4 Focus Areas to Buy the “Right” Smart Safe for Your Retail Business

Cash management is always a concern for retail business, be it big-box retailers, specialty stores, restaurants, or movie theaters. In the absence of an effective cash management, your business can suffer from issues such as internal shrinkage, cash counting errors, burglary, and even counterfeit bills. A robust cash management, on the other hand, can beat these odd possibilities, mitigate cash-in-transit worries, and provide more time to cashiers to concentrate on core business issues. When considering to buy a smart safe you need to consider various factors. The blog discusses four focus areas that will help you buy the right smart safe to automate the cash management of your business. 

1. Cassette Capacity 

The amount of cash a safe can deposit in one go depends on its cassette capacity. The cassette capacity also affects the transaction speed of your business. Before buying a cash safe, analyze the denominations in which your business receives the bills. If you receive many small denomination notes, for instance, you may need to consider buying a smart safe with a high cassette capacity. 

2. Size

You need to purchase the right-sized safe for your business to ensure its optimal use. Purchasing a too large safe would mean a waste of resources, whereas, a too small safe would require you to frequently transfer money to the bank, which means spending more in armored services. 

3. Counterfeit Detection 

Ensure that the safe you purchase has counterfeit detection technology, to avoid incurring losses as a result of receiving fake bills. As far as choosing the counterfeit technologies is concerned, your options vary from counterfeit pens, UV light to watermark and magnetic ink detection. 

4. Bill Validator

Bill validators are available in two categories: single and bulk-note validator. Single-note bill validators are less expensive and offer a significantly lower jam rate than bulk-validators, which provide great uptime results. Bulk-bill validators, on the other hand, can stack up to 30 bills at a time, besides the fact that they accept bills almost 98 percent faster than single-bill validators. 

Conclusion

Considering the above four factors can significantly help in choosing a smart safe and rightly automate your cash management system. Whether you get in touch with a safe manufacturer in San Antonio or any other area, ensure that you check the smart safe has the features mentioned above. Simultaneously, always consider a professional money counting safe as even the best bill validators require regular maintenance. 

4 Key Features to Seek in Modern Cash Handling Safes

In today’s fast paced environment, cash intensive businesses need to adopt reliable and efficient cash handling safes in order to streamline operations and optimize profitability. Businesses that process a large number of cash transactions on a day-to-day basis are always vulnerable to external and internal thefts, possibility of human errors, and data management glitches - all of which impact the overall productivity and profitability of the business, and the level of customer satisfaction. That explains the reason why an increasing number of businesses are incorporating automated cash handling safes. Now, the question is: how to select one?

To help, here are four essential features you must look into, when it comes to buying smart cash handling safes:

Real-Time Tracking

The traditional practice of managing multiple registers and maintaining tills is a time consuming process and affects the productivity of employees. Innovative cash handling safes automate counting, coin collection, and various other aspects of the cash handling process, thereby minimizing the need of dedicated professionals. These safes maintain an accurate count of the cash deposited and automatically records the data, ready to be printed at any given point in time. Each deposit inside the safe is electronically recorded and can be securely transmitted to all stakeholders. Besides, offering real-time tracking and comprehensive audits, smart safes provide seamless cash transfer from the point of sale to the bank.

Built-in Counterfeit Detection

Considering the free circulation of fake money, counterfeit detection should be one of the primary concerns when looking to buy smart cash handling safes. All direct sales businesses lose an incalculable sum of money in counterfeit currencies, which may have a notable impact on their profits and growth. State-of-the-art smart safes come with a sophisticated built-in counterfeit detection system to save businesses from forgery. Look for a manufacturer that is known to use advanced counterfeit technology in safes.

Coin Acceptor

If your business deals with small value transactions and has to accept a large number of coin, make sure the cash handling safe you buy is equipped with a coin acceptor and dispenser. A coin acceptor and dispenser makes it easier for business to count and sort the received coins according to their value. It sorts coins by denomination and pour coins into a collection bag to be transferred to the bank.

High Security Locks

In addition to advanced cash management features, the smart safe you select must have a robust locking mechanism. An advanced locking system not only minimizes the possibility of burglaries, but also eliminates internal thefts, to a large extent. It is better to install a safe with a key that cannot be duplicated; better yet, go for a safe that also has an electronic locking system as well as a high security lock.

Conclusion

Cash intensive businesses need to optimize their operations by embracing progressive strategies and technologies, in order to gain a competitive edge. Handling cash manually brings many challenges and that’s the reason why an increasing number of businesses are turning to smart cash handling safes. Smart safes not only streamline start-to-end cash flow but also reduce the risk of internal shrinking and robbery. But when it comes to buying one, make sure you consider all the aforementioned factors before making the final pick.

Why More Businesses Use Automated Cash Handling Safes

When shopping, customers have a few options available to them where they can pay for a transaction -- credit card, debit card or cash. Credit and debit card transactions come with a cost for the retailer. When a customer pays for a transaction with a credit or debit card, the retailer has to pay a certain amount of fees in order to process the payment.

So there’s no question as to why a retailer would prefer cash. When a customer pays in cash, the transaction costs the retailer nothing. However, a significant amount of time is wasted every day in the manual handling of cash. Retail managers and employees must take time away from their customers to carefully attend to the chore of cash counting, sorting and bookkeeping.

In manual cash handling, the cash is kept in a drawer or vault until the authorized person deposits the money into the bank, or hands it over to an armored cash transport company. This is where automated cash handling safes have become quite useful.


Retail Businesses Lose When Using the Manual Cash Handling Method: 

• A retailer is unable to use the cash until it gets deposited into the bank
• If a retail company seeks the services of a cash management company, it will incur additional expenses
• There are higher chances of error due to human intervention for the manual counting and recording of cash

One of the largest concerns for retailers is internal shrinkage when handling the process manually. It has been observed that shrinkage from internal sources is more worrisome for retailers than preventing cash from external threats such as robbery. The average business experiences a cash shrinkage of at least one percent each year, thus resulting in smaller profit margins.

In order to prevent loss, many businesses are automating their cash handling systems. From automated cash counting and provisional credit on deposits, to the safeguarding that cash handling safes provide, smart safes have turned out to be an ideal investment. These safes allow retail stores and other businesses to utilize their time more efficiently.

If your business accepts large amounts of cash on a daily basis, then cash handling safes can be quite handy. Apart from reducing the chances of error, you are also giving your employees more time to devote to customer service.