Paperwork Problems

Computers can be helpful, but when they mess up, they sure do cause a lot of headaches.

The closing manager had an early morning with family duties, so I told her to leave her paperwork and I'd do it for her in the morning. When I came in I was pleasantly surprised to see most of it finished (it must have been a slow night). But then I started comparing numbers--what we had versus what the computer said we should have. NONE of the numbers matched. There was no explaining it--nearly $200 short in cash, $200 in checks, $800 in an assortment of credit cards, even the coupons were off.

What is going on?!

I looked around the office area, thinking maybe some receipts had been misplaced; I looked inside the safe, thinking some cash had gotten separated from the rest of the bank deposit. Nothing looked out of place.

What is going on?!

I called the closing manager to ask if there had been any computer problems or shortages on individual tills the night before. No, no problems.

???

Then I compared what the individual tills had made. I added up the cash sales on all of the tills and came up with what I actually had, not what the computer said I should have. Same with the checks. Hmm.......

So the computer's screwed up, then. That means handwriting all of the closing reports instead of the quick computer-generated ones. It's been a while since I've had to do that, though, so I called a friend who's a manager at another of our stores. She wasn't there, but the manager on duty looked through the previous day's paperwork to see that she had had to handwrite the reports, too. Hmm.......

I called another friend who's a manager at yet another of our stores (yeah, weird how I know people at so many stores). Their store hadn't had a problem the night before. She suggested a couple of things that might be the problem, but quickly passed me on to a more experienced manager. He suggested several simplistic things to try. Duh, I've already tried those, I've been a manager for a while now and have a brain. Finally he suggested I call our office. OK, but who do I talk to? An extension number, great, thanks!

I called, got voicemail (not a surprise) and left a rather desperate-sounding message asking for a call back ASAP. (Our paperwork is due by a certain time each morning, and that hour was quickly approaching. If it's late the office people send mean faxes and take away part of my monthly bonus.)

I got a call back rather quickly. The numbers that the computer had transferred to the office computer were different from both the print-out and the handwritten report that I had. However, my count of what I actually had was actually slightly over what the office said we should have. The office lady gave me some of her numbers that I couldn't recreate by hand, then I faxed in my handwritten reports, messy as they were. By that point, I didn't care all that much.

The daily paperwork usually takes 30~45 minutes. With all that the closing manager had done, it should have taken me only 10 minutes to finish. Instead, it took nearly THREE HOURS!!!!!!!