Company News • 23.03.2017

From counting cash to counting on operational excellence

The Costcutter store in Porthleven, UK, is a busy place, especially in the summer months when tourists flock to the seaside town

The staff were spending more than two hours daily counting money, calculating cash floats and topping up tills, which hurt productivity. With multiple cashiers using the same tills, it was difficult to hold anyone accountable for discrepancies.

To boost efficiency, the owner of the Porthleven Costcutter store started looking at new cash management options. It so happened Costcutter Supermarkets Group was trying out the SMARTtill™ Intelligent Cash Drawer from Cash Bases Ltd, a Newhaven, UK, company that merged with Minneapolis-based APG Cash Drawer in 2015. When the franchise’s owner saw the drawer in action, he liked what he saw and decided to deploy the SMARTtill™ solution.

A solution consisting of four 460 Flip Lid SMARTtill™ Intelligent Cash Drawers and the SMARTtill™ Manager application was deployed, replacing an older set of Cash Bases drawers.

Supplier
Logo: APG Cash Drawer

APG Cash Drawer

4 The Drove
BN9 0LA Newhaven
UK

Eating up time

Prior to the installation of the SMARTtill™ Solution, cash reconciliation consumed as much as two hours daily. It took 45 minutes to count cash, establish cash lift and top-up values, and reset the drawer’s inserts. At day’s end, cashiers would take the inserts up a set of stairs to a back office for counting. The inserts were then refilled with the next day’s cash floats.

When a cashier ran out of coins during the day, a supervisor would take a £20 note and exchange it for coins in the back room. “This involved running with money up and down the stairs, which is not very effective and it eats up time. This could happen up to 10 times in a day,” says store manager Andy Pengelly. At busy times, it interrupted customer service.

Another issue involved cash lifts. Three times a day, a supervisor would lift cash from the drawers, stuff it into envelopes, write down the amount and place it in a safe. The next day, the cash was fed through a mechanical note counter as part of the reconciliation process

Photo: From counting cash to counting on operational excellence...
Source: APG

Operational improvements

With the SMARTtill™ Solution in place, employees “don’t carry money around the store for counting purposes any­more,” says Mr. Pengelly. The SMARTtill™ Solution calcu­lates cash amounts, eliminating the need to remove indi­vidual coin and note inserts everyday, which saves time. The note counter has been retired.

“With the SMARTtill™ Intelligent Cash Drawer, any time cash goes in or out of the till, it is checked, counted and recorded. In the past, we only checked the till during the morning reconciliation,” Mr. Pengelly says. Now when reconciliation reports are printed out, they accurately show the real float value, and no longer the expected calculated cash value.

When a float top-up is needed, SMARTtill™ Manager software uses a traffic light-like system to tell a supervisor

a certain denomination is running low (yellow light) on any of the tills. “When he goes out to the checkouts next time, he picks up the needed cash and drops it into the till. This is preventative and causes no customer interruptions because change never runs out.”

In addition, the SMARTtill™ Cash Management Solution automatically records cash lifts and generates a report that goes in the envelope with the money. The report serves as a backup to daily reconciliation reports.

Photo: From counting cash to counting on operational excellence...
Source: APG

Cash Loss Solution

Even though the store didn’t have much of a cash loss problem, Mr. Pengelly says, company policy calls for investigating discrepancies of £5 or more. With multiple cashiers using the same till, it was hard to attribute a discrepancy to anyone. Even when consulting security CCTV footage, the culprit might not be obvious.

With the SMARTtill™ Solution in place, footage is time-stamped and store managers can quickly identify any till disputes in the CCTV footage — a task that normally would be laborious and consume many hours. That’s no longer an issue. The SMARTtill™ Solution keeps accurate counts and a record of who is using the till. “It is not about not trusting, but rather about genuine errors and supporting your staff,” he says. Mr. Pengelly expects the SMARTtill™ Intelligent Cash Drawer will reduce cash losses to zero.

The SMARTtill™ Solution also solves customer disputes. If a customer says he or she received change for, say, £10 instead of £20, the SMARTtill™ Manager software can tell immediately if the customer is right. In the past, the customer would be asked to come back the next day after reconciliation. It was inconvenient for customers and awkward for employees, but now the SMARTtill™ Solution serves as an independent witness.

Quick Installation

Installing the SMARTtill™ Solutions took one day. It started with the least busy POS and moved up to the busiest. “It was smooth without any disruption to cus­tomer service,” Mr. Pengelly says.

Staff training was a straightforward process, mostly involving cashiers adjusting to a new insert layout with different note and coin locations. They also had to learn a few new key commands, as well as changes to the float and cash lift processes.

“Employees embraced the solution because it saves time and speeds up transactions,” Mr. Pengelly says. “The SMARTtill™ Intelligent Cash Drawers haven’t changed their job at all, but now they get a receipt at the end of their shift showing them the accuracy of their job, which is a plus.”

