Inventory Control of a Controlled Substance

In the continuing discussion regarding overall retail Cannabis retail security, today we’ll be talking about inventory control.
All businesses regardless of type require tight and ongoing inventory control measures. Many “mainstream”businesses however take a physical inventory annually or perhaps semi-annually. This is totally inadequate for Cannabis retail for many reasons.
As previously mentioned, I own a relatively small Cannabis State legal retail shop in Ellensburg in Washington State. We have typically 200 transactions per day, holidays and special events can produce many more than this. The fact that there will be mistakes involving inventory is undeniable. Human error will be the cause for this in nearly if not all of these occurrences. So you will need to do mini inventory checks daily at least, and in my opinion several times per day.
Washington State requires incredibly tight and stringent control on inventory; what product comes in to your stores as well as what leaves per transaction is referred to as traceability and is an integral part of my State’s regulatory guidelines. We will not be talking about the requirements insofar as the requisite capacities and capabilities of your POS system in this article but rather I wish to discuss the human element of your inventory control and management.
And the good news this is simple, unlike so much our business. Periodically we will want to compare what our computer system shows we have in inventory electronically vs what we show is in our stores physically. Our BioTrack traceability system indicates by color change in our POS as inventory levels drop to be below 25 units per product triggering a physical of the items that have crossed to easily counted levels. There are ways to correct in the fly these minor inventory over/unders. These methods will vary undoubtedly by POS systems you may choose to employ. But the key is you handle these smallish inventory issues while they’re still small and easily managed. This will keep your State’s inventory “police” off your backs and keep you and your shop compliant insofar as product entering and leaving your retailshops.
We need to remember, and frankly how can we ever forget, our chosen business and nearly all of our inventory either is or contains a Schedule One Controlled Substance. Big Brother will always be watching and evaluating our methods of operating our businesses and inventory management is critical in keeping Brother off our backs and out of our stores.
Rob Hendrix, owner
Cannabis Consulting Nationwide, LLC
Cannabis Central of Ellensburg, LLC
www.cannabisconsultingnationwide.com

Go to Source