Thread: When tills don't balance

I spoke to an old friend over the week end, and I found out he now works for a bank, I didn't mention the bank charges stuff to him but he had some other intresting comments, occasionally if his till is over at the end of the day he is better off taking the extra cash home amongst his paper work rather than trying who work out who he has short changed that day! Apparetly the managers come down really hard on them if the tills don't balance and this is common practice! So it's not only the 'top dogs' that profit illegally from us; it's the little ones too!

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Don't think so, they don't have to it's their choice to do it

Originally Posted by Alison82

I spoke to an old friend over the week end, and I found out he now works for a bank, I didn't mention the bank charges stuff to him but he had some other intresting comments, occasionally if his till is over at the end of the day he is better off taking the extra cash home amongst his paper work rather than trying who work out who he has short changed that day! Apparetly the managers come down really hard on them if the tills don't balance and this is common practice! So it's not only the 'top dogs' that profit illegally from us; it's the little ones too!

I didn't think it was emotionally or physically possible for me to get even more agngry about the practices of the banking industry. Thank you for elevating me to a whole new level. I don't suppose your friend would be prepared to go on the record about this?

Originally Posted by seminole

I don't suppose your friend would be prepared to go on the record about this?

No chance! They probably would have the same opinions as most of the other bank workers that come on here "be responsible and take care of you finances!" I know made me really angry too, I know some people say that the bank staff are only doing their job but when they do things like this it makes me want to sue them personally!

Quote Originally Posted by Alison82
I spoke to an old friend over the week end, and I found out he now works for a bank, I didn't mention the bank charges stuff to him but he had some other intresting comments, occasionally if his till is over at the end of the day he is better off taking the extra cash home amongst his paper work rather than trying who work out who he has short changed that day! Apparetly the managers come down really hard on them if the tills don't balance and this is common practice! Unquote.

Not quite sure which aspect of the above post has annoyed Seminole. But the likelihood is that a till will be short rather than over [though I am aware that if Pub tills are over, it is possible that the reason is that staff have mixed in their own stock and made a mistake when removing their profit].The reason being is that people are more likely to point out that they have been shortchanged than when they have been overpaid.

When a till is over, it may not necessarily mean that someone has been short changed. New notes for instance tend to stick together, so if someone pays in a
large amount of notes, the cashier may be unable to separate the same two sticking notes as the payer in. However when notes are paid out, they are often counted out across the counter in singles so that the customer [and possibly the camera]
can see the transaction clearly thus unknowingly separating the sticking notes and
making the till over.
Still a bit off for the bank clerks to take the money home, since they will surely not be asked to repay shortages, which as I said earlier are more the norm.

So in that instance, the person paying the money in would have (unwittingly) lost money. Simply because they didn't realise it doesn't alter the fact. If you meant that the counter clerks don't deliberately take more money than they're logging, I'd say that that's a given, since most people count up how much they're paying in. I usually count mine about 3 or 4 times out of simple paranoia.

can i just ask where it said that every cashier that works for a bank takes overs home with them?

there are bad apples in every workplace, but i, along with the people i work with at my branch don't do this, and never have any intention of doing it.

i may be in a minority, but do not stereotype everyone that works for a bank.

it would be like me saying everyone that has ever had a bank charge is a bad debter, and should never be allowed a bank account again........

which is totally wrong

Originally Posted by Alison82

I spoke to an old friend over the week end, and I found out he now works for a bank, I didn't mention the bank charges stuff to him but he had some other intresting comments, occasionally if his till is over at the end of the day he is better off taking the extra cash home amongst his paper work rather than trying who work out who he has short changed that day! Apparetly the managers come down really hard on them if the tills don't balance and this is common practice! So it's not only the 'top dogs' that profit illegally from us; it's the little ones too!

This was one person who refered to himself and his colleagues. I am not sugesting that all banks clerks do this, I don't know all bank clerks; just this one

Howard- I certainly did not mean to include all bank cashiers, just the ones who
took cash out to balance the till. I would have thought it would be confined to a
relatively small number of people, so I was surprised that Alison remarked that it was common practice, though she could have meant it was common practice at that branch.
I have worked with cash over the years and some companies expect you to make up shortages,some don't and others suggest it when a few shortages occur over a short period.
Personally I think it is dangerous to expect cashiers to make up the shortfall since
there is the possibility that they will deliberately short change customers to get their money back. On the other hand no company would wish to finance a cashier who was stealing from their till.

As I said I was taking about a particlar person in his branch and his collegues, sorry if I mislead anyone, as we can see from this site there are plenty of good bank staff that speak up to things they don't agree with.

the thing you have to be careful with, especially on a site like this is people are reading it, normally in an angry mood, and that anger is aimed at the banks, so any comment, no matter how innocent can be taken out of context, and then opinions formed that are very generalised.

overs and shorts are big problems, personally i've had 5 since the new year, 3 overs, 2 shorts, and al llogged on my permanent record at Halifax, i'm not proud of it, but it is a fact of life when handling around £150,000 a day in cash, using old, new, crappy and clean notes mistakes will happen, and that's before you take into account keying arrors.

to put it into perspective last year i made 15 errors, 11 shorts, 4 overs, despite serving over 47000 people, that isn't too bad is it?

Originally Posted by howardbrown

to put it into perspective last year i made 15 errors, 11 shorts, 4 overs, despite serving over 47000 people, that isn't too bad is it?

It wouldn't be bad it would be very good , but I suspect that your figure of 47000 probably has too
many noughts in it.As it stands, allowing for holidays [3 weeks] no Sundays
alternate Saturdays and a few Bank holidays, it means that you are serving 180 odd
people every day.
Twenty years ago I worked in Spain as a Head Cashier in a very very busy cash desk and never handled that number of people in 8 hours and I was fast in those days. And I am bound to say that after observing Building Society cashiers in London in action, partly because of the systems used, cannot compare with cashiers in Banks and Post Offices in terms of speed. I am also surprised that you handle that much money in cash per day as the Halifax
has that ridiculous rule about not normally paying out more than £300? [Sorry I've forgotten the actual amount but it is very small.]

Just a tip. When you have finished paying out a customer which is where cashiers make most mistakes, watch their face. If
they have noticed that you have paid them too much they will often have a reaction of some kind. If you see it, check your work again.

Yes; I understand that they are only human and make mistakes too, but what I object to is them stealing from their customers for the sake of a telling off from their bosses. Why should they profit from the customer because they didn't do their job correctly.

Originally Posted by lookinforinfo

It wouldn't be bad it would be very good , but I suspect that your figure of 47000 probably has too
many noughts in it.As it stands, allowing for holidays [3 weeks] no Sundays
alternate Saturdays and a few Bank holidays, it means that you are serving 180 odd
people every day.
Twenty years ago I worked in Spain as a Head Cashier in a very very busy cash desk and never handled that number of people in 8 hours and I was fast in those days. And I am bound to say that after observing Building Society cashiers in London in action, partly because of the systems used, cannot compare with cashiers in Banks and Post Offices in terms of speed. I am also surprised that you handle that much money in cash per day as the Halifax
has that ridiculous rule about not normally paying out more than £300? [Sorry I've forgotten the actual amount but it is very small.]

Just a tip. When you have finished paying out a customer which is where cashiers make most mistakes, watch their face. If
they have noticed that you have paid them too much they will often have a reaction of some kind. If you see it, check your work again.

£1200 without notice

on average i serve 1000 people a week, i get 4 weeks holiday, you do the maths.

this week i'll be looking at closer to 1400 people thanks to it being isa week, but even a quiet week is 850 people