Fingerprint Readers Help Combat Timecard Fraud, Theft At Fast Food Restaurants

  • Jul 10, 2009

DigitalPersona Inc., provider of fingerprint identity and authentication solutions, recently announced that the largest Wendy's restaurant franchisee, Tar Heel Capital, has chosen DigitalPersona U.are.U Fingerprint Readers to combat theft.

Tar Heel Capital, which owns 76 Wendy's franchise locations and employs 2,800 people throughout North Carolina and South Carolina, is using DigitalPersona fingerprint readers with WAND POS software on their POS terminals. Tar Heel Capital saw a rapid return on investment in each restaurant from using the fingerprint readers. The DigitalPersona fingerprint readers also provided a stronger level of security and accountability for employee POS transactions as well as time and attendance tracking. This gave Tar Heel Capital greater control over costs associated with cash register theft and time clock fraud.

"Back when we were using swipe cards, we experienced significant abuses in fictitious voids, overrides and time clock fraud. By deploying DigitalPersona fingerprint readers, we substantially reduced theft at each location and saw an immediate drop in food costs as a percentage of overall sales," said Rob Ireland, director of information technology for Tar Heel Capital. "DigitalPersona's fingerprint authentication truly holds managers and cashiers accountable and gives us assurance and control where other solutions fall short."

Before deploying DigitalPersona fingerprint readers on POS terminals, Tar Heel Capital used magnetic swipe cards, a common tool in the food service industry. However, since swipe cards are easily lost, stolen or shared, they don't provide a reliable transaction history, as required by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) mandate. Furthermore, the need to frequently replace lost or forgotten swipe cards was time consuming, disrupted the flow of business, decreased productivity and increased IT costs. Now, by using the DigitalPersona fingerprint readers, managers can know for sure who clocked in or accessed the cash registers at any given time.

"More than ever, restaurants and retailers are all looking for ways to immediately save money," said Jim Fulton, vice president of marketing at DigitalPersona. "DigitalPersona's fingerprint authentication solutions can help restaurant franchisees like Tar Heel Capital combat employee fraud and recapture lost margins without over-extending their IT budget."

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