I forgot to close three registers!!?

[workingovertime]

Last night the closer who normally deals with closing all the registers called out and on top of that… the closing lead wasn’t too knowledgeable about closing any of the registers. I know how to close lanes, I have done it many times BUT that day happened to be really busy and short staffed… so by the end of the day I was extremely tired and already staying longer than I was scheduled. I guess I wasn’t thinking thoroughly but we had a guest stay 15 minutes past close and we kept three lanes open in case there were anymore last guests. So overall the cashiers kept the lanes open just in case while me and my coworker were closing self-checkout. It took quite awhile to close self checkout and by the end of it, I was extremely tired and completely forgot to close the last three registers thinking I had already closed them since I closed every other register. I didn’t even notice, my coworker didn’t, nor the closing lead when she checked to make sure we did it correctly. It wasn’t until today when I was closing the registers again I noticed that three bags were different colors than the rest of the money bags. I was confused because all the bags are supposed to be the same color for the lanes so I asked all my coworkers asking if I did something wrong. One coworker remembered that this morning during opening the three registers I forgot to close had hundreds of dollars in them… which means I didn’t close them. They told me it’s okay and an honest mistake. We went ahead and closed the registers like normal, but instead of switching the bags we put everything in the color bag with all the money for the day (now all the money bags were one color like they’re supposed to be). So overall all the money for the night prior and today will be counted for but… will I get in trouble??? Once again my coworkers said it’s fine and they won’t tell the FOS leads or the FOS ETL so I don’t get written up or coached. But I am here asking to make sure I didn’t make a huge mistake that could potentially lead to a termination. Did I make a really big mistake???

 

[Yetive]

It's the closing leader who will get in trouble.

 

[Dream Baby]

It's the closing leader who will get in trouble.

Wouldn't the system flag that those registers weren't closed?

 

[Captain Orca]

18 months in the county jail. Discuss it honestly with the ETL and if need be, the STL. Pay attention to what they say and learn from the mistake. You should be ok.

 

[workingovertime]

Wouldn't the system flag that those registers weren't closed?

I don’t think the system necessarily flags that the registers weren’t closed because at least at my store you’re supposed to select “start funds” to replace the funds in the drawer with the morning funds but sometimes you have to open the drawers manually if the register is broken and when I asked my ETL if something happens if I don’t select start funds they said nothing happens and it doesn’t really matter (and I’m pretty sure that me not selecting start funds is gonna be the only thing able to flag it in the system). A lot of my coworkers also said that our system (cash office) doesn’t run by a day by day business (so they can’t pin point it on me not closing a few registers one night) so there might be a small discrepancy in the count but nothing that isn’t already taken accounted for… hopefully lol.

 

[Captain Orca]

Just make sure if you do PFresh you don't hang Colby Jack on the Swiss Cheese hook.

 

[Rarejem]

Wouldn't the system flag that those registers weren't closed?

You will be flagged when cash office makes deposits and there are none for those registers. Could have easily been rectified by morning team, but since it wasn't, just take the likely seek to understand conversation and learn from it.

 

[redeye58]

Central audit will pick up on it & will notify your store's leadership.
It will fall on the closing leader tho.

 

[DBZ]

I don't believe that they were still wrong when you came in the next day, to close. Your closing TL would have to be dumb AF to miss 3 bags. Most stores have a check list list and if something doesn't look right, you can guarantee, AP will be on the cameras, drooling, to find out what happned.

 

[baba777]

What my store does is after we close the registers, we count all the bags and make sure we have all of them. If we’re missing one, we may have forgotten to close a register or a bag was left at the register. Your closing TL should’ve done this with you.

 

[NightHuntress]

The closing lead should have checked all the bags to make sure they were all accounted for. However, accidents happen and sometimes registers act up and have to be rebooted and you can’t get the money out at that time. As long as no money was left out the closing lead will probably just get a PDD and need to be more careful. While the money will be short the one day it’ll balance out since it will be over the next day. But why wasn’t the issue caught when cash office was processed? Assuming your cash office gets processed early morning it would have been easy for the morning lead to swap out the funds. If it’s not processed until later then I guess I could see that. I’ve never known a store to not process cash office daily though

 

[workingovertime]

It wasn’t caught during morning cash office because the person who did cash office didn’t want to fix it. They simply don’t care, she’s an older lady who saw that something was wrong but didn’t care to tell the opening TL. Anyway a couple days have passed and they don’t care, they just don’t want me to make the same mistake.

 

[NightHuntress]

It wasn’t caught during morning cash office because the person who did cash office didn’t want to fix it. They simply don’t care, she’s an older lady who saw that something was wrong but didn’t care to tell the opening TL. Anyway a couple days have passed and they don’t care, they just don’t want me to make the same mistake.

Well shame on her and she should get a PDD. Cash office is important and for someone to realize an error in there and just choose to not say anything or fix it is just wrong. But at least you are off the hook

 

[He77CAT]

I used to do the daily audit at my station when I used to work for an airline... the deposits will show short one day and over on the next and there may be a report or two that will need to be done by the auditor with an explanation and kept on file a but trust me, I'm sure this probably happens more than we think.

 

[redeye58]

I'm sure this probably happens more than we think.

It does.
During my early years in cash office, there were times when the bag was empty with a note of explanation (ie: drawer jammed, unable to open).
We used to be able to email central audit with an explanation; sometimes they responded with further instructions or simply an acknowledgement.