Introduction to retail cash management

We love cash. No surprise there, considering that we are in the retail cash management business. But surprising for some may be that cash is good for business, for service and for the profit margin of retailers.

With a good retail cash management system, you as a retailer can increase revenue, lower costs, improve customer service and enhance security. The numbers show that cash is cheaper, faster and a more popular payment method than the electronic alternatives.

No more errors

The idea behind our closed cash handling system is to automate the whole cash handling process, from point of sale to cash-in-transit (CIT) pick-up. Our products do the counting, dispensing of change, tracking, reporting, transporting and storage of cash. By automating the cash handling process, human errors are a thing of the past. And by making the systems tamper-proof, equipping them with ink-dyeing and validation technology, a closed cash handling system increases security for both customers and retailers.

“(The CashGuard closed cash handling solution) takes care of all the risk at point of sale and gives one complete peace of mind in a cash business,” says Steve Ford, of KFC Meadow Point in South Africa. “Management can spend more time on running the business and their customers instead of worrying about the cash control of the business.”

Retail cash management solutions

We focus on five verticals: Supermarkets, pharmacies, petrol stations, convenience stores and hospitality providers. Our solution replaces the open cash drawer with a Coin Recycler and a Note Recycler. They effectively close the cash handling at the point of sale. Our software, Store Manager, then counts and tracks the money and produces electronic reports. Since neither the manager nor the staff are occupied with handling the cash, they can focus on running the business and on their customers. They also don’t have to stay after closing to count the cash. It’s done automatically – and always correctly.

Our Presidio system seals the entire cash handling process, from the point of sale to CIT pick-up. In addition to the Coin Recycler and the Note Recycler, the Presidio system consists of a Note Mover and a Note Deposit safe. The Note Mover securely transports money from the point of sale to the safe. The money is then deposited into the safe, where it is stored until CIT picks up the money.

Studies support cash

Banks have for many years moved away from cash and lobbied for electronic payments. We believe that this has limited customer choice as well as made running a business more expensive. Here is what the numbers show:

According to the British Retail Consortium, cash is by far the cheapest payment method, and the most popular by consumers. Their study shows that cash is the preferred payment method in 55% of the transactions. Cash represents 11% of the costs associated with payments, and take about 27 seconds per transaction.

Cards on the other hand, represent 10% of the transactions, account for 44% of the costs, and take an average of 36 seconds per transaction.

So it makes good business sense for a retailer to welcome cash and to manage it well.

We have also done our own studies of how much time and money our customers can save by using CashGuard. Based on information from a large retailer, we calculate that they spent about €600 and 74 hours per month on cash handling before they used CashGuard. With CashGuard, they saved about €200 in expenses and cut the time related to cash handling by more than half. Multiply that by, say a 100-store chain, it can mean savings of €20 000 and 3 500 man hours – per month!