If you’re operating a retail store, restaurant or bar or just about any other type of small business that takes payments you’re most likely using a POS system for transactions , in order to make it easier on yourself and your employees as well as your customers. In spite of your efforts to make everything easier, disasters happen and on such retail systems one of the biggest disasters is power outage without a backup of power and a situation in which you’re left without keys to the cash drawer. This scenario will have you in a situation where you’re locked out of your own cash register , without access to it whatsoever .
In this article we will examine all of the common suggestions for this scenario, break down the myths from the good practical advice and see what works and what doesn’t work to potentially open a cash register without the key.
Method 1: Applying Battery Voltage to Pins of Cash Drawer
If you have done any research, you might have run into this advice, which is to apply a small battery voltage source to certain pins of the cable of the electronic cash drawer in order to energize the solenoid that controls the lever which unlocks the cash drawer. This sounds plausible and in fact it may work on some extremely old models, however most most of the up-to-date models from serious manufacturers will not allow this intrusion, if you think about it it shouldn’t be that easy to open up a cash drawer just by caring a 9-volt battery and a couple of wires in your pocket. You also have to consider the possibility of applying the voltage to the wrong pins or applying incorrect voltage for an incorrect amount of time may damage the solenoid or other electronics inside the cash drawer, so you may permanently damage your POS system and this may lead to void of warranty on an otherwise expensive system.
Method 2: Unscrewing from the Bottom Plate
You may have seen suggestions to flip the cash drawer over and see if you can unscrew the bottom plate of it and in this way access the inside of the POS cash drawer. Don’t do this just yet, as we will tell you why this method will not yield positive results. Most of the cash drawers for POS systems today are very secure and they’re made to resist this kind of intrusion , which is not very sophisticated, and this method May completely damage the cash drawer beyond repair, it may completely seize up as some manufacturers have designed this as a security method. So this may trigger alarms, permanently damage the equipment, void warranty as well.
Method 3: Manually Moving the solenoid
Another not so brilliant idea is the one where you will potentially unscrew the back plate or the bottom plate of the cash drawer and physically access the solenoid , upon which you would physically move by hand the solenoid and therefore the lever that unlocks the drawer . And yes by now from the tone of this article as you may have very well predicted it, this will work on some extremely old cash drawers that are quite archaic, however most of today’s sophisticated pure systems and up to date cash drawers will not allow this kind of an intrusion. Yes you might have guessed it as well, the solenoids nowadays are made to not be tempered physically and without a proper signal from the cable, and they may permanently seize voiding warranty and damaging the equipment.
Method 4: Picking the Lock
And yes we couldn’t avoid talking about the seemingly most old fashioned, tried and true and simplest method which is just mechanically picking at the Lock in front of the electronic cash drawer. So this method, will be successful for many cash drawers, is less intrusive, if done carefully will not cause a scenario of voiding warranty, however we wouldn’t be honest if we didn’t say that some up-to-date cash drawer models will have locks that are resistant to the traditional old-fashioned method of physically picking at the Lock.
Addressing Myths and Misconceptions on Cash Drawer Access
So as we stressed before, earlier in this article, attempting to gain access at the inside of the drawer in an unauthorized way, which is not recommended by the manufacturer, may do more damage than good, from voiding warranties, to permanently damaging the equipment, to permanent seizure of the mechanics where you lose access to the funds and whatever else is inside and up to potentially legal consequences. We all need to keep in mind that today’s POS systems are made to resist all of these tried and true old traditional methods and tricks, if we combed the internet in a hurry, trying to find advice on how to beat the cash drawer security, we should keep in mind that the manufacturer is aware of these tips and have overcome these challenges in their manufacturing process and Design years ago( in other words they read the internet too).
Practical Steps to Take to open a cash register without the key:
- Contact Support: If you experience a power outage and you don’t have your keys, the best course of action is to call the technical support for this POS equipment and follow their guidance on the authorized methods of gaining access to the insides of the drawer. If you have a well-documented support ticket, with technical support on the line, and you’re following their guidance, they cannot void the warranty on you, and you will most likely not damage your equipment and will actually be successful in your attempts to gain access.
- Backup Keys: if you actually make a plan to keep a spare set of keys in a secure location that is only known and accessible to the proper employees of the business, they can always easily access keys that function as they’re supposed to and getting cash drawer access fast and easy in a scenario of a power outage and lost or misplaced keys.
- Emergency Procedures: furthermore, power outages freeze your entire business from doing transactions because your POS software and hardware is non-functional and with this in mind you should construct a manual with emergency procedures of how employees can process manual transactions with pen and paper.
- Regular Maintenance: follow manufacturers advice and procedures to maintain your POS system and all of the mechanical aspects of it like the cash drawer which may include lubrication of rollers and other mechanical maintenance, in order to avoid malfunctioning that is not due to a loss of power or keys and in order to keep your system running as smoothly as possible.
Sorry this article was mostly discouraging you from taking the steps you might have had in mind, but sometimes you need that friend that will tell you “no” or “stop” and that something is a really bad idea, before you do something really dumb, so you’re welcome pal!
Remember, in emergency situations like a power outage, it is important to follow recommended manufacturers procedures and maintain utmost professionalism, to set a good example for your employees and to also show your customers that their payment slips, checks or other Financial records that are inside that cash drawer is kept safe and secure with utmost professionalism and care for their data and privacy.
