Archived Cash office - how do YOU do it?

[mizl]

I've trained with two wildly different people to do cash office and I'm trying to figure out which of their procedures is better or more efficient (or if a third, different way is best).

What order do you count the bags in? Do you make start funds as you go? Trainer #1 keeps running tabs of how much of each bill they have and when, say, the $1 bills reach 25, they'll bundle it. I feel like it's faster to just set them aside and then when I have a bunch, run them through the bill counter into chunks of 25. Trainer #2 counts 015, SCO, 016, GS, pharmacy, and then the front lanes. Trainer #1 counts in numerical order. Does it really make a difference?

Also if you have any hot tips I'd appreciate it (I've checked through all the previous threads).

 

[COextraordinaire]

I count all my bags... Service Desk, outer checklanes (like electronics), SCOs, and then regular checklanes.

I keep the cash counter at Batch 50. Which collects up most of my ones, and sometimes 5’s and 10’s too.

When a regular checklane comes up to a perfect $150, (50-10-3-1) I reverse strap it and set aside. My store often has 5-6 bundles that they didn’t put out (unused registers). Those are set aside with them.

I take a break from Lane counting a couple of times and batch up the loose bills.

After counting all the registers I prepare for transfer to safe By making a little worksheet on scratch paper to figure out the figure for Transfer to Safe...

Perfect $150 straps + Bundled + Loose = Transfer to Safe.

My sheet might look like this...

$1’s. 500 + 2800 + 32 = 3332
$5’s. 500 + 6500 + 140 = 7140
$10s. 300+ 4000 + 290 = 4590
$20s. 200 + 5500 + 80 = 5780

And of course 50’s, 100’s, and $2’s just get reverse strapped as is since they go to the bank.

At this point, money at the cash counter can be merged with money in the safe. So take today’s loose bills and combine them with loose bills in the safe. You can use them to fund registers. You’ll likely need some bills from the safe to make the advances for tomorrow

Then I set out money for the day. (Tomorrow’s AM advance)

First the yellow bags 015 and 016

Then SCOs

Then Service Desk

Then $150 checklanes. Some days I only have to do 5-6 if a bunch of them were unused or perfect when I counted the lanes.


Then make the deposit.

Then Today’s advances, change from bank, and balance safe on CP4000.

Good luck. My trainer taught me in some sort of opposite order. I came up with my own routine once I understood what I was doing and why I was doing it.

Keep it up, because arguably CO is the best workcenter in the whole store! I even miss it a Little on my days off!

 

[COextraordinaire]

Oh but short answer to your question, count the bags in whatever order you like. Just know you are responsible for making sure all the bags get counted.

When I train people, I do ask that they count them “my way” only because that’s how I’ll catch if a bag didn’t get counted. I get confused easily, lol.

 

[NKG]

I've trained with two wildly different people to do cash office and I'm trying to figure out which of their procedures is better or more efficient (or if a third, different way is best).

What order do you count the bags in? Do you make start funds as you go? Trainer #1 keeps running tabs of how much of each bill they have and when, say, the $1 bills reach 25, they'll bundle it. I feel like it's faster to just set them aside and then when I have a bunch, run them through the bill counter into chunks of 25. Trainer #2 counts 015, SCO, 016, GS, pharmacy, and then the front lanes. Trainer #1 counts in numerical order. Does it really make a difference?

Also if you have any hot tips I'd appreciate it (I've checked through all the previous threads).

It honestly doesn't matter how you do it as long as you balance the safe.

 

[qmosqueen]

Keep a lot of this secret you never know who’s lurking on here. We don’t want to give away to much here.

 

[HRLady]

I've trained with two wildly different people to do cash office and I'm trying to figure out which of their procedures is better or more efficient (or if a third, different way is best).

Whichever method works for YOU would be considered the better or more efficient method. Not everyone does cash office in the exact the same way. As you go through the process more often, you'll figure out which techniques work best for you. Eventually, you will be retaining some of the things that your trainer(s) taught you while adapting some of your own techniques.

What order do you count the bags in?Do you make start funds as you go? Trainer #1 keeps running tabs of how much of each bill they have and when, say, the $1 bills reach 25, they'll bundle it. I feel like it's faster to just set them aside and then when I have a bunch, run them through the bill counter into chunks of 25. Trainer #2 counts 015, SCO, 016, GS, pharmacy, and then the front lanes. Trainer #1 counts in numerical order. Does it really make a difference?

What order do you count the bags in?

Honestly, it doesn't really matter to the program on the computer. It deoesn't require you to count the bags in a specific order. However, I recommend putting the bags in numerical order while also separating the front lane bags and the rest of the bags (SCO, GS, Pharmacy, Advances). Why? That way, you know if any bags are missing (the closer from the night before might have forgotten one of the bags). Also, you don't have to look through all of the bags to find which ones are SCO/GS/Pharmacy when you need to put the bundles in the bags later on.

Do you make start funds as you go?

I personally do both. I make the bundles as I go. Then, I run the remaining through the bill counter into chunks at the end. This is just because I don't like having mountains of cash all over the table.

If you are new, then I recommend running everything through the bill counter into chunks at the end. This is the least confusing way for newbies (at least the ones who I have trained). Then, as you get more comfortable, try making the bundles as you go. If you find that you hate making bundles as you go, then just stick with just making them at the end.​

Also if you have any hot tips I'd appreciate it (I've checked through all the previous threads).

When you are new, don't rush through the process because you think that you are supposed to finish within # hours. It is more important that you balance. Once you get comfortable with what you are doing, you will eventually get faster.

 

[LUR99]

HRLady gave some good advise.
Don't rush through it. You will find a way that works best for you.

 

[mizl]

I definitely don't rush, haha. Today I managed to finish in like... 2:45? It would've been way faster but getting funds from the bank never came up in training so I had to figure out how to do all that. I probably would've saved 30-45 minutes without that.

 

[LUR99]

I definitely don't rush, haha. Today I managed to finish in like... 2:45? It would've been way faster but getting funds from the bank never came up in training so I had to figure out how to do all that. I probably would've saved 30-45 minutes without that.

Once you have all the steps down, you will get quicker every time. I try to bundle as I count the bags to save myself time later. I didn't bundle during my first few shifts because I was already so confused and didn't want to confuse myself any further.

 

[redeye58]

I count the thick bags first (SD, cash adv funds, SCO) followed by Rx, Electronics, FA/SB, finishing with checklanes.
I strap as I go then slide the bar over to grand total to verify before doing the Safe Transfer to avoid surprises.
As others say, don't rush; focus on accuracy first.
After you've done it enough times, you become familiar with the process.
With familiarity comes confidence; with confidence comes speed & you will naturally find yourself picking up the pace.

 

[YoNanas]

Keep a lot of this secret you never know who’s lurking on here. We don’t want to give away to much here.

Yep. I wouldn't even discuss this on here. Better to be safe than sorry.