CashMate helps companies track currency

Scales for counting money have been used by casinos, amusement parks and vending machine operators for many years, but they have not found broad acceptance among retailers. Pat Kinlough, owner of Cedar Springs Money Systems Inc., 2849 S. Fremont, is working to change that.

Kinlough splits his time between real estate and distributing CashMate, a device that counts coins and currency by weight. Eventually, he plans to devote himself full time to CashMate.

“My silent partner and I actually started out looking for a location in Springfield to build a miniature-golf course,” he said. “Our research took us to a trade show of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions in Orlando, Florida, in 2003, where we saw CashMate demonstrated. We were so impressed by its effectiveness at eliminating counting errors, reducing employee time and its reliable accuracy that we struck a deal with the manufacturer.”

Kinlough is the only distributor of CashMate west of the Mississippi River. There is one other distributor in the United States who works east of the Mississippi River. Both distributors are seeking subdistributors.

CashMate takes up less than one square foot of space on a countertop and has a programmable keyboard for manual and automatic counting of loose coins, rolled coins or paper money. It comes programmed for American and Canadian currencies and the Euro.

Money is placed on the scale platform and the value is calculated. When the money is removed, an accompanying thermal printer about the size of a 35 mm camera prints a running total. An employee or cash register identification number may be entered for security purposes and the number is printed on the paper.

Food-for-Less, 313 E. Battlefield, uses CashMate to verify the hand counts of cashiers. “We keep a CashMate in our front office,” said Jerri Mosby, who supervises the store’s 14 cashiers. “Cashiers count their cash by hand and enter the totals on an adding machine. We double-check their tape totals by weighing the money on the CashMate. I like it because it’s quicker, although I usually count the pennies by hand because they don’t always count accurately.”

Kinlough said that’s primarily because the composition of the penny has changed a half-dozen times since 1793, when it was introduced as a pure copper coin.

According to the U. S. Mint, the penny has had various compositions of copper, zinc, tin and nickel, and was mostly copper until recently. In 1962, the content became 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc and remained at those levels until 1982 when it was changed to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper.

Scrivener Oil Co. of Springfield uses CashMate at each of its nine Signal Food Stores in the Springfield area. “It speeds up transactions between shifts, it’s more accurate in handling cash, and it enables us to make bank deposits more quickly,” said Sean Bumgarner, retail coordinator for Scrivener.

CashMate was introduced in 2000 by InterLine Cash Systems Inc., based in Estero, Fla. Purchase price of the scale is $1,500 and the printer is $350, with discounts for volume purchases. Available accessories include removable cash register cups for easy transition of coins to the scale, thermal paper and upgrades of the memory chip.

“The memory chip is great for upgrading to new features,” Kinlough said. “Whenever our manufacturer adds features, we can send out a new chip to CashMate users, who simply remove the old chip and insert the new one. No need to send the machine back to the manufacturer for changes or to have someone come to the store.”

Kinlough builds his prospect base mostly by attending national trade shows. Although CashMate works well for any store that has a cash register, Kinlough said his ideal prospects are businesses that have multiple store locations.

He is meeting soon with officials of an Arkansas company that has 800 stores nationwide.

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