As the legalization of both medical and recreational cannabis continues to spread across the world, cannabis business owners are looking for business management solutions that will help them maintain compliance with their state regulatory systems.

In most states, local governments have selected regulatory cannabis systems that require cultivators, manufacturers, distributors, and dispensaries to report everything from plant weight to harvest waste to retail labels, etc.

However, these state systems don’t help cannabis business owners run an efficient business. This is where seed-to-sale software comes in.

Seed-to-sale software systems promise to keep your business compliant and optimize your operations; however, they often fail in delivering on these promises.

Your business may need more than just a seed-to-sale software. Here’s why:

Absence of a Financial Core 

Seed-to-sale software lacks the accounting aspect of business operations software along with a plethora of other functionalities related to finance.

In most cases, a seed-to-sale vendor would integrate with another accounting software, like QuickBooks, to enable financial data to push/pull between the two systems.

The problem with integrating your finances lies in the instability of some integrations and the lack of industry-specific features.

Cannabis companies face strict regulations, and without a reliable financial system in place, they are one misstep away from a lapse in compliance. 

Lack of Traditional Logic

Much like the legal cannabis industry, seed-to-sale software is a relatively “new” product. Most of these platforms are proprietary software systems that are built from the ground up, sometime within the last ten years.

While it is great to see the cannabis industry creating jobs, this isn’t necessarily a good thing for cannabis companies because it results in products lacking key functionality that comes from traditional cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and retail software.

Not Built to Scale Across Multiple States

Due to the ever-changing world of cannabis, many seed-to-sale software companies choose to remain within a specific locale where they have experience and understanding of local regulations.

This could mean bad news for companies that plan to scale and expand into multiple states or internationally. 

Reliance on Disparate Systems

Traditional seed-to-sale software isn’t equipped with accounting software, point of sale (POS) software, menu boards, or customer relationship management (CRM). This leaves its users to look elsewhere to satisfy their other needs.

Most seed-to-sale systems do allow integrations into their platforms; however, these integrations can be unreliable, and the bills from using multiple platforms add up very quickly.

Choose a cannabis ERP software that grows with you

These shortcomings all boil down to one simple truth. seed-to-sale software helps businesses stay compliant, not competitive.

Cannabis companies face steep competition. Without the ability to track product performance, create products through MRP, measure financial performance, rely on their software to provide the most accurate organizational data in real-time, etc., they will quickly fall behind their competitors. This is where cannabis ERP can step in and provide value to cannabis companies.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software far exceeds seed-to-sale software in terms of functionality and long-term sustainability. Combining traditional supply chain management capabilities with cannabis-specific functionality, ERP delivers cannabis businesses with an all-encompassing solution. This eliminates the need for businesses to use separate systems for each department. ERP software allows cannabis businesses to manage their entire operation in one synergistic system.

Conclusion

365 Cannabis is an ERP solution with functionality specifically tailored to the challenges and requirements of the cannabis industry. Built on Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, 365 Cannabis combines traditional supply chain management capabilities with cannabis-specific functionality for a complete solution.

The module-based ERP is robust. This setup allows cannabis businesses to use the system in its entirety—from financials, cultivation, processing, CRM, distribution, to retail—or consume modules individually with the option to add more as they scale.

Move beyond compliance and gain a competitive edge. Request a demo with 365 Cannabis today.