In 2023, business owners are already acutely aware of the significance of cash for maximising business potential. Despite the continued growth of digital payment options, cash remains crucial and here are a few reasons why it continues to retain its importance:
- Lower transaction fees – Credit card processing fees, merchant services charges and transaction related fees all add up, and meaningfully affect tightening margins in business.
- Reduced risk of fraud and chargebacks – cash provides peace of mind for businesses and consumers alike.
- Wider customer base – it’s important to be aware that not all customers will have access to digital payment forms, so cash is important to be accessible to ALL your customers.
For consumers, we’re also seeing a growing trend of people favouring using cash to help them to budget and be more conscious about what they are spending day to day, especially given the current cost of living challenges. There is a current #cashstuffing trend on several of the social media platforms – a new term for an age-old concept of budgeting by managing personal cashflow!
So what are the considerations for managing cash for retailers in 2023?
For business owners, the effective management of cash is crucial to the smooth running of the business. Considerations include:
- getting cash into their bank account quickly
- securely transporting cash to the bank
- bank fees for lodging and processing cash to their bank account
- security considerations for staff when transporting cash
Cash Management solutions are improving all the time to help with all these challenges:
Security:
It seems foolhardy for any business owner or manager to be taking the risk of bringing cash to a bank branch themselves. Not only for their personal safety, but indeed in some instances their insurance may not cover them, should they be intercepted. Cash in transit companies who are fully licenced and accredited will be fully covered in any such instance.
Fees:
Some business owners lodge to their bank assuming that they’re saving fees, but there are cash processing fees from the retail banks. As a result, it is 100% worth pricing around, to get some clarity about the fees from a retail bank vs a cash management provider – they are often shocked to find that their bank fees may be higher than the alternatives.
Speed to bank:
It is top of mind for EVERY business owner to have access to their cash as quickly as possible after the transaction occurs, so cash processing time is critical for business. What can speed this up is nightshifts handling the cash processing, which has a huge impact on how quickly the cash will be available in the business’ bank account.
Innovation/SmartCash
Furthermore there are now cash management solutions whereby businesses can have their cash in their bank account even before it has been collected!! That might sound crazy, but it’s a great example of innovation in the cash management sector. This SmartCash solution uses new Smart Safe technology. This allows a retailer to lodge their daily takings into their smart safe (which is on their own premises). The cash is counted, and the amount is lodged in the business’ bank account the next day. This means the business has daily lodgements into their bank account, while the cash in transit company securely manages the collections in the background.
Time/Convenience of lodging cash:
With changes in the banking sector there are fewer bank branches than ever, so often businesses are having to drive further, and wait in longer queues at bank branches, to lodge their cash. This is valuable time that business owners or their teams are having to take away from their businesses. By using a cash management company, a business can save many wasted hours and thus increase productivity.
5 burning questions to ask when researching Cash Management providers:
When businesses are evaluating Cash Management options available on the market, there are some key questions worth being clear about:
- Does the cash management provider have a bank account in Ireland?
- If not, this could cause delays in money reaching your business bank account.
- How quickly will money reach my bank account?
- Does your chosen cash management company process your cash overnight. If not then time from collection to lodgement to your business bank account can be much longer
- Can I access my cash reports online?
- Good providers should be able to provide access online to cash reports giving you real time access to your cash reports
- What happens if I have a query?
- You want to ensure that your provider has an Irish based customer service team such that any queries will be answered and resolved in a timely manner.
- How do I know if my money is safe? Is your company stable?
- Cash Management companies can share with you the measures they take to ensure your cash is safe including insurances, licences, accreditations, trust accounts, length of time serving the Irish market, and their own financial stability. Don’t be shy to ask for these assurances, as financial stability is critical to any business that is managing your cash.
Get in touch with a member of the team to find out how much your business could save.
✉️ sales@gsls.ie
📱 01 – 460 5888
*Article also published in ShelfLife Magazine.