Mr. Pengelly says the time savings made possible by the SMARTtill™ Solution has allowed him to reassign staff to other tasks he had to cram into his day. Overall, the SMARTtill™ Solution has been a positive addition, making the store more efficient and improving customer service. As such, Mr. Pengelly believes the Porthleven store will serve as a model for other Costcutter stores.

 

related articles:

popular articles:

Thumbnail-Photo: Tesco to introduce new scan-free technology on self-service tills at...
03.01.2024   #brick and mortar retail #Tech in Retail

Tesco to introduce new scan-free technology on self-service tills at GetGo store

Seamless Shopping Revolution: Tesco Tests Scan-Free Technology in London

Tesco is trialling an exciting new technology innovation that means customers don’t need to scan their items ...

Thumbnail-Photo: EuroCIS 2024: Go beyond today!
16.10.2023   #retail #Tech in Retail

EuroCIS 2024: Go beyond today!

27 to 29 February 2024 will see the Who’s Who of Europe’s retail technology sector meet in Düsseldorf

Go beyond today! EuroCIS at the end of February will once again show solutions and products for the retail of the future @Messe DüsseldorfIn late February, numerous companies will again exhibit solutions and products for retailers to shape and ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Trigo and Netto Announce Autonomous Supermarket with Real-Time Receipt...
24.01.2024   #Tech in Retail #artificial intelligence

Trigo and Netto Announce Autonomous Supermarket with Real-Time Receipt Capability.

‘Final step’ in frictionless shopping drives trust by enabling consumers to view their receipts BEFORE leaving the store
Full size 800m2 grocery supermarket powered by computer vision AI is Europe’s largest retrofitted frictionless store

Trigo, a leading provider of AI computer vision technology that transforms traditional brick-and-mortar retail outlets into digital smart stores, and discount supermarket chain Netto Marken-Discount (also known as Netto), have partnered to launch ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Out of Stock in Retail and innovative solutions to avoid them...
07.11.2023   #brick and mortar retail #customer satisfaction

Out of Stock in Retail and innovative solutions to avoid them

Due to various events, the availability of goods in retail will be increasingly restricted from 2022, with the result that customers cannot find in food retail the products they wish to buy, because those products are sold out, are temporarily ...

Thumbnail-Photo: First of its kind accessible checkout unveild by Woolworths, creating...
03.01.2024   #Tech in Retail #cashpoints

First of its kind accessible checkout unveild by Woolworths, creating new employment opportunities

Breaking Barriers in Retail: Woolworths' New Checkout Design for Wheelchair Users

In what is believed to be a world first, Woolworths has unveiled an accessible checkout, designed specifically for team members living with a physical disability, including people who use wheelchairs and other mobility aids such as walkers.The first ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Unified Commerce Platform in focus
24.10.2023   #omnichannel #software developement

Unified Commerce Platform in focus

Handover at REMIRA: Dirk Bingler supersedes Stephan Unser as CEO

REMIRA is setting the course for future development of the company: On November 1, Dirk Bingler (48) will become the new CEO of the supply chain and omnichannel software expert headquartered in Dortmund. The previous CEO Stephan Unser (62) moves to ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Nedap teams with Foot Locker to extend RFID project...
05.10.2023   #omnichannel #software applications

Nedap teams with Foot Locker to extend RFID project

Foot Locker successfully matches supply and demand in newly opened stores in Eastern Europe using RFID technology

Nedap the global leader in RFID solutions, announces that multi-brand sports fashion and apparel retailer Foot Locker has successfully extended Nedap iD Cloud to its new, Eastern European stores. The objective is to offer the best possible ...

Thumbnail-Photo: Payment as a success factor: more than just paying...
15.01.2024   #Tech in Retail #payment systems

Payment as a success factor: more than just paying

Flashback to 1994: databases and ERP systems, first commercial websites, mobile phones with colour displays, CD-ROMs, Java as a programming language ...

Thumbnail-Photo: New German vending partner for ITL
30.11.2023   #Tech in Retail #cash management

New German vending partner for ITL

Innovative Technology (ITL) have recently announced Bernd Boddart as their latest trading partner

Bernd Boddart will be supplying their cash validation and biometric age verification solutions to the German vending market. Bernd Boddart, based in Mönchengladbach, Germany, have 30 years of experience in the field of coffee machines, table ...

Thumbnail-Photo: MPREIS Transforms Operations with Zebra Workcloud Task Management™...
06.11.2023   #customer experience #software developement

MPREIS Transforms Operations with Zebra Workcloud Task Management™ Software Solution

Austrian food retailer to streamline communication in around 300 stores to improve staff engagement, inventory optimisation, and customer satisfaction

MPREIS has around 300 Austrian stores in regions across Tyrol...

Supplier

Captana GmbH
Captana GmbH
Bundesstraße 16
77955 Ettenheim
Innovative Technology Ltd.
Innovative Technology Ltd.
Innovative Business Park
OL1 4EQ Oldham
Zebra Technologies Germany GmbH
Zebra Technologies Germany GmbH
Ernst-Dietrich-Platz 2
40882 Ratingen
REMIRA Group GmbH
REMIRA Group GmbH
Phoenixplatz 2
44263 Dortmund