Parking operational audits were once a critical daily task for parking owners and managers of buildings and complexes offering paid parking. Patrons paid for parking with cash, and daily audits were necessary to make sure that all of the money that was supposed to make it to the bank actually got there. Today, with most parking fees collected via credit card and valets issuing tickets via license plate recognition scanners on handheld devices, many owners are under the mistaken impression that audits are no longer necessary. After all, you can’t steal if there’s no cash to pilfer. Right? Actually no, parking audits are still essential.
While theft has been significantly reduced in parking facilities with the influx of new payment technology, it hasn’t been eliminated. Thieves are more sophisticated than ever and management needs to look deeper to deter and detect problems. There are a number of problems that can only be detected through an audit, including parking management agreement compliance issues, cash deposit discrepancies, inaccurate charges to management statements, exception ticket issues, improper coupon and validation use, liability issues such as PCI-DSS compliance, monthly parking access system errors, and accounts receivable control. With the complexity of today’s parking management systems, audits are more important than ever and those audits must be much more nuanced to find all the potential problems.