Ghost Weight: What Your Technology Provider Isn't Telling You About Metrc Compliance
Implementing new technology within your organization is daunting, even for the most experienced implementation specialists and supply-chain experts.
However, choosing the wrong METRC integrated technology solution is even more detrimental to your cannabis business. A non-compliant technology solution will require exhausting overnight audits, overwhelmed staff with high turnover rates, and increased labor costs for training. In severe cases, choosing a non-compliant technology solution will lead to insufficient METRC reporting, infractions by state agencies, or worst case, revocation of your business license that may have taken months or years to acquire.
rmcc’s ceo, brianne ramsay, speaks from experience
After seeing hundreds of operations nationwide and across the supply chain, BriAnne has helped operators fight against state agencies in diversion audits, has conducted litigation cases between brands, and is frequently hired as a third-party auditor for state and financial institutions.
BriAnne often finds "Ghost Weight" resulting from operators relying too heavily on a third party METRC integrated solution to automate METRC compliance reporting. New METRC operators make the mistake of assuming a technology solution will automate their METRC reporting in its entirety from seed-to-sale.
Unfortunately, these operators that put blind trust in the Third Party Solution are alarmed to find that crucial procedures cannot be automated. After METRC Implementation, they found out too late that the Third Party Solution is not compliant. Over-reliance on a Third Party Solution can negatively impact the entire cannabis business, other partners in the supply chain, and ultimately, your own profit margins.
am i asking the right questions?
Finding the right technology solution and implementing an efficient process is intimidating when you don’t know the right questions to ask. Don’t take it personally - you don’t know what you don’t know! How could you identify the targeted technical, operational, and compliance questions to ask if you have never interacted with METRC?
“Cannabis businesses are navigating in uncharted territory and do not have the proper resources to ask the right questions, until now. ”
METRC Implementation at Moonmade Farms
rmcc has seen all too frequently the panic-stricken state operators find themselves in when they discover their lack of metrc compliance.
While the Third Party Solution may be the cause of your lack of compliance, it is not the root cause of the compliance risk. The only way to fix the root cause of the METRC discrepancies is through methodical operational infrastructure and on-going training.
When you discover the root cause of the discrepancies, communicate it clearly to your staff with the correct written steps for them to follow. Ask your staff to practice the steps with you watching. Together, set goals and timeframes for your staff to complete tasks independently while following the written steps. Give them time to practice. During your next staff meeting, use that time to recognize those that have completed the steps correctly and independently. Open up discussion for issues surrounding the task. What’s working? What’s not? What additional areas of improvement might the staff have found?
Adding in complexity, as a licensed operator, a user cannot access METRC until the license is granted by the state, the administrator is trained by Franwell and credentialed into the system, and all inventory is implemented. This regulatory requirement makes implementing new processes and procedures significantly more challenging. Operators often suffer from fear of failure and lack of compliance during implementation because regulators require them to be fully functional within thirty days and nearly 100% accurate at all times or risk infractions.
After all this hard work; finding commercial cannabis zoned real estate, submitting an application, receiving an operator license, getting credentialed into METRC and hiring a team -- all to find out the Third Party Solution negatively influenced your decision-making process because you did not ask the right questions.
maintaining compliance can't be automated without physical verification.
Depending on the severity of the lack of compliance, the operator may need to migrate off the current Third Party Solution, implement a new traceability platform, and hire a team to manage all METRC reporting to overcome the instability in the operation.
The right technology solution is a tool to increase efficiency and hopefully, automate a portion of the compliance data submitted to METRC. However, to operate a successful cannabis business, the team still needs to put in the hard work to execute accurate, physical workflows in the operation with ongoing verification through cycle counts.
Mastering new tools and processes comes with its own challenge - it’s labor-intensive, frustrating, and overwhelming.
This is why RMCC has developed multiple resources to overcome these compliance inconveniences with powerful tools and strategies to transform any cannabis business to a sustainable, profitable success.
METRC Implementation of Flow Kana at FCI
staying confident and compliant for the long haul.
Cannabis businesses are faced with innumerable challenges every single day and analyzing the ever-changing regulations is itself a full time job. It is crucial that each staff member stays up to date with ongoing training, constantly assessing workflows for increased efficiency, and identifying ongoing best practices. This is why, at RMCC, we have a full time Compliance Officer, Lindsey Kincade, to always be in the know of upcoming regulatory changes and the best practices to adapt moving forward.
RMCC is a reliable outsourced Compliance Officer for licensed operators and third party technology solutions. We provide valuable strategies from our experience with nationwide cannabis operations, empowering our clients’ confidence by proactively strategizing compliant operations across the supply chain. Through our products and services, clients conquer their fear of the unknown and transform their cannabis business to a self-sufficient, prosperous operation.