Medical marijuana is valuable and sought after item. A dispensary needs solid procedures in place to assure that its medicine isn’t being stolen. This will demand repeated physical counts of the products on hand and also accurate collection/accounting of sales. Preferably the dispensary’s point-of-sales program (POS) will track the dispensary’s inventory. You’ll need the ability to know what the present inventory available is at any particular time. A deviation report (POS count vs. actual) is your best way to identify problems. In case your greenroom/sales register employee switches shifts mid-day, you’ll choose to cross verify by performing a count then as well. You may encounter an instance exactly where one strain of medical marijuana is a few grams short but a different strain is a few grams over (but overall totals balance). This would reveal that the incorrect product was run through the POS system. You have to be far more concerned with the overall variance total (which combines all the various strains).The variance report is a superb process to have in place and will deter personnel from trying to steal.
Ensure that your POS can only be adjusted by a trust worthy manager. Any adjustment or product removed from the program need to be recorded and kept on file. Re-counts must be done in the morning to verify the existing inventory from the night before. Each worker needs to be accountable for their sales and inventory counts. Management really should constantly be searching for holes within the program (and correct them if located).
If the dispensary doesn’t have a POS program you can produce the same process manually. You’ll need to track and add all your everyday activity. Create a “tally sheet” using the numerous strains that can be promptly marked off every time a sale takes place. At the end of the day you will have a total of the sales per strain. You take the amount of medicine sold away from your beginning inventory to reach your new totals. At the end of each day your calculated inventory should tie to your actual inventory. If not you know there is a problem and you can seek answers. Microsoft Excel or Open Workplace software will make the accounting much less difficult.
Given the quality of the dispensary’s medicine a particular percentage will turn to shake. This should really be kept in a shake jar and added for the totals to reconcile for the day. This shouldn’t generate a large variance but please be aware that there is a prospective for small misappropriations of “good” product and substituted for old shake.
If the dispensary’s volume picks up you might want to stream line your inventory process by having pre-weighed packages (i.e. 2 ounces total pre-weighed into 1 – 1/4oz, 8 – 1/8ths, and 21 grams) which can quickly move from the safe to the sales area effortlessly. It is easier to have smaller sized quantities to work with inside the greenroom. You don’t want to be picking grams out of a larger (¼ lb. +) bag – this can deteriorate the cannabis over time. If a person wants a larger quantity you can take that straight from the safe (without affecting the greenroom inventory). An additional technique to simplify physical counts is to use the exact same units (i.e. only pounds, quarters or 2 oz. bags) within your safe. You should create a separate listing of the safe inventory and that should be updated whenever products are moved. This format will also make the end of day inventory counting simpler.