Why POS integration?

Video surveillance systems provide adequate security for many types of businesses but for retail stores, restaurants and bars where cash registers or computer-based POS systems are used, video surveillance alone may not be enough. The reason for this is that cash register and POS devices introduce another element of possible theft or fraud that may not be easy to identify on a video recording. Some of the most common ways a cash register/POS system can be used for theft or fraud are:

• Short Rings: Goods are charged out (to an accomplice) at a much lower price than the correct one.

• Sweetheart Deals: Similar to Short Rings but where goods are charged out in fewer quantities than actual.

• Substitute Scanning: Scanning a tag of much lower value than the actual goods being sold.

• Short Changing: Providing less change than is correct.

• Voids: Voiding a sale after the customer has left.

• Returns/Refunds: Refunding cash on a non-existent return.

• Cancels: A transaction is partially rang in and if the customer does not ask for a receipt, is cancelled after the customer has left.

• No Sale: A dishonest sales clerk using some of the methods above must remove the accumulated cash from the cash drawer before shift end. The most common way to achieve this is to ring in a “No Sale” just before shift end and remove all the extra cash at one time. “No Sales” can also be used simply to take cash out of the till, without other forms of fraud being used.

Inforce Security offers an advanced method of identifying these types of theft and fraud called POS Integration and is used in conjunction with our DVR video surveillance systems. This method involves writing the transaction data from the cash register/POS system to the video produced by the security camera watching that POS device.

Loss prevention you can count on!

POS Integration adds loss prevention to the DVR surveillance system by creating a searchable database of transactions. This database will allow “exceptions” (to normal transactions) to be defined. “Exceptions” are any suspicious transaction and would normally include the forms of cash register fraud outlined earlier, plus any transactions altering from the normal limits for that business. By searching the transaction database for “exceptions” each suspicious transaction can then be examined, along with the accompanying video. As an extra bonus, the POS Integration software writes the data it receives from your cash register/POS into a Microsoft® Office Access database file, which can be imported into many inventory control and bookkeeping programs for further analysis. Database integration such as this is not available to most cash register users, and was formerly only available on very high end POS systems. For retail stores, restaurants and bars, the addition of POS Integration to the DVR surveillance system will provide detection and prevention of most types of cash register theft and fraud. In many instances, the POS Integration equipment will pay for itself in just a couple a months.

Major features

• Search Video Files for Transaction Data: By comparing transaction data to video events, you can easily identify potential fraud.

• Abnormal Transaction Alerts: Automatically activate an alert via email, SMS or by pager the moment fraud is occurring.

• Superimposing Transaction Data: Transaction data can be displayed on screen or directly overlaying the video file.

• POS Field Filter: Easily display results based on a defined criteria, such as all the transactions that contain the word “Coke”.

How it works

Data Overlay: First, POS Integration links your cash register (or POS) to the DVR surveillance system. The data from your cash register is then stored digitally with the picture from the surveillance recorder so that on the monitor screen you will see not only the cashier and the product being sold, but also the price charged by the clerk for that product. This allows visual comparison of the physical items being rang into the register and the actual register data of the transaction overlaid on the video picture. With all these elements recorded on video, a store owner can review the scene and, with one view, verify the legitimacy of the check out.

Exception Reporting: Secondly, and perhaps the most significant benefit of our POS Integration is the ability to trigger DVR recording so that only relevant information is captured on video. This is accomplished by defining suspicious transactions in the loss prevention settings. Every time a suspicious transaction is processed through the cash register/POS system, the transaction data is written to video and the DVR is switched to record that camera. For instance, a grocery store owner concerned about losses may not want to watch every transaction that takes place but will be interested in those with a sales amount over $100. Powerful programming capabilities make it possible to program loss prevention to alarm (or trigger recording) for what the store owner considers suspicious (exceptional) events that fall either within or outside of a certain range, such as any transaction over $100. Additionally, tags or words may be used to define very specific exceptions, for example, an exception can be assigned to the word "Void" or to "All Voids Over $10.00". The types of exceptions typically monitored by managers, security personnel, or store owners are: no sales, voids, returns, refunds, cancels, and purchases or payouts. Generally these are all negative transactions requiring money to be removed from the register drawer.