You’ve opened your own cannabis operation and business is picking up. You’re moving product and changing history while engaging in the global conversation about all that cannabis has to offer. Well done!
As cannabusinesses are continually faced with unique obstacles not experienced in traditional, long-standing markets, your work is just getting started. As a newly legal industry, business owners are confronted with complex governmental regulation in an already volatile market. With new legislation occurring at break-neck speeds, cannabis operators like you should be looking into purpose-built technology options to streamline operations, remain well-within compliance directives and finally, foster growth.
On top of those concerns, businesses like yours have specific inventory and cannabis accounting needs. Here we look at some of the business management solutions frequently mistaken for true cannabis accounting software solutions and how you can tell the difference.
Is Seed-to-Sale Software ERP?
It’s worth repeating: compliance is the lifeblood of the cannabis industry. These businesses know the consequences for noncompliance are often steep and difficult to overcome. That said, taking on significant risk with accounting technology that hasn’t been built with the specific nuances of the cannabis industry in mind could be setting you up to fail. Many who are familiar with seed-to-sale software believe it to be an all-encompassing cannabis industry software solution.
It isn’t.
As the cannabis industry found its way to legitimacy, the only business management solutions offered were the seed-to-sale platforms. While providers of this technology market themselves as enterprise-level business management solutions, they fall short in providing many critical ERP features.
Seed-to-sale systems follow your product from its growth lifecycle (the seed) and onto your customers (the sale). Providing traceability, basic inventory controls, and security for meeting state regulatory compliance is where these systems shine for the cannabis entrepreneur. Unfortunately, while tracking and compliance are a top priority, they aren’t the only concerns. Successful companies operating in the legal marijuana space know it takes more than general technologies to establish a profitable cannabis operation.
Seed-to-sale technology does offer basic inventory management benefits, but again, these answer the call to compliance concerns instead of delivering the targeted functionality that we see with authentic ERP applications.
Is QuickBooks ERP?
Quickbooks is a wonderful accounting tool and used by many young companies in various industries. Simple to learn and quick to deploy, Quickbooks offers off-the-shelf accounting software suitably outfitted for traditional businesses, but is it ERP?
No again.
Unfortunately, cannabis accounting is anything but typical. Quickbooks and other basic accounting platforms lack specific Inventory management, cost accounting, and business insight tools which true cannabis accounting software delivers seamlessly.
As your company grows and matures, you reach limitations in how far these off-the-shelf technologies can carry you to further success. Soon, you’ll find yourself with multiple manual workarounds and isolated spreadsheets with data compiled from separate, stand-alone systems. Your company won’t be able to look at growth strategies, and instead, your time is maxed-out from maintaining the disparate accounting and inventory technologies you’ve cobbled together simply to stay afloat.
Then what is ERP?!
Today’s cannabis ERP software serves as your single source of data for all aspects of your business by integrating cannabis accounting and inventory management solutions with compliance, CRM, and production tools built-in. A true cannabis ERP system increases visibility through your entire operation, delivering useful insight and allowing for quick decision-making using real-time and accurate data.
From financials to compliance, and supply chain management to distribution and service, true cannabis accounting software offers robust, scalable and comprehensive functionality developed to handle front to back office processes of your cannabis business:
- Consolidated financial reporting and analytics
- Lot traceability
- Inventory management with batch and lot control
- Financial management / Audit readiness
- Detailed data by strain and product
- State compliance tracking systems API integration
- Management of multiple entities
- Last but not least – Cannabis ERP is completely scalable!
Choose Your Cannabis ERP Solution Wisely
Cannabis ERP software is a long term investment. Moving away from basic seed-to-sale compliance software and Quickbooks-like accounting platforms and into a cannabis-specific ERP software system will give you confidence and insight surrounding your data and your future. By eliminating the numerous cobbled-together solutions to which you’ve grown accustomed and implementing one fully scalable system, you position your cannabusiness for control, compliance, and growth.
Which cannabis industry software would you choose? Off the shelf, disparate systems with cannabis limitations and manual workarounds or the all-in-one package that is Cannabis ERP?
There is no one-size-fits-all and you have to do some research to find the best ERP solution for you. Learn More Here