As Labor Day weekend approaches, people throughout the country are preparing to
celebrate the holiday with barbecues, pool parties, picnics and—you guessed it—cannabis.
With the legalization of recreational marijuana in 19 states, Washington, D.C., and Guam, many Americans will make Labor Day 2022 a “high holiday.” As they head to your cannabis retail store to get ready for their weekend celebrations, will you be able to handle the spike in cash transactions?
If 2021 is any indication, this Friday might be the most lucrative cannabis sales day of the holiday weekend. Last year 38% of the $234.8 million in Labor Day weekend sales were made on Friday, Sept. 3, 2021. While this Labor Day weekend won’t be as busy as the week of 420, it is projected to be the second busiest for cannabis sales of the year.
What does this mean for your cannabis business? Be prepared for a busy store with an avalanche of cash coming your way. Consider what 420 was like for your business to get an idea of what to expect:
Did you have enough budtenders to help with counting and recounting cash?
How often did you have to replenish tills?
Did you have enough smaller denominations for change?
These questions point to the importance of having an effective cash management system every day, not just for major holiday weekends.
Why Cash Management Matters to Cannabis Retailers
Cash management can be difficult during times of peak demand because of the ongoing labor shortage, which is impacting all retailers including those in the cannabis industry. While the cannabis industry has seen soaring demand, the large number of unfilled positions can hinder growth.
That means that during a busy holiday weekend, your store may not have enough budtenders to count cash and service customers.
Cash automation technology offers a way to make cash handling more efficient and secure. No matter how busy your store is or how many employees are working, your cash management challenges can be dramatically reduced with this technology.
What Is Cash Automation?
Cash automation is an integrated software and hardware solution that streamlines cash management. Cash automation software works with a cash recycler to bring greater accuracy, security, accountability, and control to cash transactions in retail settings. Cash recyclers are vaulted devices controlled by software that enables them to count, validate, secure, and dispense cash according to security settings and management controls.
Cash automation makes cash transactions manageable because it eliminates the need to count cash multiple times throughout the day. It also ensures your cash security, which is important because approximately 90% of losses in the marijuana industry can be attributed to employee theft. As a result, cash automation systems help cut down on costs, risks, labor, and time associated with cash transactions.
What Cash Automation Software Works Best for Cannabis Retailers?
Finding the right cash automation software is just as important as finding the right recycler. Here are a few key features to look for when selecting the best cash automation software for your cannabis store:
1. Easy-to-Use Software – Seek out software with an intuitive, user-friendly dashboard that is accessible from mobile devices. It should integrate with your accounting software and allow you to view transactions in various locations. Easy access to the company's cash balance is exceptionally helpful and becomes a gateway to determining cash needs.
2. Visibility – Preventing cash shrinkage and ensuring process compliance are things every cannabis business owner should be concerned about. To address these issues in your business, you need quick and easy visibility into cash flow across all locations. You also need transaction history for specific vendors as well as on an aggregate “big picture" level. With a solution that lets you require each budtender to balance to their POS receipts, run reports for auditing purposes and create custom queries for your specific needs, you’ll be able to pinpoint cash handling and shrinkage issues.
3. Security and Compliance – It’s not always a viable option to keep an abundance of cash onsite or to take time away from your retail location to deposit cash in your bank. Efficiently counting cash, quickly balancing it to your POS cash receipt totals, and securing it in a high-speed recycler with an internal safe must be a priority for cash-heavy cannabis businesses. Cash automation frees up your resources to provide the time needed to track inventory, down to the lot and unit level, to avoid a long list of compliance issues in seed-to-sale tracking.
Get the Cash Control You Need for Labor Day – And Every Day
When it comes to back-office cash handling and how to best navigate cash management with increased sales volume, many cannabis retailers and dispensaries can operate more efficiently by automating their cash flow, freeing owners and employees to focus on customer service, inventory and other critical activities.
These solutions offer a better way to deal with all the cash that flows into your cannabis business.
The XpressCash™ cash automation solution brings the efficiency, speed and control you need to effectively manage your cash every day.
The XpressControl™ dashboard solution gives you the cash visibility and command you need to manage cash across multiple locations.
Download our infographic for a quick overview of how cash automation solutions can benefit your business. Let’s connect at one of our upcoming events so you can see the XpressCash and XpressControl solutions in action!