It’s that time of the year again, the holidays are right around the corner! Soon stores and restaurants will be hustling and bustling with shoppers and diners, and churches will be offering more services. This means that greater amounts of cash will be flowing through these establishments. It is more important than ever at these busy times, to be vigilant to ensure that the people handling cash are following the proper procedures to establish chain of custody of this money which helps to prevent human error or theft from occurring.

One of the best ways to prevent error and theft by establishing a chain of custody for your business’s money is by properly using tamper-evident cash deposit bags. A good tamper-evident cash deposit bag should offer serialized numbers with a tear off receipt, to easily track bags. Other important features should include, tamper evident seals that clearly show if the bag was tampered with in any way. These seal features should include evidence of tampering if heat or cold were applied to try and open the seal or if any fracturing of the seal took place. Bags with a side pouch seal with tamper evident markings on it are also preferred, as it does not allow someone to try and split a side seal without it being clearly evident that the bag was tampered with. These bags also have a large space on the front of the bag to fill out all pertinent information relating to your deposit.

The proper chain of custody of your tamper-evident cash deposit bag is of utmost importance to guarantee that the business’s money makes it from Point A to Point B safely and securely. This chain of custody begins with having at least two people present when dealing with any type of cash handling. This helps to keep people honest, and there should always be at least one preparer and one verifier. Select a tamper-evident cash deposit bag, once you have totaled your deposit that is to be placed in the security bag and filled out your deposit slip, clearly and carefully fill out the information on the front of the cash deposit bag. You should be filling out the date, breakdown of the deposit between cash and checks, total amount of the deposit, business name, bank name, account number it is to be deposited in, your name or names of both people preparing the deposit and a signature. Place the deposit into the tamper-evident bag along with your deposit slip.Be sure to fill out all the information on the top tear off receipt of the bag and have both parties sign off that this deposit is verified, then tear off the strip and keep for your records. Remove the liner on the bag to expose the adhesive strip, and firmly seal the bag going all the way across the bag to ensure the entire width of the bag is securely sealed. If using a drop safe, with an armored car service, be sure to record the bag’s serial number, deposit amount and your name in the armored car service log, before dropping in the safe. Ensure that the armored car service verifies this information when picking up the deposit and signs off in the log. If depositing directly at the bank, make sure that you receive a receipt from the bank teller, verifying all information so that the bank records match your records.You have now successfully completed the chain of custody.

Establishing a proper chain of custody for your business’s money eliminates room for error or theft. The use of a good tamper-evident cash deposit bag, is one of the easiest and most secure ways to protect and track deposits. With the knowledge that your money is protected, you will be able to relax and enjoy the most wonderful time of the year!