Cash

Handling cash is more problematic and time consuming than most people think. Apart from the security aspect, the sheer weight and bulk of large sums of money in loose change creates problems, let alone the time and effort required to sort, count and bag it. The following sections attempt to give some guidance regarding the handling of cash.

Cash float – amount

You will need a cash float. That is, each gate person or other money-taker will have to have some change (‘float’) to start them off – if the first member of the public wants to pay with a £20 note, they will need to have change to give to them. This raises several problems, not least of which is where to raise the initial money to arrange for the cash float. Depending on the size of the event, the float required could be a considerable sum.

Banks, building societies and so on may be willing to give you specific advice, but as an illustration, on a site with four entrance gates, I would expect to arrange a float of at least £1500 to cover the gates and car parks etc.

The sum of £1500 in change may sound like a lot, but consider these simple calculations. Assume your event has two car park gates and four pedestrian gates. Now assume that the fee is £1 to park a car and £1 per head entry fee. The first 25 cars pay for parking with a £5 note, requiring £4 in change each. That means the car parks use £100 of change for the first 25 cars. Now assume that each car contained only one person and they each pay their entry fee with a £5 note, again requiring £4 in change each. In this not too far-fetched example, the first 25 people on your site have absorbed £200 in change from your float (i.e. 25 cars, £4 change each, then 25 people, another £4 change each).

Now assume your site is larger, there are four main car parks, five pedestrian gates, five programme sellers and a souvenir T-shirt stall. That makes 15 members of staff who need a cash float!

It is easy to see that a large event can consume vast amounts of change to start them off, but this is where sensible pricing, management and sign posting come to your aid.

From experience, given a choice few people will pay with coins, most pay entrance fees with notes. Depending on the denominations available there seem to be trends. In my experience the public currently prefer to tender a £20 note for entrance fees, even if they have smaller notes or change available. That means that you have to provide the correct change and make sure that the incoming bank notes are secure.

Cash float – breakdown

Hopefully you now accept that you have to have a cash float, but it is important that you carefully consider the denominations of the coins that you request when arranging for the supply of the cash float. If for example your gate fee is £1 per person, it is likely that most people will either pay with a pound coin or try to use a £5, £10 or £20 note. Therefore the only change required will be £5 and £10 notes and pound coins.

The denominations of the notes and coins in your float must match your plans. In the above circumstances it would be a waste of time and effort to arrange for the entire £1500 float to be supplied in 2p coins, or in £50 notes.

You must therefore carefully consider fees, discounts, likely sums to be tendered and likely change requirements. Plan ahead and get it right.

Cash handling

Each gate or stall will be handling cash. It is essential that the handling of the cash be formalised. A secure container, preferably with a closing lid, should be positioned conveniently for the staff and out of reach and, where possible, out of sight of the public. Thought must be given to the structure in use. Putting a cash box at the rear of the gatehouse isn’t very secure, especially if the back of the gatehouse is composed of three napping sheets of torn canvas! Many a collecting box has vanished while gate staff were busy and distracted, trying to calculate the fee for a family, or arguing about the amount of change given!

Credit card facilities

It is possible that large families may wish to pay entrance fees by credit card. I would suggest that for all but the very largest events, which are held at fixed venues, you should avoid accepting credit or debit card transactions.

Cash office

For any event you will need a secure location, out of sight of general members of the public, to act as a cash office. This is where the float is held and distributed; from where additional change can be obtained and where incoming moneys are collected, recorded and held for banking.

The cash office will be responsible for collecting, counting and bagging incoming cash and cheques ready for banking. They are also responsible for making local payments, for say a delivery of coal to a steam fair, or to pay the local farmer for the use of a field as a car park.

Depending on the size of the event, the gates and attractions could quickly collect quite large sums of money. A few years ago it was not unheard of for a local fireworks display to have £10,000 to £20,000 on hand, but with security in mind they now arrange for cash collection services to take it and bank it before it builds up to those levels.

To most people £10,000 to £20,000 may seem quite a large sum of money, but nothing to be too worried about. However, when you consider that criminals are willing to use sawn-off shotguns to raid a secure post office or building society to escape with a few hundred pounds, the cash that these local events may have on hand suddenly becomes a worrying and tempting potential target.

