Effective Commercial Safe Security Practices

You would be hard pressed these days to find even a small business that did not have at least on safe inside it. That’s because commercial safes are so vital to helping businesses operate smoothly these days. Business safes protect cash reserves, keep registers from overflowing with money and store vital documents and other valuables. The value of these security devices cannot be underestimated. That’s why it’s so important to protect the security of your business safes at all times. In this article, we will discuss the important ways you can protect the integrity and security of your commercial safes and their combinations.

Protect Your Safe Combinations at All Costs

Here are some things you can do to limit the vulnerability of the content of your commercial safes:

• Limit opening access

What’s the absolute best way to keep your business safes as secure as possible? It’s to limit who has access to them. It only makes sense that having three people who know a safe combination at your business is much less of a security risk than having thirty people know this same combination. So only give out a safe combination to a limited number of employees whose job absolutely requires direct access to a safe

• Change the combinations regularly

Most security professionals will advise you to change your commercial lock combinations on a regular basis. You never know when a lock combination may have gotten into the wrong hands. Changing lock combinations will help you avoid this security risk. Doing it every six months or so will definitely improve your business’s important safe security.

This is also an absolute must when a key employee who had access to your safes leaves your employ. This is especially true if you and that employee did not part ways on good terms. Most safes can easily have their combination changed by an experienced locksmith. Locksmith service providers such as Fast Valley Locksmith out of Green Valley, Arizona are experts at changing lock combinations at reasonable rates. So, take advantage of locksmith services such as these to keep your safe security at a high level.

• Go Keyless/Digital

The safe industry was once dominated by keyed and combination locks but that has changed drastically these days. The most common safes now have advanced digital and other keyless type locks. You should make every effort to take full advantage of these. Not only are digital and keyless locks more secure than combination or keyed locks, but they offer a host of other advantages too. They are easy to reprogram access codes into and will give you more safe access accountability too. Some more advanced digital locks will even let you program access codes for different individuals. That way when a loss is detected from a safe you will know who recently gained access to it.

• Take advantage of biometrics

For the ultimate in safe access security, you may want to consider adding safes with biometric type locks. Why do these types of safes offer the most access security? It’s because no two people ever have exactly the same fingerprints or retina configurations. These are very hard safe locks to defeat, to say the least.

• Match the grade of safe to the value of what’s being stored in it

It’s always a great idea to keep the contents that are stored in a safe matched up with the level of security that safe lock has to offer. For example, you don’t want to keep large amounts of cash in safe with a simple key lock. This might be OK for most important documents but not for storing large amounts of cash or other extremely valuable items. Go with a safe with a biometric or advanced digital locking mechanism for that.

• Use time-lock safe where appropriate

Consider using a safe with a time lock built into. That way these safes are almost impossible to access during hours the time lock is set to not allow access. It will give you extra peace of mind that your safes are even harder to get into during off days and non-working business hours.

Commercial Safe Environment Protective Measures

Here are some measures that you can take at your business to further deter unauthorized access to your commercial safes. 

• Locate the safe in an area that has limited employee access

You probably would never even consider putting one of your business safes in the middle of your cafeteria. So why would you ever put one in an area that many people have access to? The answer is you never should do that. Keep your business safes in areas that few people go into such as high managerial and executive offices. The fewer people that have access to a commercial safe the more secure that safe will be.

• Hide safes if possible

We have all seen movies where someone moves a picture to reveal a hidden safe behind it. This is not only something that’s done in movies but it’s an effective practice to use at a business too (although make it a little more sophisticated than hiding the safe behind the picture). Security companies have some pretty unique ideas for keeping commercial safes hidden these days.

• Locate the safe in an area that has electronic access devices

Want to deter people from stealing money or other valuables from your commercial safes? Then put them in an area that has electronic access controls. That way you will know who came and went from that area and at what time they did it. If a theft does occur, it will then be much easier to narrow down who in your company might have done this misdeed.

• Make sure your safes have surveillance cameras monitoring them

It’s no secret that when people know that big brother is watching they tend to be on their best behavior. That’s why you should have security cameras that are fixed on every single safe at your commercial property. Security cameras have proven to be a very effective theft deterrent over the years.