How can cannabis seed-to-sale software supercharge your business?
Seed-to-Sale Software for Cannabis Compliance
Seed-to-sale software programs help licensed producers (LPs) track their cannabis plants from beginning to end. These programs are an important piece of compliance with Health Canada’s regulations for cannabis cultivation, something that a licensed cannabis producer should pay attention to. If you haven't already had the chance to read our post on licensed producers, we urge you to check that out after reading this post.
Tracking and reporting tools integrated into seed-to-sale software can often be customized to a particular country or state and some programs integrate enterprise resource planning (ERP) as well.
The data collected from tracking plants can also be a useful ERP tool because it tells producers how successful their yields were, how well products sold, and how differences between batches could lend insight to improving future crop yields.
What Does Seed-to-Sale Mean?
Not all cannabis companies are vertically integrated, some businesses will just grow cannabis, others may be dispensaries that mostly sell cannabis, and others may process cannabis into extracts. Whether your business performs only certain steps in the process to sell a cannabis product, or whether you perform many of the steps, legislation requires rigorous tracking of plant material.
Seed-to-sale software allows cannabis producers to track their products in ways that comply with regulations. They help cannabis businesses ensure that all plant material is accounted for at all stages of standard processing, track batch numbers, and track sale or disposal of plant material.
Additional Benefits of Cannabis Seed-to-Sale Tracking
The data collected from tracking plants can also be a useful ERP tool because it tells producers how successful their yields were, how well products sold, and how differences between batches could lend insight to improving future crop yields. Some programs can also help keep track of useful lab results and cannabinoid testing data.
Seed-to-sale software programs with inventory management and point of sale capabilities help integrate business needs with cultivation information and compliance requirements. They may also include security features to help ensure that cannabis products and plants are handled and sold to only authorizes people, as well as ensuring that you have security clearance.
Software for Barcoding and Weighing Cannabis
Most cannabis seed-to-sale software will allow you to do more than just assign batch numbers and record data. Many are able to connect to scales and record precise weight data with less risk of human error. Barcoding systems and label printers are often also able to link to the software so plants are easily labeled and can be scanned to track their movement through a facility.
Main Requirements For Cannabis Compliance
The most important piece of cannabis compliance is accounting for the plants in seed-to-sale software (doing it another way is possible but impractical). You must show what you started with, where it came from, what you finished with, what you sold, and what was disposed. To do this, crops are assigned batch numbers and the number of plants cloned or germinated are logged. Plants that die or are disposed of are accounted for in that batch record.
When plants are harvested, the yield is recorded by weight. Biomass lost to trimming, taking samples, or for any other reason is recorded so the final weight of cannabis sold or sent for extraction is accurate. Through the entire lifecycle of the plant and product, records must be accurate and account for all material.
Compliance also requires producers to keep track of sales, inventory, authorized vendors, pesticide use, and laboratory testing data. Compliance also has specific requirements for document retention to ensure that even years after production, auditors can look back and track batches and any information associated with them.
Cannabis Seed-to-Sale Compliance and Transparency
Seed-to-sale software platforms are allowing the cannabis industry to do business with more transparency, and making it easier to comply with cannabis regulations. For producers, they significantly reduce paperwork and allow for digital record keeping. They help reduce human error and make compliance less labour intensive.
For consumers and government authorities, seed-to-sale software has importance too. They make it much easier to audit businesses and ensure that if a batch needs to be recalled, it can be easily traced and investigated. Consumers are protected knowing that their cannabis came from a legitimate source that abides by regulations and has not been snuck into a dispensary from the black market where pesticide use is rampant and cultivation has no oversight.
Utilizing seed-to-sale software is more than a mark of business quality though. It is a highly efficient way to ensure that you are doing business the right way. The more cannabis businesses professionalize to ensure compliance and transparency, the more the industry as a whole will benefit by driving high standards of quality, safety, and security.
For producers, cannabis seed-to-sale software significantly reduces paperwork and allows for digital record keeping. They help reduce human error and make compliance less labour intensive.
Find Out More
If you are ready to be an early adopter of advanced seed-to-sale software, instead of playing regulatory catch up, you should start now by getting in touch by filling out our contact form or starting a chat to the right.
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About GrowerIQ
GrowerIQ is changing the way producers use software - transforming a regulatory requirement into a robust platform to learn, analyze, and improve performance.
To find out more about GrowerIQ and how we can help, fill out the form to the right, start a chat, or contact us.