Business Safes

Protecting your cash and data could be the difference between the success and failure of your business. Office safes are a fundamental requirement for SME’s. They can be used to protect a large amount of money from theft and fire. But arguably just as valuable as cold hard cash is the amount of data that has to be protected. In addition to offices, a variety of retailers, hotels and other organisations require business safes.

The eSafes Buyer’s Guide for Office Safes and Business has been provided to give organisations of every size the information they need to choose the right safe. This article explains the types of safe available, including office safes, data safes and deposit safes. It will also provide a basic insight into sizes, cash ratings and how your choice of safe affects your insurance policy.

•    What types of office safe and business safe are available?
•    What sizes should I choose?
•    What do cash ratings mean?
•    Will my safe affect my home insurance?
•    Which locks and accessories do I need?

If you’re asking yourself ‘which office safe makes business sense?’ you should first ask ‘what do I need to protect and who will need access to the safe’? This will influence your decision on each of the following options. If you have a good idea of what will be inside your business safe, your decision of which to choose here at eSafes should be much simpler.

What types of office safe and business safe are available?

From fire and data safes to secure fire cabinets office safes are available in all shapes and sizes to fit your goods. Of course business safes are essential to more than just office based companies. Deposit safes are ideal for retail as they are designed to allow for goods, such as cash, to be input by anybody, but only be accessed by the authorised few. Our business safes are manufactured by some of the biggest brands in the industry, including Alpha Safes, Yale and Securikey.

•    Fire safes
•    Data safes
•    Secure filing cabinets
•    Deposit safes
•    Underfloor and wall safes

If you own the office property, rather than rent or lease, you might consider an underfloor or wall safe. If you think this might be a suitable option, however, it’s worth considering how frequently you are likely to change office space. A more portable solution may be more suited.

What sizes should I choose?

Many of the safes available come in a choice of sizes so it is necessary to choose the safe which accommodates the content that you are looking to safeguard. Fire file cabinets are designed to store paper documentation and a number of these data safes may be required depending on the scale of your paper filing system. Data safe are also available to accommodate electronic data and they are built in different dimensions as appropriate.

Deposit safes differ in size depending on their intended use. Counter caches or small cash deposit boxes are designed as a temporary measure to store surplus cash from a cashier’s till that could be at risk of theft. From here, this cash could be moved into a larger cash safe or deposit safe. The size of the safe would depend upon the size of this payload.

What do cash ratings mean?

Cash ratings indicate the degree of security provided. Office safes and business safes can have cash ratings from £1,000 to £10,000, which means that in the event of loss or theft, this amount of cash can be covered by the company’s insurance policy. Many of the safes available from eSafes are Eurograde approved, which is the industry predominant mark of quality. Many are also approved by the Association of Insurance Surveyors. Eurograde safes offer even greater security value with cash ratings ranging from £6,000 to £250,000. The amount of cover you need will depend upon the size of your business and the amount of cash and other content you are storing. Usually anything over £2,000 cash rating is considered to be geared toward commercial use, rather than home use. Fire ratings are also more important with office safes and business safes. While most home safes offer around 30 minutes to 1 hour fire resistance, many office safes offer 2 hours or more. These ratings are easily viewable as simple icons within the eSafes online store listings.

Will my office safe affect my commercial insurance?

The amount of security you have in place could have a positive effect on your insurance premiums and in the event of a fire or theft at your commercial property, the cash rating or Eurograde rating of your safe will be influential in determining how much compensation you receive. 
That is why it is important to choose a safe with an appropriate cash rating for your holdings.

Which locks and accessories do I need?

There are three kinds of locks available on office safes and business safes: key, electronic locks and biometric locks. Many of the safes available offer a choice between key and electronic keypad locks. Keypad codes eliminate the need for keys which could be lost. There is however the risk that you might forget the code or the wrong person may learn it. Higher rated Eurograde safes actually feature multiple locking mechanisms so that two or more qualified members of staff must be present to access the safe. Biometric locks are amongst the most technologically advanced available. They are designed to read the finger print of the owner and only unlock for this user. This may not be suitable in commercial situations where more than one person requires regular access to the safe.

To browse our extensive range of business safes please click here.