This article is brought to you by Cash Depot.
Money doesn’t grow on trees, and cash isn’t free. Cash—used in about 20% of all transactions—has some built-in costs for retailers.
Sean Burke, the CEO of Cash Depot, sees a robust cash management system as an investment that will pay off long-term. “The first step is for retailers to understand their cash costs,” he said. “Some are obvious (like bank fees, shrinkage, theft and equipment), others, like provisional credit and labor, are hidden. Whether retailers are looking for a solution or not, it’s in their best interest to really understand these costs.”
“I would also recommend they do their research on alternatives,” Burke added. “Across the industry what you’ll find are two options: Smart safes and cash recycling systems. These are related, but not the same.”
“Smart safes are a step up from old-school cash management,” Burke said. They can keep a tally of the cash holdings and even offer the retailer provisional credit until the company that operates the smart safe can pick up the actual cash. However, the cost of that provisional credit—so low a few years ago—has gone up along with interest rates.
Cash recycling starts with a smart safe that can store, sort and manage multiple denominations. The money is then stored and made available to provide start-of-shift funds for registers, additional change for counters throughout the day and to easily break larger bills into smaller denominations–reducing the amount of time cashiers, managers and other staff spend at every level of the cash management cycle. The system keeps track of the final deposit amounts deposited and dispenses, typically providing provisional credit similar to a smart safe at the end of the day.
“Imagine not having to count bills for shift changes, having much less manual error, and just in general saving time and reducing stress,” Burke said.
“A true cash recycling system is an investment,” Burke said. “Like any business decision, the math has to add up. But there’s a reason why so many retailers are going in this direction.”
“Our cash recycling system, BANK IN A BOX, is designed to provide all of the benefits of a standard cash recycler PLUS the added benefit of recycling cash out of the store and into the hands of ATM/financial kiosk users. Just like other merchant-funded ATMs and kiosks, outgoing money is credited to the stores account next day—no provisional credit applied. So, rather than paying high provisional credit rates on ALL of your store’s daily deposits, you’re only paying for what didn’t walk out the door in the hands of ATM/kiosk users—often a substantial savings.”
In addition, the Cash Depot BANK IN A BOX uses Agile API for easy integration with preferred store accounting processes. So, you can easily track what goes in and what comes out by store, employee and much more.
Cash recycling is a management system that reduces the hidden costs of cash management. Read more about these costs in the first article of this two-part series, as well as in “Is Your Cash Management System Costing More?” and “Understanding Cash Management—and Cash Recycling.”