If you are tasked with rebuilding the till drawer AND preparing its deposit each day you will know how much of a drain it can be on your time and resources.
So, let us share some tips on how to simplify these tasks, save time and get it right the first time and every time!
The Challenges of setting up your float and preparing the deposit
- Senior Managers and Cashiers are required to perform these tasks yet the task in itself adds little value to the organization, so it pulls senior staff away from more pressing decision-making tasks.
- Deposit and float preparation are vulnerable to shrink which may not be accounted for until much later.
- Manual records are checked and double-checked – simple errors when transposing numbers can lead even more time wasted.
- If the tasks are not clearly processed, staff may have a tendency to do it 'their way'. The consequences of this can include change being ordered too frequently and running out of change during operating hours: inconveniencing customers.
Tips to make the process easier:
Create a standard operating process so that the drawer and deposit are prepared the same way every day.
Some ‘golden rules’ might include:
- Keep all low denomination coins.
- Set a minimum and a maximum number of high and low denomination notes.
- Make it clear what to do with coin rolls – are they in your float or your deposit?
- Avoid manual record-keeping and manual data entry. Manual data entry and processing requires double-checking for accuracy. Automating data collation and entry eliminates the need for these extra checks – making the process faster AND more accurate.
- If automating data transfer isn’t possible, use printed records to collate data. Avoid using pen and paper whenever possible.
- If you currently prepare your float and deposit in the back office, consider counting instead at the till. Moving cash from location to location increases security risks and cash shrink and consumes time. Keeping all tills in one place ensures employee safety and allows managers to know where cash is handled.
- Consider setting up ‘high season’ and ‘off-season’ processes for cash management. By running a tailored, flexible float. You can earn interest on money in the bank, rather than having money in the till drawer.
Automate where possible
Our cash counters include float/bank and deposit preparation functions designed to accurately rebuild your till drawer and prepare the cash lift. Our most advanced cash counter, the Cashmaster One Max allows you to control how to rebuild the drawer by denomination and verify the deposit using our 'deposit count' method.
The machines provide your cashiers with the exact quantities of each denomination in the tills so that they can decide what to leave in the drawer and what to take out as a deposit. Using an electronic cash counter means following a process, so every cashier operates in the same way and user error is effectively avoided. The bank and deposit are right, first time, every time. No guesswork. No math. No writing down on scraps of paper.
Delegate the task
With a cash counter machine responsible for the calculations, anyone can follow the process. The instructions are clear, there are no technical mistakes and staff will genuinely enjoy the ease of task completion. If an integrated printer is installed, a physical record of the float and deposit can be printed out for management sign-off. Most larger organizations take advantage of software to transfer the count data directly into their POS, Excel or other back-office systems.
The entire process provides ease and transparency for you and your staff.