Cashiers are often the people who handle your cash the most. That’s why ensuring they know exactly how they’re expected to handle cash is so important for your business. Proper cash handling procedures help you help your team members keep your earnings secure and protected.
The right procedures, coupled with a good training program for your team members, will help you manage your cash with more efficiency and accuracy. Check out these useful tips to get some idea of where your cash handling stands and how you can improve it.
1. Think about Employee Accountability
In many businesses, cashiers share tills and drawers, which could make it more difficult to hold any individual cashier accountable if the till is out. Unless you can tie the issue back to a single transaction, it may not be possible to identify where the error occurred and who was responsible.
That’s why it’s a good idea to assign one cashier per drawer, if at all possible. Reconciling your cash drawers at the end of each shift, instead of at the close of business, could also be beneficial. If neither of these options is available for your business, then it might make sense to invest in a device like a cash recycler that can be installed at the point of sale. This device could help you improve accountability and security.
2. Hire Some Supervisors for Your Cash
Creating a separate supervision role can help you improve cash handling procedures and accountability on your team. The cash supervisor could be a new hire or a responsible individual you promote from within.
This person will be responsible for any major cash handling jobs, such as balancing tills or making cash drops. This could help you reduce the number of people who handle your cash or have access to your safe. It can also clarify accountability if any issues arise.
3. Invest in Technology
As mentioned above, the cash recycler is one way of improving accountability for your cash handling. It’s also not the only piece of technology that could help you streamline cash handling procedures for your cashiers. A smart safe can store cash more securely. The recycler can help them count change and tally up tills, while also improving security. Counterfeit detection devices are almost always a good investment, and some devices even come with built-in counterfeit detection.
New cash management technology could change the way you approach cash handling, which is good news for your bottom line. Be sure to train cashiers on how to use the new devices, so they can get the most out of them in their everyday duties.
4. Provide Regular Training for Your Team
If you didn’t have cash handling procedures in place, you’ll need to train everyone on the team. This is something you should continue to do. While many business owners understand the importance of training new hires, you should also make sure your long-time team members are getting refresher courses every now and then.
Training on a regular basis is especially important as best practices can change. If you revise policies or adopt new cash management technology, it’s a great opportunity to remind everyone of the basics as well as the new policies.
5. Make Sure You Have Rules
Perhaps the most important part of cash handling for cashiers is making sure there are rules in place. It’s difficult for anyone to handle cash “correctly” if they have no way of knowing what “correct” is. Written rules and policies can be referred to, so your team members can make sure they’re handling cash the right way.
Rules also help you hold the team accountable for procedure violations. If there’s no written rule, it’s more difficult to tell someone they shouldn’t have handled a particular transaction one way or another. Written policies can also make it clear what the consequences of not following procedures are.
