CashA (The Cash Alternative) is a system that provides a means to use a cell phone or similar wireless device to accomplish a financial transaction wirelessly and without using physical cash (wireless cashless sales) and involving "Back Office" processes that are the actual identification, authentication and payment accounting that supports the wireless cashless transaction CashA has two components First, there is a communication translating and processing unit mounted in a point-of-sale machine, meter, or device that performs as an intermediary between the consumer with the cell phone (or other wireless device such as a palm pilot or handspring device) and vending machine, meter or device "back office" processing companies Second, CashA includes networked servers that support high speed communication services to facilitate very rapid handling of the transaction communications between the consumer with the wireless device and the individual companies that provide back office processing services CashA facilitates the communication exchange to fully execute each communication between the consumer and approximately 60 back office processing companies that are involved in each wireless cashless sale