This article is brought to you by Cash Depot.

Cash management can be a time-consuming task, between making trips to the bank to deposit or pick up cash, preparing cash for deposit, register preparation and reconciliation, and store reconciliation and reporting. These tasks are also often performed by higher-paid management positions, eating into a c-store retail operator’s bottom line.

Up to 15% of a retailer’s total cash transactions go toward labor, reporting, and losses associated with cash, according to IHL Research on Retail Cash Payment Costs. The research found that even in a best-case scenario, retailers spend almost 5% of their total cash transactions on labor, reporting and losses.

“Labor is already a soft cost for retailers, and in an industry with hiring and turnover challenges, maximizing employee hours for the things that matter most is critical,” said Sean Burke, CEO of Cash Depot.

For stores using manual cash management systems, employees spend a total average of around 4,064 minutes, or 68 hours per month, handling cash. “Some of our c-store partners were recording up to 20 hours per week per store just on cash,” said Burke. “That’s essentially between one part-time and one full-time employee.”

For stores using a back office smart safe, the total is closer to 1,848 minutes, or 31 hours per month. “That’s an improvement, cutting over half of the time out cash management,” said Burke. “The savings with a smart safe is on employee trips to the bank by switching to armored carrier delivery and pickup. Also, deposit preparation time drops as money doesn’t have to be ready for travel, but employees still have to hand off that cash to the armored carrier and other basic cash handling tasks.

The “other basic cash handling tasks”? Register funding and reconciliation. Smart safes help with store reconciliation and reporting is much faster as daily cash deposits are recorded and reporting is provided. But they only offer solutions for deposits—so managers still need to prepare and reconcile registers each day.

“Cash Depot’s BANK IN A BOX significantly reduces the time spent on cash handling to around only five hours per month because it has cash recycling and complete cash in-and-out capabilities,” said Burke.

Unlike other cash management methods, the armored carrier deals directly with the BANK IN A BOX, so no employee cash handoff is needed. Employees insert cash from the tills when the shift ends, which eliminates deposit preparation, and pre-determined fast cash setups let retailers pull register funds directly from the BANK IN A BOX, cutting down on register preparation.

“And just like smart safes, you enjoy faster store reconciliation and reporting in real-time with an integrated web-based reporting portal,” said Burke. “The BANK IN A BOX system reduces time spent on cash management while ensuring accuracy, giving employees back significant time in their shift for other tasks.”

This is the first in a two-part series from Cash Depot. Look for part two on Thursday.