This article is brought to you by Cash Depot.

There are three hidden costs to the static cash that retailers keep in their back office or their smart safe, warns Sean Burke, CEO of Cash Depot:

• Opportunity cost
• Security risk escalation
• Operational inefficiency

“Every dollar sitting in your smart safe or back office is costing you money in ways you may not realize,” he said. “There’s definitely a false sense of security of ‘safe’ cash, but secured doesn’t mean optimized. That cash is not only costing you, but it’s causing you to miss out on additional revenue.”

First, retailers are losing money on cash that could be working for them instead of just sitting, Burke said. Idle cash is not generating returns. “Think of it as money in circulation versus money in storage. Cash that sits in a smart safe is stored. But cash that is recycled efficiently through a system like BANK IN A BOX can be used for consumer financial transactions. That cash can continue to generate more revenue.”

Idle cash in a smart safe or standard cash recycler can also incur fees, including provisional credit on next-day deposits. “You’re paying interest on cash you already own,” said Burke. “It often takes up to nine days for money deposited into a smart safe to be processed and deposited into the bank, and you are charged for each day that money sits there.” That means the average store can pay $300 or more per month in fees, he said.

Plus, Burke noted that operators are leaving money on the table from tied-up capital that could be generating revenue—it could be used for inventory optimization, earning interest, reducing lines of credit or other financing costs, or used to provide financial services for your customers to generate foot traffic, loyalty and additional revenues for your bottom line.

Another critical factor: More cash on hand makes your store a bigger target for theft. Burke said thieves often target locations they know have a lot of cash accumulated, and delayed pickups from armored carriers increase risk windows for theft. Holding cash on premises might also increase insurance costs, as higher cash volumes may require additional coverage or incur higher premium costs for theft-related incidents, such as damage or repairs to the store, Burke added.

Instead, BANK IN A BOX was designed to make your money work for you, said Burke. “BANK IN A BOX solves a lot of these issues—it reduces costs, recycles cash out of your store, and helps operators generate additional revenue through financial services. It’s more than a traditional ATM, it’s a full store cash recycler and consumer financial kiosk.”

According to Burke, BANK IN A BOX eliminates waiting periods for idle cash, recycles cash back out to consumers through ATM transactions and offers next-day ACH deposits that eliminate provisional credit costs. “It’s an integrated cash management system for all of a retailer’s cash needs … that also generates additional profits. It’s an important shift to stop viewing cash as something to secure and instead view it as something to optimize.”

This is the second in a two-part series on Cash Depot. Read part one here.