For security reasons that cash should not be left vulnerable at the collection points, so cash will have to be collected frequently. Again for security reasons, the collection times should be random, at least two people should go together in the collection team and if possible you should vary the people in the collecting team, the route and any vehicle used, to avoid them being recognised on subsequent circuits. When collecting cash, the collecting team should leave a working float at the gate and return all other funds to the cash office, making no outgoing payments on route no matter what the reason or excuse.

The collection teams should put all money collected into a secure container and identify where and when it was collected – such as ‘Main Gate – collected Sat 12 Aug, 11:35’.

As a general rule, the cash office should be separated from the event manager’s office, because the event manager necessarily has a lot of visitors during the day. To maintain security the cash office should allow access to a strictly limited number of people.

The cashier

Somebody will have to be nominated as having responsibility for the cash office; for simplicity I have called that person the cashier.

The cashier will be responsible for arranging the float, both the amount and the mix of coins and notes. The cashier should decide how the gates and attractions are going to hold the cash and how often the cash will be collected from each post.

In conjunction with the event manager and the person responsible for security, the cashier will arrange all aspects of cash security, including escorting cash collectors round the site and varying routes and times etc.

Analysis of cash received

As cash comes in, a record should be made of when and where it has come from, be it car park fees, gate money, attractions money etc. If the event is to be run next year, analysis of the sources of income may reveal a lot.

For example, analysis may show that a gate in the far corner of the site was a waste of time, so next year you may not need a gate there. Perhaps the analysis may show that souvenir T-shirts were a strong source of income, so next year you should consider arranging for more T-shirts to take advantage of that potential source of income, as long as it wasn’t just a passing fad or fashion. Who wants to buy a ‘Who Shot JR?’T-shirt now?

Cash security

The cash office must be secure. If at all possible make the cash office a solid building or Portacabin and, unless absolutely necessary, avoid using a tent or vehicle (van or lorry) as a cash office.

Make sure that all staff are aware of the location of the cash office, so that they are ready to call in to warn the cashier and event manager of any suspicious activity on the site.

Take any advice from the local police regarding the collection of cash and the siting and use of the cash office.

Depending on the sums involved, it may be sensible for the cashier to arrange occasional cash collections by a security company during the event. For a modest fee, a cash security company will arrange to collect money from the event site and will bank it for you. Spending some money on a collection fee, while assuring the security of the cash and the health and safety of staff and public is preferable to losing the entire £15,000 income to an opportunist job, who stabs a couple of people to get the cash.

Counterfeit notes

At any large gathering, criminals are likely to attempt to pass counterfeit notes (and occasionally coins too), in an attempt to ‘convert’ them to legitimate money. Your gate staff and cashiers should be warned to watch out for these counterfeits. If they are being passed, the police should be informed immediately. All counterfeits identified should be surrendered. If you have taken a counterfeit note, it is a crime for you to try to pass it on – all the more reason not to take counterfeits in the first place!

Generosity

Beware of being generous. Many smaller events have found that generosity has turned an otherwise profitable event into a loss-maker.

For example don’t give out too many complimentary tickets; in fact avoid giving out any at all if you can. Don’t supply free meals to stallholders or staff- if you make the shifts of voluntary staff short enough, they won’t need a working lunch break, and paid staff can afford to buy their own meals.

Don’t be too generous with incidental expenses. It is easy to lose track of how much has been spent. It can be surprising how the smallest of sums, allocated to buy such things as marker pens, collecting buckets or sticky tape etc., can quickly add up.

Make sure that all prices for equipment and attractions are fully specified and agreed in advance and money spent recorded accurately whether it is £3500 for a fireworks display or £1. 12 for a marker pen.

Cash collection – donations on exit

If there is a charitable element to your event, you may wish to station staff at the exit gates when the main crowd departs. If those staff rattle buckets and call for donations to whatever good cause, it is surprising how much can be raised from the visitors as they leave, particularly if they are in a happy mood. Many visitors simply toss a handful of change into the bucket without bothering to count it. I have found that a cheery ‘Thanks, see you next year’, is much appreciated and seems to increase the likelihood that they will donate something.