Vending Machine Accountability

Gaining inventory control and cash accountability is more difficult within a vending operation than most other types of businesses.  At any given point in time, 90% of a vending company’s inventory and cash is in thousands of steel boxes across a wide geography, making vending accountability unique.  However the real difference is the challenge presented in managing the one party transaction between the route driver and the vending machine.

Sometimes vending operators mistakenly concentrate on a single accountability reconciliation and dismiss other reconciliations as redundant or unjustified tasks.  However effective cash controls may appear to be, they simply don’t account for inventory shortages.  Unfortunately some operators believe that if machine cash accountability balances to the nickel, then it’s ok that they haven’t inventoried a machine since last December.  It doesn’t matter whether the shortage is in the form of a box of Snickers or a stack of dollar bills, the point is the cost of the shortage is the same.

The EASITRAX vend ticket is a flexible and comprehensive tool used to manage both cash and inventory accountability for each vending machine service.  In addition to tracking sales, COGS, planograms, and other tasks, the vend ticket also performs three independent reconciliations for every single vending machine service.  These are equally important and should be managed accordingly to ensure good machine accountability for both cash and inventory.

• Machine Inventory over/short (Sales+)
• DEX over/short (DEX)
• Meter over/short (Meter+)

Machine Inventory Over/Short Reconciliation (Sales+)

Machine inventory levels are maintained in the product section of the vend ticket.  These levels are calculated based on data collected during the machine service.  At the end of the prior service the driver left X products in this machine (X = Prior Ending Inv); at the beginning of the current service Y products remained in the machine (Y = Current Beginning Inv).  The EASITRAX Sales+ reconciliation expects the cash equivalent of the missing products to be counted in the coin room ((X – Y) * Vend Price = Expected Collection).  The actual calculation accounts for about 14 other variables including “credit card sales”, “fills”, “waste”, etc…, but the concept is the same.

The calculated unit sold or missing product values are initially calculated using unit sold DEX data.  This is an accurate method for calculating the quantity of products sold from the machine, but we also need to reconcile the value of products that have disappeared from the machine inventory.  Consider the example where prior level = 30, DEX sold = 6, and open count = 15.  DEX units sold only accounts for the 6 units sold from the machine, so the real question is what happened to the 9 units that disappeared from the machine inventory (30 –15 = calculated unit sold 15).  The route driver doesn’t have to take an open count of every selection during every machine service; however the driver has to be held accountable for maintaining accurate inventory levels in EASITRAX.  This can be done simply by keying open counts whenever inventory levels require an adjustment.   These adjustments are easily spotted at the end of the machine service by visually comparing actual ending inventory levels versus capacities.  Ignoring this reconciliation or failing to hold driver responsible for maintaining accurate machine inventory levels leaves machine inventory exposed to unreported inventory shortages.

DEX Over/Short Reconciliation (DEX+)

DEX data makes machine accountability easier by providing a second source of machine service data.  Without DEX data the vending operation is limited to receiving machine service data from a single source, the route driver.  DEX data is used to contribute to the inventory over/short calculation, but reconciliations are still dependent on the driver maintaining accurate inventory levels.  Unfortunately, DEX isn’t a magic wand for machine accountability.

DEX data includes lots of information including the value of coins sent by the changer to the coin box, coin tubes, change return, and the value of bills sent to the stacker.  The EASITRAX DEX+ reconciliation simply compares the value of coins sent to the coin box plus the value of bills sent to the bill stacker versus the coins and bills counted in the coin room.  Note the DEX expect value is not calculated based on machine sales, but the value of sales plus or minus the increase or decrease in coin tube levels.

Consider the example where coin tube levels are left $10 below par at the end of the prior machine service.  Between the prior service and the current service $15 bills plus $15 coins were deposited into the machine and $8 in change was paid from the coin tubes.  So sales equals $22, coin tubes increased by $7, and the DEX expect equals $15.  The variance between cash collected and sales is equal to the amount of money added to the coin tubes.  The DEX over/short effectively compensates for the fluctuations in the coin tubes.

Meter Over/Short Reconciliation (Meter+)

The traditional cash reconciliation method is still available in EASITRAX with or without DEX data.  The Meter+ reconciliation is based on the incremental value of the cumulative cash sales meter.  The meter reconciliation is similar to the DEX reconciliation in that it only reconciles cash, not inventory, but it differs from the DEX reconciliation in that it reconciles based on sales and does not compensate for fluctuations in the coin tubes.

The meter expect is simply calculated by subtracting the current cumulative cash sales meter from the prior cumulative cash sales meter reading.  For example, the prior reading equals 12,450.25 and the current reading equals 12,472.25.  The calculated meter sales between the two services equals $22 (12,472.25 – 12,450.25), therefore the meter expect is equal to $22.

Applying the details from the previous DEX reconciliation example (DEX expect equals $15) to the meter reconciliation we see that the meter over/short is equal to -$7.  This illustrates the difference between the two cash reconciliations.  The DEX over/short compensated for the $7 increase in the coin tubes and the meter over/short didn’t.  So the meter over/short calculation results in a $7 shortage.  Including the coin tube fluctuations in the meter over/short has value.  Without including the coin tube fluctuations the coins in the coin tube would be exposed to unreported cash shortages.  Also consider that on the prior service the coin tubes were left $10 below par.  This would have resulted in a $10 overage for the prior service’s meter reconciliation.  The combined meter over/shorts for the past two services equals a $3 overage, which is the same $3 that was depleted from the coin tubes ($10 below par plus $7 added to coin tubes = $3 below par).

Partial Accountability

Partial machine accountability in a vending operation is as ineffective as a dam built half way across a river.  It doesn’t matter how well the partial dam is constructed, an equal amount of water is certain to flow through the unprotected side.


**The above examples assume the use of a non-par machine inventory method