VIEWPOINT: How cash management solutions streamlined our business

Since 1983, Ashby Hospitality Group has worked tirelessly to bring neighbors together to enjoy fresh, delicious meals, well-crafted drinks, and comfort food in Newark, Wilmington and Dover. Over the past 40 years, we have grown from a single restaurant, McGlynn’s Pub in Polly Drummond Shopping Center, to six restaurants and over 350 employees.

Megan Saona

Over the years, we haven’t just expanded as a business to serve more customers, we’ve also grown our business acumen – learning as we go, streamlining our processes and implementing solutions that allow our teams to focus on servicing customers. 

With the help of our banking partners at WSFS and Cash Connect, a division of WSFS Bank, we have been able to evaluate our business, understand the solutions that are available to us, and decipher what would be the best fit for our company.

Below are three Cash Connect solutions and services we use that have helped us stay focused on our business’s growth and our customers:

ATM Management

Prior to working with Cash Connect, we owned and operated ATMs at five of our six restaurants, two of which offer football betting and therefore utilize a lot more cash. Not only were we responsible for forecasting and reconciling the machines, but also for the maintenance, which could be time-consuming. Since working with Cash Connect, we sold our ATMs which has saved us valuable time by outsourcing the maintenance and management of our ATMs. Now, if a machine breaks, we have a partner who we can trust to respond immediately.  

 Smart Safe Solutions

Once customers withdraw cash from our ATM, they typically spend it within our establishment – which means our team is responsible for ensuring all the cash is accounted for. This is where Cash Connect’s Smart Safe Solution has proven to be useful. Instead of storing cash in a register and reconciling it by hand at the end of the day, our teams can deposit cash to the smart safe throughout the day. This not only drastically reduces admin time that was previously spent counting cash, but also eliminates human error.

For over 20 years, we utilized ledgers for our restaurants. This required a team member to constantly travel to each restaurant and reconcile the business. However, with the addition of Cash Connect’s Smart Safe Solution, we can maximize cash flow with access to next-day credits for funds deposited into the safe, meaning we always have a clear picture of where the business stands.

Armored Carrier Management

To round out our cash management optimization journey, we implemented Cash Connect’s Armored Carrier Management services to help transport our cash from our restaurants to WSFS Bank. There is always an added layer of risk when handling cash on-site, and this risk increases when you are transporting cash. Prior to implementing armored carrier management, an office staff member would transport cash from the restaurant to the corporate office a few times per week. The cash would then be counted and taken to the bank twice per week.  This method not only involves safety risks, but also leaves room for human error. Now, not only do we know our cash will be transported safely with Cash Connect, we also rely on them to credit us the amount in the smart safe prior to the cash physically being deposited into our bank account, which allows our business to continue to operate smoothly.

By implementing Cash Connect’s solutions and services we have not only optimized our cash management practices, we also have added security measures to our business, made our processes more efficient, and given our teams back valuable time to concentrate on servicing our customers. 

Megan Saona is the controller of Ashby Hospitality Group.