We all know that there’s no secret recipe for running a successful business. But there is a simple ingredient for improving operations and cash flow: making sure your cash is well-managed. It’s a component of running a business that’s often overlooked, but it can make a big difference in saving time and money. Check out these common misconceptions that often stop businesses from optimizing through cash management solutions.

Myth: Managing cash manually doesn’t cost anything

Some businesses don’t want to pay for automated cash management solutions because they believe manual cash management is more cost-effective. But labor costs have a big impact on a company’s bottom line, and those costs are rising. Consider how long it takes your employees to count and bundle cash and go to the bank. These tasks take away from your employees’ regular duties, like stocking shelves and helping customers.  In order to take care of everything, some employees find themselves working overtime to make sure everything gets taken care of. If your employees didn’t have to focus on cash-related tasks, they could spend more time on their main job responsibilities, which may in turn save the business money.

Where employees are trusted with large sums of cash, money can be lost through shrinkage and theft. In fact, the shrinkage rate has remained above average for the last five years, with retailers reporting an average loss of 1.6%.¹ On the surface, that may not seem like a lot, but it can be when you calculate just how much money that means your business is losing. Additionally, fees that banks charge can quickly add up and impact your business’s cash flow, and accessing working capital is out of the question until those funds clear your bank.

Myth: Cash is difficult to track

Two big benefits of cash are that it’s reliable and private, but many business owners and managers believe that it’s challenging to track and gather valuable insights from it. And of course, if you don’t know where your physical cash is, it can be more vulnerable to theft, mismanagement, and underutilization. However, the reality is that certain automated cash management solutions can track your cash from the moment it’s dropped into a tech-enabled smart safe to when it’s picked up by a cash-in-transit team, so you’ll never wonder where your money is. These solutions digitize a once-manual process that’s suitable for modern businesses. Wouldn’t it be great to get detailed reports on your cash so you can spot trends and pinpoint information to make smart business decisions? With the right solution in place, you can do just that.

Myth: Self-managing cash is more efficient than using a third-party

Picture this: you have an important handwritten note that you want a friend or relative to receive. You have two options for delivering that letter – you can either go to the trouble of hand delivering it yourself to the recipient’s home across town, or you can pay for a postage stamp to mail it instead. Hand delivering the letter yourself will take more planning; you’ll have to take time out of your busy day to drive to the recipient’s home and deal with the hassle of traffic. But for the price of a stamp, you could simply let the Postal Service handle everything and save time.

Think of automated cash management solutions the same way you think of the Postal Service – they exist to make things run smoother and more efficiently for you. Yes, there’s a cost involved, but it could save you time, money, and hassles in the long run. And if your cash management operations are running smoothly, it paves the way for other aspects of your business to run smoothly, too.

Imagine how easy it would be if you could drop cash into a device in your store, and you could get next-day provisional credit for that cash. Or picture your employees ordering change in the denominations your business needs, and having it delivered right to your store. Those notions are far from just ideas – they’re realities with Brink’s Complete, a solution that combines all the hardware, software, and services you need to streamline cash management.

Upgrade your cash management with the experts

Managing your cash well is a worthwhile way of investing in your business. At Brink’s, we’re revolutionizing cash management with digital solutions to make it easier than ever for you to improve your cash flow and profits. Our focus is to make cash management simple, automated, and centrally supported so that your employees think less about cash and more about customers, pricing, merchandising, and selling. Reach out to us to learn more about how we can help your business succeed.

[1] National Retail Federation www.cdn.nrf.com