As a convenience store (c-store) owner or manager, you know that maintaining profitability isn’t just about increasing sales—it’s also about cutting losses. While it’s easy to track basic metrics like profits or payroll, the real challenge is identifying the unseen anomalies that are slowly draining your bottom line.
Enter exception reports: a powerful tool that helps you detect these hidden losses quickly and efficiently.
What are C-Store Exception Reports?
In a c-store, exception reports are data-driven reports that highlight outliers, deviations, or anomalies from a set of established rules, standards, or expectations. The purpose of exception reports is to bring attention to any unusual transactions that may require further review, investigation, or action.
For example, an exception report might be used to identify:
- Transactions exceeding a certain dollar amount
- Transactions that occur outside of normal business hours
- Transactions that don’t match the typical pattern of activity
Establish a daily routine to review these exception reports and gain visibility into potential losses:
- End of day transactions
- Voids and returns
- Discount/gift card redemption
- Reward program transactions
- Sales by item for inventory management
Envysion, a loss prevention software, is already integrated with several POS systems, such as Toast, VeriFone, and Gilbarco, allowing us to seamlessly marry your POS software with your video cameras to generate these comprehensive exception reports.
How to Maximize Exception Reports
The magic happens when you integrate exception reports with your video security system. This allows you to view real-time footage alongside the transaction data, creating a side-by-side display of both the receipt and the event. This integrated approach provides verifiable evidence, making it easy to confirm suspicious transactions and quickly take action.
With an intelligent reporting system paired with your security cameras, you can:
- Access video and transaction data side-by-side for any flagged event
- Identify patterns that suggest theft, inefficiencies, or operational issues
- Run customizable reports to track specific loss trends by location, employee, or transaction type
Want to see how you can protect your c-store’s high-risk sales?
Watch the video below to discover how Envysion’s reports can help safeguard your lottery and alcohol sales
Use Exception Reports to Spot Internal Theft and Reduce Loss
Exception-based reporting helps answer one of the most important questions in retail operations: Where is your profit going? These tools go beyond basic sales summaries to uncover transaction-level insights that might otherwise go unnoticed.
By linking video footage to each POS transaction, exception reports can help identify unusual trends or behaviors. Whether it’s a series of voids at one register or excessive refunds under a single manager’s approval, these reports spotlight patterns that need a second look.
Key advantages of exception-based reporting:
- Links video footage to every POS transaction
- Flags inconsistencies like frequent voids, refunds, or discounts
- Helps identify specific employees or shifts connected to losses
- Enables filtering by location, item, employee, or manager approval
Loss in convenience stores can come from many directions—shrink, internal theft, poor compliance with discounts or loyalty programs. With the right reporting strategy, operators can monitor:
- Daily transactions and sales by item
- Void and refund patterns
- Discount and gift card usage
Loss Summaries with Standardized Reports
Standardized reporting provides a consistent, repeatable way to keep track of the health of your business. These templates are easy to use and offer valuable insight into your overall performance, whether you’re managing a single store or dozens.
Operators use standardized reports to:
- Review profit and loss summaries
- Monitor reward program redemptions
- Identify voids, refunds, and discount trends
- Track transactions from any specific day or location
These reports are especially helpful for spotting recurring issues and comparing performance over time. Many operators choose to receive daily or weekly report emails to stay informed, even when they’re not on-site.
Real-world example:
A general manager notices unusually low fountain drink sales. They run a void and refund report and review the corresponding receipts and footage. The issue becomes clear: a specific manager has been approving voids that allowed employees to give away free drinks during night shifts. With this insight, leadership has everything they need to take appropriate action.
Track Specific Loss with Customizable Reports
Sometimes, standard reporting isn’t enough. Customizable reports allow you to take a deeper dive and uncover loss drivers that are unique to your operations.
These tools give you control over what you track and how you track it—making them especially useful for identifying less obvious trends.
With customizable reports, you can:
- Drill down on specific theft incidents
- See what items were given away for free or over a certain value
- Investigate by location, employee, and approving manager per transaction
- View video and receipt data alongside transactions
- Save and label reports for easy access
- Receive daily or weekly alerts via email
- Create unlimited reports and share them with other leaders in the organization
Real-World Example:
A c-store runs a promotion: spend $10, get a free fountain drink. Using a customized report, the manager filters for every transaction involving a free fountain drink. The data reveals that some employees are giving away the drink without qualifying purchases—or not adding it to the receipt at all. With both transactional and visual evidence, the manager can easily address the issue.
Smarter Oversight Starts Here
“One client reports an average of less than 1% monthly loss utilizing Envysion’s Managed Video Solution when assigning regional managers and store managers with permissions to access the platform. They have implemented a 30-minute daily check of reports to ensure nothing out of the ordinary occurred the day before. Our experienced audit team can also review your footage and grade locations using metrics of your choosing.” (NACS)
As a convenience store owner or manager, understanding the data and metrics that drive the success of your business is essential. As loss in c-stores can happen in numerous ways, a tool to monitor and track every transaction is vital in uncovering these instances. Make your job easier by using a reporting system that’s powered by your c-store’s data and security cameras.
With Envysion’s reporting tools, view instances of loss and difficult-to-track outliers that are hurting your c-store. With a user-friendly dashboard, viewing POS transaction data alongside video footage is more efficient when uncovering loss instances. This software can help you identify trends and patterns that would have otherwise gone unnoticed, allowing you to make informed decisions to increase your c-store’s profitability.
Uncover the hidden outliers that are negatively impacting your bottom line. Get in touch with us today.