I'll Hold

I was going to call this post, The Bookkeeper Part II, but there is no Part I, so I decided on a different tittle.

In April there was an event on campus, and participants were given vouchers to redeem in the cafeteria. These vouchers were worth $10, but did not have any cash value. My cashiers were given clear instructions as to how to redeem and enter the vouchers into our POS system. Seeing as they have no cash value, the vouchers were not to be treated as cash. You'll want to remember that.

As often happens, we had a busy lunch rush and I was not able to watch over my cashiers as they took the vouchers in exchange for lunch. Nor should I need to, they have all worked here for several years, and, they were given very clear instructions. Additionally, they all assured me they knew what to do.

They did not.

Whenever we redeem vouchers, they must be kept, ideally the voucher should be stapled to the receipt for which it was redeemed. I understand this is a bit time consuming, and inconvenient especially when we are busy.

I don't care.

This is your job and this is how things are to be done. Do you think it's fun working in a kitchen on Valentines Day? The Chef yelling at you to get a dozen orders started, and while your at it, plate the last call that was for 15 orders? It's you job, get it done.

It's a disaster.

Not only do most of the vouchers get punched in as cash, one of my cashiers did not keep the vouchers, and the cleaning staff had already come and emptied her trash can. She should have been in it ... did I say that out loud?

So at the end of the shift I had to go through all the transactions for the day and try to determine which ones should be closed as vouchers and change them all before I could close the day. After talking with someone at head office and figuring out the best way to do this, I got to work. It was a long and tedious process. The accountant at head office had also instructed me to put all the vouchers and all receipts in the weekly envelope we send to them (this consists of cash out reports and invoices from that week).

Think that's the end of the story? ... not by a long shot friends, not by a long shot. If you recall, I was thinking about calling this post, The Bookkeeper Part II, and I haven't even mentioned her yet.

In order for everyone to be on the same page, when I called head office to find out how to resolve this issue, I included our Bookkeeper on the call. So she was on the call when I was told to send in all the vouchers and receipts. But for some reason, the day after they were sent in, the Bookkeeper called me asking me to bring all the vouchers over to her.

A few weeks later, she asks for them again. I tell her everything was sent to head office. When she asks why, I remind her, that's what head office told us to do.

Fast forward to today and now we are into September. I get another call about the vouchers. I try to always answer my phone because we have a ridiculous shipping and receiving routine at my campus. Basically, delivery drivers must call the department they are delivering to. Someone from that department must walk down to the delivery area, open the bay door and escort the driver to and from the delivery area. I have had a few instances where I was unable to get to the phone and missed a delivery. in both cases, not only did I not get the product, but we were also charged a fee for the fact that the product could not be delivered. So now, I always try to get to the phone.

So, when the Bookkeeper calls asking for the vouchers, I explain that per head office directions everything from that day, were sent to head office months ago. She asks if I have any record of how many vouchers there were and what the total value was. I tell her I will need to look in the file from that week.

The lunch rush is just getting started, and as we are on the phone the repair guy I have been waiting on finally walks in. So I tell the Bookkeeper that I have to go because I need to talk to the repair guy, and she says ... "That's Ok, I'll hold" ...

Are you freaking kidding me? You'll hold? I need to explain to the repair guy what the issues are, and there are more than one, and the cafe is filling up with students. 

But that's Ok, you'll hold? Because apparently you have nothing else to do?

I have no idea how long it will be before I can look for the file, and once I do find it, I don't even know what I'm looking for. I also don't have time to explain all of this to the Bookkeeper, so instead, I say "I'll have to call you back" and hang up.

About 10 minutes later I am back in the office. It does not take long to locate the file, but there is nothing in it to help answer her questions. I call her back and explain this, she thanks me for looking and we both go back to work.

Don't be surprised if there is a revision to this at our year end in a month or so. Some people apparently work in the Redundancy Department of Redundancy.