Blog Post

5 Ways to Reduce COVID-19 Exposure From Handling Cash

  • By admin
  • 30 Apr, 2020
Handling Cash — San Antonio, TX — South Texas Business Systems Inc

Does your business rely on cash? During the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses and individuals alike are increasingly concerned with possible contamination from bills and coins. But you likely cannot afford to stop using them entirely, either. So, how can you and your staff avoid health problems related to handling cash? Discover five key steps to take.

1. Use Automated Counters

Hand-counting bills and coins significantly increases contact by your staff. They may even need to count large amounts of cash more than once, or have different individuals count it for accuracy.

An automated cash counter takes your people out of the process, boosting safety and limiting everyone's contact. A bundle of bills or coins (or, possibly even tokens or tickets) goes into the machine and returns to you as a bundle. Put this directly into a protected bag or envelope to avoid any unnecessary further contact.

2. Wear Gloves

Proper personal protective equipment is essential for any staff member who works around cash. Provide disposable gloves and ensure that everyone has plenty in case some get torn or damaged during work.

Do not overestimate individuals' understanding of how to use gloves properly as well. Staff should avoid touching their face or other surfaces while wearing the gloves, and they should remove them by peeling the gloves back to leave them inside-out. Combine glove wearing with ongoing handwashing practices as a backup.

3. Separate Cash Storage

Assess how the physical bills move through your business on the way to the bank. How do employees receive the cash from customers? Where do bills go? What bags carry them? How many employees touch them? Do you store bills and coins in drawers or other locked containers?

During the pandemic, the goal should be to limit the locations in which you put cash and to avoid placing it on any shared surface. The less transfer between containers happens, the less your people need to touch it and the fewer containers are exposed. If, for instance, you normally count cash and then store it in a safe before deposit, you might place it directly from the counter into the deposit bag to avoid further contact.

4. Encourage Handwashing

Handwashing is one of the most - if not the most - effective measures anyone can take to avoid coronavirus infection. Encourage employees to step up their handwashing routine, especially when working with money. Even a person who wears gloves should thoroughly wash their hands for at least 20 seconds on a regular basis.

Make handwashing part of frontline employees' days - providing regular time to do so with plenty of soap and water and reminding people when necessary. And set a good example as a supervisor. If you make handwashing important, your employees and volunteers will make it important too.

5. Remove Money Quickly

The sooner you get dirty bills and coins out of your hands, the less it can contaminate your business property and personnel. Avoid a pileup of bills by increasing the rate at which cash goes to the bank for deposit. If your cash drawers normally stack up significantly with extra, unused bills and coins, experiment with keeping less money in the drawer - and therefore less around your staff.

Can you implement any or all of these cash-handling tips? No matter how much cash moves through your company or where it comes from, good hygiene and safer protocols will reduce everyone's exposure to COVID-19 - and other contaminants.

Want more ideas for your particular situation? Call the cash management experts at The Banker Money Counting Systems today. We look forward to speaking with you and helping you through these challenging and difficult times.

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Right now, in your convenience store, you and your employees might count and handle money the oldfashioned way. A currency counter might not seem like a necessary investment, but it's worth the cost. These are a few reasons why these devices are particularly useful in convenience stores.

1. Detect Fake Bills

Because of the sheer number of transactions that are often done in a convenience store throughout the day and because of how fast these transactions usually happen, convenience stores can be at more of a risk of receiving counterfeit bills than many other businesses.

If employees use a currency counter when accepting larger amounts of money, they can quickly check to make sure that the bills they are being given are real.

Even if money has already been accepted by employees and is being counted at the end of the day, the counterfeit detector on your currency counter machine can help you catch fakes so you'll avoid taking them to the bank or keeping them in circulation.

2. Save Your Employees Time

Your employees probably have a lot of responsibilities in your convenience store. Having to spend a lot of time counting money takes away from the other things that they may need to be doing. If you have a currency counter that they can use, employees can make quick work of counting money so that they can quickly move on to the next task.

3. Get Money Put Away Quickly

Convenience stores are at a great risk of being robbed, so taking steps to help prevent theft is important. One of the key things that you can do is to keep a limited amount of money in your cash register drawers. Having employees put money in the safe once they accumulate a certain amount helps decrease the risk of theft, and if theft does occur, it helps minimize the loss.

If employees have to count money by hand each time that they put it in the safe, the money will be left out for longer. Also, robbery may be more tempting if employees are seen visibly counting large sums of money in the store.

With a currency counter, employees can get money counted and put away very quickly and discreetly. This helps keep both employees and the money in your store safe.

4. Prevent Human Errors

Your employees are probably pretty adept at counting money. They might do it all day long when they accept money from customers. This doesn't mean that they can't make a mistake, though, especially if they're in a hurry. Wet bills or brand-new, crisp bills can easily get stuck together, making it easy for a person to make a mistake, for example.

Currency counting machines have high accuracy rates, though. If your employees always use a currency counter when counting money, they will help decrease the chances of a mistake being made.

5. Avoid Spreading Germs

It's no secret that money is often covered in germs. Your convenience store employees obviously aren't going to be able to avoid coming in contact with money, but you should still minimize the spreading of germs.

After all, your employees might prepare hot dogs or other foods for your customers, and you don't want them to spread germs that can make someone sick. You don't want your employees to get sick either.

With a currency counter, you can help minimize how much physical contact your employees have to have with money.

A currency counter is a great investment for any convenience store, whether it's a small, rural convenience store or a large truck stop on a major interstate. Contact us  at The Banker Money Counting Systems to find out more about our currency counting systems and how they can improve your convenience store.
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