Going Cashless with Howler
Updated
by Robyn Marais
Howler Cashless is a safe way to pay using our closed loop RFID system.
Howler can help take your event to the next level with
- Unique customer spending data and insights
- Cash management
- Stock Management
- Vendor Management
- Vendor settlement
- Network independence
and much more. To learn more about cashless, head to our website.
To go cashless, contact clientsupport@howler.co.za or your account manager to request a quote.
Our cashless environment is optimised for high volume, low network events. Howler reserves the right to service events where our product will add the most value. If our team believes that our cashless services are not going to add value to your event, it is only because at Howler we strive to offer your attendees the best customer experience based on our experience in the local and international events industries
We require a minimum of 4 weeks lead time to organise cashless at an event. Please ensure to confirm this with your account manager ahead of time. (Custom wristbands require 8 weeks lead time to manufacture).
Acceptance of your request may be subject to the availability of infrastructure and staff to service all your event needs.
What to expect
When you're in contact with your account manager to discuss cashless, they'll ask you some questions to prepare a quote for you.
These questions will include size of your event, venue, length, number of bars and vendors and any specific requirements based on the context of your event.
Based on this information, they'll provide a quote for the Cashless services. This quote will be above the ticketing charges.
Your quote will include but is not limited to;
Staffing, accommodation and travel, Device rental, card machine terminal rental, infrastructure rental (such as gazebos and wireless network connectivity), our standard commission of 5% of transactions and wristband costs.
Once you've confirmed the quote, we'll start asking for more details so that we can action the event setup.
If you're looking to use custom wristbands, our team will need the design specs of this 8 weeks before your event.
We'll require contact information for all vendors and confirmation on the deductions we'll make from vendor settlement. We'll also require direct contact with your bar suppliers to load their menus and provide training material.
Our team will start reaching out to your vendors and bar suppliers to sign up and load their menus onto the Vendor Portal.
Our team will request a site visit with you at the venue to outline customer flows and where topup stations should be situated.
If you are selling tickets on Howler, our team will enable Online Topups on your event page.
Customer fees
We can add topup and cashout fees to customers to cover the cost of topup and cashout transactions as well as wristband costs.
Our standard fees are R10 to topup and R5 to cashout.
Requirements
To provide the best service for your event, we require some accommodations. To lower the cost to you, we'll ask you to provide some infrastructure for our team. This will include;
- A secure, private room for device and cash management. We call this "The Hive". This is preferably close to the topup station but away from crowded areas of the event.
- Chute fencing for access control and topup stations. In the interest of crowd control, we will outline fencing requirements for the entrance in the case that we're managing access control and for the topup stations.
- Tables and chairs for access control and topup stations. Our team need surfaces to manage multiple devices, laptops, guestlists etc. Fumbling around without a table is not a good look or a secure cash managemet environment.
The Team
To provide the best possible cashless services, we require a trained and experienced team. The team onsite is at your expense and so it's important that you know who everyone is;
In Office Team
Client Services Manager: This is your go-to person overseeing your event from beginning to end. They'll ensure that everyone is on the same page and knows what your expectations are. This person may not always be at the event as they may be managing multiple events over a weekend.
Account Manager: This person works on a ticketing event to impliment all of the features that you've asked for. They'll also be sure to gather all of the relevant information for your event for the onsite team. This person may not always be at the event as they may be managing multiple events over a weekend.
Project Manger: This person works on a cashless event to impliment all of the features that you've asked for. They'll also make sure that all vendors and bar suppliers are happy and have loaded their menus, impliment most cashless reporting and manage the onsite operations and team. This person may not always be at the event as they may be managing multiple events over a weekend.
Onsite team
Site Manager: This person is onsite to make sure that everything is operating smoothly and that you're happy. They are the leader of the onsite team and they are responsible for everything. This may in some cases be the Project Manager.
Hive Manager: This person is always in the Hive. They are there to manage the devices and systems across the event. Answering everyone's questions and applying all changes. This is a critical role for systems and device management.
Cash Manager: This person is always in the Hive. They are counting cash, managing cashup and balancing all cashiers. They make sure that all of the topup stations are running effectively.
Liaisons: These are the direct point of contact for all vendors and bar suppliers. They are training everyone on how to use the devices and tending to all queries and support.
Topup Manager: This person managers all of the topup station cashiers. They make sure that everybody is ready and setup to start topping up customers, all the topup station devices and card machines are working and sending cashiers for cashups when needed. They're in close contact with the cash manager.
Topup Cashiers: These are our friendly customer facing staff that process all topup transactions onsite. They are taking customers money and applying credits to their wristbands and answering customer queries.
Cash runners: These are our stealthy cash team that are running cash from topup stations to the cash manager during busy periods. It's not ideal for our Hive to be visible as it can be a risky place to be. Cashiers all walking in the same direction to cash up is suspicious. So we use these people to keep a low profile.
Customer support: These friendly staff members are the front line for any customer queries. Any disputes on charges, online topups not reflecting, tickets that need to be located, and whatever else customers may need. They're there to ensure all customers are happy.
Event Day
Our onsite team will arrive at the event from at least 3 hours before the event to setup Acces Control and Topup Station infrastructure, start training vendors and bar staff and handing out devices for people to start trading as soon as gates open.
They will be around all day, topping up customers, cashing up cashiers, managing devices that may need replacement, ensuring batteries are always charged, assisting vendors and bar staff with any queries and assisting customers wherever necessary.
At the end of the event, when everyone is done trading, our team ensures that all of the cashiers are balancing, all vendors are happy with their day of trading, collecting all devices and the part that takes the longest is syncing and locking all devices. We need to ensure that the devices have synced all of the event trading data to the servers so that our team can wrapup the event, deliver reports, enable cashouts and finally make settlement to you and all of your vendors.
Post event
After an event has concluded, our team requires some time to do all financial and data reconcilliation.
Our standard timeline is as below. This may be affected on weekends with many events or public Holidays. This process is often delayed over New Years as this is our busiest time of year.
Tuesday after an event: Our team are able to send you, bars and vendors their sales reports. These are also available on each vendor's vendor Portal.
Wednesday after an event: Customer cashouts are opened at 12:00. Cashouts are open for 30 days.
We settle sales minus fee deductions to vendors. We do not settle bars directly. This amount is settled to you and you are responsible for reconciling with bar suppliers.
Thursday after an event: We make initial settlement to you. We retain enough to cover cashouts. You are sent your settlement reports and final sales reports.
After cashouts close(1 month after the event): We make final settlement to you of all leftover funds.
This outline of the cashless services is a guideline and may vary across different events. We work together with you to accommodate your needs as well as the needs of our team.
