A Facility is Over any time it has more funds deposited into the Bank than have been entered into the Parks Direct software. This article will serve as a resource for Facility Directors to better understand, prevent, and resolve these issues. Please note that before you begin troubleshooting as described below, it's best to make sure the error isn't explained by a Batch that was counted incorrectly. More information about reviewing batch counts and correcting that type of error can be found here.
Common Mistakes that Lead to Overages
Any overage situation will boil down to cash, check or money order payments being taken into the drawer but not entered into Parks Direct, or entered into Parks Direct incorrectly. Here are a few common scenarios where that might occur:
- A user is faced with a long line of customers, and decides to take all of their cash and check payments first and then ring them into Parks Direct after the line has dispersed. Then, he accidentally enters less into Parks Direct than he actually received.
- This often occurs when a course is about to start and many clients are in line to pay the drop in fee for that course.
- A user accepts payment for a greater quantity of items than they actually ring into the system.
- A user gives incorrect change to a customer, keeping more in the drawer than they should, and neither they nor the customer notice.
- Staff making a Bank Deposit accidentally include funds from two separate deposit period on the same deposit slip.
- In this case the facility may technically have the right amount of funds off hand, but one week's deposit will be over and the other short because of the way the funds were deposited. The easiest way to avoid this particular mistake is to deposit your funds promptly after the end of each Friday to Thursday deposit period.
- A user enters in a check or money order payment for a lower amount than it is written out for.
- A user puts his own personal money into the cash register or safe when they did not need to.
- This type of error is rare, but does happen on occasion. In some cases a user will perceive there to be a shortage in their count when they may have simply counted incorrectly, and can decide that adding in personal funds to solve or hide the perceived issue is a better option than asking for help.
Techniques for Preventing Overages
The bulk of the mistakes that result in overages, including those listed above, are a result of users attempting to work faster than they reasonably can while remaining mistake free. As much as possible, staff should be encouraged to work at a pace that allows them to focus on the data they are entering into Parks Direct. While slowing down at the front desk can seem like poor customer service, customers will benefit more in the long run from the hours a facility saves avoiding hours spent troubleshooting deposit issues.
Diagnosing and Resolving Overages
Note: This section describes troubleshooting situations where there are more funds on hand than have been correctly entered into Parks Direct, not situations where a facility's funds are as they should be but a batch has been closed correctly. You can find more information on troubleshooting batches in this article.
The first step to troubleshooting an overage is to identify whether you are over in Cash, Check, or Money Order, which can be done by comparing the expected amount of each tender type as described by the Parks Direct Bank Deposit Report to the actual amount on hand. From there, the next step is figuring out what the funds on hand were intended to pay for initially, and then entering that payment into Parks Direct along with the appropriate charge.
Diagnosing Check and Money Order Overages
Money Order and Check overages are generally simple to investigate. The Cash Journal Report, run for the length of the deposit period, will provide a list of each check or money order entered into Parks Direct. (Instructions for running that report can be found here.) That data can be compared to the funds on hand until you've identified which of the Checks or Money Orders you are ready to deposit was not entered in, or was entered in for a lower amount then it's face value.
Once you've identified what needs to be entered into Parks Direct, the next step is figuring out what the client was intended to pay for. The notation on the check face can often provide clues to this, and if not, the phone number of a client is often written on the check or Money Order face as well, so that they can be contacted and asked.
Diagnosing Cash Overages
Cash overages, meanwhile, can be harder to investigate, since there is no way of telling by looking at the cash itself where it came from. The thing to do in these cases is to narrow down the overage to which staff member on which day is responsible for it, by comparing the the End of Shift Batches for each user with your physical records of what was deposited at the end of each shift. (How to set up and keep those records is discussed in this article. ) From there, it will be up to the memory of that user to determine what the cash on hand was supposed to be paying for.
Sometimes the Cash Journal Report can be helpful to a user in these situations, since seeing a full list of the transactions they did enter into Parks Direct may make it easier to notice particular transactions that were not entered.
Resolution
With either cash or check overages, once you've identified what the funds were originally supposed to pay for, fixing the issue is often as simple as entering the funds into Parks Direct on the appropriate account, or for the appropriate item.