When to use: Cash ‘Vs’ Card

I have transferred easily to being a cashless person, though I have found that I should carry both cash and card. This post is driven by an advertisement I saw on TV. There was a man telling the viewer that “if you are using cash you are still in the stone age”. This drove me to think about the Pros and Cons of Cash as opposed to Card.

When I started my Business life back in the mid-1980s everything was cash or cheque. Running an Auction with cash was not difficult at all. It was the manual paperwork back then that was time-consuming. Because Back then the computer systems to run an Auction was over $20,000 for the system.

Thus I think I can talk about this subject with the authority that experience has given me. When it comes to the paperwork there is one step that has changed from cash to EFTPOS. That is it is needed that the paid receipts need to equal the same amount of the cash and cheques tallied. then it is banked. The paperwork has remained the same.

I vividly recall when the GST (Goods and Services Tax (VAT in the UK)) was introduced the time spent on paperwork tripled, by the manual system. But now with computer systems like Quickbooks, Zero, or MYOB that has made it faster. This is why I find it strange that there is a report that states that 29 days in lost productivity a year in just doing paperwork in Mybusiness. 

However, now I walk it to any small store and they have their stock on the computer systems, record their food and beverage orders on computer systems. This practice I find amusing. I really feel that you do not need to spend money on computerizing your small business. Triplicate recept book is really all you need. Unless you do not trust your partner in business or the staff working for you. If this is the case you should not be in business with them in the first place. Then at the end of the business day you spend about 15 minutes on your bookkeeping package as you would do in any case. As for stock control, you can do that on your bookkeeping system or run a simple excel spreadsheet.

There really is one great advantage to running a Cash or semy-cash business. Small business has a really hard time just staying afloat in the first place, any savings that can be made is a bonus and money placed into stock. once your business expands its staff then yes the full computer system can prevent staff theft. There are other financial advantages that you can discover yourself. Operating during a blackout is one great one.

I once went to an Auction years ago, and yes there was a blackout. at the time the staff was in a panic on how to continue with the Auction without a computer. There were only 2 people in the Auction that knew how to do it. I and one of the older staff that worked there knew, and he had it all under control in no time.