure the money is correct. So while mistakes happen, the fact you are doing part of your job incorrectly on more than one occasion, would concern me.
I have been a receptionist and and used to worry about the money all the time. I am now a business owner and I would be monitoring the situation.
In my mind if it had happened twice in a short period I would be thinking its either theft (which I am sure you are not) or a training issue.

Could you suggest buying a small cash register?

I don't actually need a calculator, or at least I thought I didn't

Our prices are all round to the nearest £. So, giving change should be incredibly easy. So, I just don't know how I've got it wrong twice?

There was £22.50 left in the float on Monday (and there was a £10 note, as part of the float). Yesterday, one client paid £40 in 4 £10 notes for a product costing £38, so I gave him £2 change.

But, when I came to cash up, there were only 4 £10 notes, and then some £1 coins, and some silver.

I just don't know what happend to the missing £10 note

Do you check the float before you start?

are you sure only you have access?
I used to have a boss who would dip into the cash box for lunch for example and not tell me.

Do you have the opportunity to take yourself somewhere quiet to deal with the cash tin? I've worked in bars where you were given a £1 tolerance in either direction, i've also worked in a bank with a zero tolerance and you HAD to have your til spot on at the close of play and your til would remain shut until you found the discrepancy. I've also had a post where I was in charge of the petty cash tin, and we kept a book of all the income and outgoings and how many of each denomination were in the tin at the end of the week that made up the total. All receipts were kept in the tin and used to balance the books.

Really if you get on top of it there should be no excuse for error. If you need more training, ask for it. If you need to go to a quiet space to cash up, do it.

And how little is the 'very little opportunity for anyone else to steal it'?

Someone is taking the money.

Is it locked away at night/when you're away from the desk?

Where did the coins come from, you didn't say they were in the initial float, sounds like someone is helping themselves to change up a tenner to help pay for a car park or similar.

We're allowed to split notes for people but they're not allowed to do it themselves.

And I just feel so very embarrassed because this is really simple adding and subtracting, that a 10 year old could do. How can I get it wrong?

I know I'm very good at all the other aspects of my job, and scored very highly in a recent appraisal. But when it comes to handling cash I just seem to make very simple mistakes And I don't understand because harder maths like algebra etc always came easily to me.

I'm wondering whether to suggest that someone else cashes up with me, to double check what I've done. But, there really isn't anyone else available, as the other receptionist leaves an hour before I do.

Can you cash up before they leave and then refuse all payments after a certain time? at least until you become more confident

Could you not get someone to double check it with you. I would check it at the start and end of every shift and put a piece of paper in the cash tin with the amount you last checked it as.

Are you sure nobody else has access? £10 is a lot of money for just making a simple mistake. Doesn't sound right to me.

Does the other receptionist have access to the tin?

Can in the original £22.50 float, there was a £10, then pound coins and silver.

Heath Bleather there is opportunity for 2 other people to access the petty cash. The other receptionist has the same access I do. And, then another girl could access it, and she is around during lunchtime, when I go home for lunch, and the petty cash isn't locked away.

But I simply cannot believe either of them would steal. I just can't. I know I have a poor head for cash handling, and easily make mistakes so I think it must be me

2 exact discrepancies of exactly £10.... doesn't sound like a mistake to me

Maybe suggest to your boss that you should have a till, so that there is a record of all transaction?

Do you and the other receptionist each have your own cash float? Can anyone else access it to borrow cash from?

Note it in a book. EVERY transaction you make, get the others to do the same. Keep the book with the tin and do not let the two get seperated. Tot the balance up at the end of each transaction. Tedious but covers your back.

Unfortunately, I can't take myself off to somewhere quiet to cash up, because no one else can cover the desk.

I am going to suggest to my Boss that someone else needs to double check it with me. I will feel so embarrassed, but I can't think how else to protect myself, IYSWIM

As in tot the tin balance up and check it matches what's in the book.

Ah, x post sorry.

Maybe someone had borrowed a tenner for lunch, or split a note ?

I don't think that adding up on the run is at all the same skill as what you study for maths GCSE. It depends on how good your short-term memory for figures is, how easily distracted you are, and so on - so don't feel you should automatically be good at it because you have a good GCSE and don't beat yourself up, lots of us don't have this skill.

I would be suspicious about it being the same exact amount both times though - could someone be handing you something, saying 'here's twenty' when it's a ten? That is quite a common little trick. Or do people every query what change you give, saying 'I gave you ten, you've given change from five'? Obviously these could be indications you're getting things mixed up, but could also show you've got someone on the make.

I'd go to your boss, fess up that you are worried and struggling, so there is a record if it happens again. It will look much better than pretending you didn't think it was an issue. Maybe the boss could get someone to countersign for you after you cash up?

Can the ridiculous thing is, all transactions go through the PC, which then prints off the cashing-up sheet at the end of each day.

And, I always make a note on the cashing-up sheet, how much cash I'm actually putting in the banking envelope for that day (I don't like to keep much more than £40 cash in the float, maximum.

I think I must just be miscounting what's left in the float