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Loss prevention
Loss prevention (/lp/anomalies) watches for patterns at the register that can point to theft or mistakes: a cashier refunding far more than co-workers do, a run of voided sales, or a drawer that comes up short at close. Once a day, Retailer OS checks the last 30 days and raises a flag for anything unusual, so a manager can look into it.
Where to find it
Open Loss prevention from the sidebar, under Operations. The number of open flags also shows on Manager view.
Who can use it
- Permission: Run cashier and payment-mix reports. Owners, admins, and managers have it by default, and so do the Shift Lead and Accountant roles and the Reports Viewer job role.
- Plan: loss prevention is included with every plan.
What gets flagged
| Flag | Raised when |
|---|---|
| Return abuse | A cashier's refunds over the last 30 days add up to more than $200, and to more than 3 times the median across your cashiers. |
| Void pattern | A cashier voided more than 5 sales in the last 30 days, and more than 3 times the median across your cashiers. |
| Cash variance | A register closed short by $50 or more, or by at least 5% of the cash it expected. Registers expecting under $50, and drawers that come up over, aren't flagged. |
Each flag has a severity:
- Return abuse and void pattern flags are high above 6 times the median, and medium otherwise.
- Cash variance flags are high over $200 short, medium over $100 short, and low below that.
While a flag of one kind is open for a person, the daily check doesn't raise another of that kind for them.
Read a flag
Flags sit in four tabs: Open, Investigating, Confirmed, and Dismissed. New flags land in Open. Each flag shows:
- its kind and severity,
- the date it was raised,
- a one-line summary, such as Register short $85 at close (expected $640, actual $555), and
- Evidence, which opens the numbers behind the flag.
When there are open flags from the last 30 days, a Summary card at the top sums them up. When AI is available for your store, the summary is written by AI, is marked AI, and draws a little from your AI wallet. Otherwise it's a plain summary, marked heuristic. See AI plans.
Across several businesses
If you run more than one business in Retailer OS, Corp LP rollup counts flags across all of them. See Corp LP rollup.
Common questions
Q. When do new flags appear? A. Once a day, at 6 am in your store's time zone, before most stores open. A register that closes short today is flagged after the next check.
Q. Which cashier does a flag refer to? A. Flags don't name the cashier yet. To find out, run Cashier Performance or Counter Transactions in Reports for the same dates.
Q. Does it flag discounts or no-sale drawer opens? A. No. The daily check covers refunds, voided sales, and shortages at close.
Q. We only have one or two cashiers. Will refund and void flags work? A. They compare cashiers with each other, so they need at least three cashiers with refunds (or voids) in the last 30 days. Cash-variance flags work at any store.
Q. Does a flag mean someone did something wrong? A. Not necessarily. A busy returns week or a miscounted drawer can raise one, so use it as a reason to look closer.