Old town san diego

The Old Town San Diego Controller suddenly resigned without giving notice. My boss asked me if I would go to San Diego to be interim Controller while a search was launched for a full-time replacement. I agreed and commenced upon what turned out to be a three month assignment.

 

Old Town San Diego consisted of three restaurants with full service bars, and several gift shops. Prior to leaving, I sat down with the DNC Parks Department Vice President of Finance to discuss the job requirements and his concerns. While, the entire operation was important, the VP told me that the biggest concerns were with the restaurants.

 

When I arrived at Old Town San Diego, I met with the General Manager to discuss his expectations from me. I also met with my staff and discussed their job functions. My direct reports were an Accountant, an Accounts Payable Clerk, and two Cash Room Supervisors. I also had a dotted line report, a Human Resources Specialist who completed the Payroll and sent it to ADP each week for processing.

 

The Accountant’s main job was to assemble the data to produce the Weekly Operating Report (Weekly Profit and Loss Statement). One of the problems that the VP Finance had warned me about was the inconsistency of Food Cost in the Weekly Operating Report. This was an area that I intended to investigate.

 

I observed the month end food and beverage inventory counted by the stock boys. In reviewing count sheets against the inventory listing produced by the automated inventory system, I noted several errors:

• Counts were not made in a systematic manner to ensure all items were counted. The counters started from the count sheet and looked for the items in the store room. Where items were stored in more than one location, the items in the secondary locations were often missed.
• There were items on the final inventory listings where the quantities had been transposed.
• Several counts were carelessly listed on the wrong lines.
• Some inventory items did not have unit cost prices on the inventory listing while others had incorrect unit cost prices. Thus, the inventory values were incorrect or were not included in the final inventory listing.
• Items that were hand written on the preprinted count sheets because they were new were never entered into the inventory system.
• In one instance, Flan with Caramel Cream Sauce was listed on the count sheet as 1 case, 18 cans, but was entered in the inventory system as 18 cases.
• An entire inventory storeroom was missed when the counts were entered into the inventory system.

These types of errors occurred week after week and resulted in the large fluctuations in Food Cost. I met with the people responsible for the accuracy of the inventory and emphasized the importance of accurate counts and cost valuations. With more care taken in the counting and compiling of the inventory, we were able to show consistent Food Cost percentages period after period going forward.

 

The cash room was another problem area. The cash room supervisors allowed people into the cash room while they were counting cash receipts from the previous day. Money was lying all over the room and employees with no business being there walked in and started talking with the cash room attendants about unrelated matters. While there had not been any incidents of missing cash, it was only a matter of time before cash went missing with the loose controls in place.

 

I instituted strict hours when employees needing banks or change could come into the cash room. During these hours, all cash had to be in the safe. Banks to be issued were put into a sealed bag with the Point of Sale location written on it, ready for the cashier to pick up. The cashier came into the cash room, presented ID, signed a log acknowledging receipt of the bank and promptly left the cash room. Cashiers were responsible for having sufficient change to last until the next time the cash room was scheduled to be open for cash transactions. When buying change, the cashier was to have the cash ready. When the cashier came into the cash room, she presented the cash to be counted, received the change from the cash room attendant, verified it, and left the cash room. There was no loitering allowed.

 

By the time the General Manager found the right person for the job, I had the accounting and cash room functions humming. The Weekly Operating Report was accurate and the cash room had strong controls in place. I trained the new Controller in her new job and went through a month end close with her. After I left, Old Town San Diego continued to have strong controls and accurate reporting. .

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