[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
Hemp, cannabis, same thing, right? Not exactly.
Hemp and cannabis are like cousins and are typically hard to distinguish by first glance. The main differentiating factor between hemp and cannabis is that hemp most commonly is cannabis with less than 0.3% THC in it. Other cannabinoids such as CBD, CBG, and CBN – the pain-relieving substances – are most prevalent and is why the “Hemp Industry” is dominating the “Cannabis Industry” as of 2019.
The effects of hemp are so distant from cannabis that regulations vary all over the world. What are these distinctions specifically in the U.S. and how can you leverage your business in the CBD world instead of the THC world from a compliance standpoint?
As we all know, cannabis is on the controlled substance list in the United States, which simply means it’s an illegal drug. However, hemp is federally legal and regulated in the U.S. under the United States Department of Agriculture. In 2018, the “Farm Bill” was updated and passed allowing this regulation to continue and designating the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) to oversee the Hemp Production Program. The biggest change to this bill is that hemp being transferred across state borders faces less risk since hemp is federally decriminalized.
The AMS claims, the “USDA is drafting hemp regulations for publication in the Federal Register and public comment. It is USDA’s goal to have regulations in effect by the fall of 2019 to accommodate the 2020 planting season.”
As we await the final regulation release according to the 2018 Farm Bill update, the industry continues to grow. The way that the bill works is that tribal and state authorities have the power to create programs for their states regarding growing, manufacturing, distributing, and selling. Right now, about 75% of states in the US allow the growing of hemp for commercial, research, or pilot programs. The upcoming Farm Bill is expected to lead to more strict regulations and testing requirements for products in the future.
Unlike the current cannabis market, hemp is fairly unregulated with few requirements. A few requirements for cultivators in California include registering with their county, testing their product to meet the THC limit, controlling and reporting cases of pests, and following any other guidelines presented by the federal government. There are a few restrictions to note as well, such as, it’s prohibited to import plants or seeds from international sources and THC tests higher than 0.3% are grounds for destruction.
There are currently no rules or regulations surrounding the processing, manufacturing, and sale of hemp products, but as mentioned before, the Farm Bill update of 2018 is assumed to mean there may be stricter regulations in the future. Any products for ingestion such as infused food and drink should still follow the relative health jurisdiction in the location applicable to ensure the safety of products.
To read more about California’s hemp industry, please click here.
Since many regulations have not been created in general, contact your local and state governments for relevant information and any legal materials available for maximum preparation. If possible, discuss with current hemp participants near you to gather information about good practices and what to anticipate as this industry continues to expand in the regulatory environment. The good news is that hemp is legal and officially off the controlled substance list, which leaves room for innovation, expansion, and successful business planning.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]"…you generally spend 80% of your time on 20% of the project."
-Joseph M. Juran
Software personalization in the workplace can make all the difference in adoption and use. It can help take a complex set of tasks and turn it into an intuitive process flow.
People are bombarded with massive amounts of information almost constantly, and while some of that is out of our control, you can remove some of the unnecessary noise from you and your employees by choosing options that allow you to personalize the user experience quickly and easily.
The pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule, describes the relationship between causes and effects. Basically, 80% of your outcomes are likely come from 20% of your input. This observation has become wildly popular in the business management world, but how does your team focus on that small percentage of what’s really important? You can start by taking an active approach to the information that gets through to you on the programs you use at work by personalizing the user interface (UI).
Personalization can help your team focus on the 20% that’s going to impact the largest chunk of your day to day and give you virtual blinders so you can hone in on those important tasks that are likely to provide the largest return on your time investment.
Software personalization can take a lot of forms such as:
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools are often massive systems designed to track and trace every step of large organization’s day to day operations. Any individual will probably only use a fraction (maybe 1/5th?) of the features that are available in an ERP. Getting to those “vital few” in a standard ERP can be like trying to find a reliable news outlet in 2019 (too soon?).
Custom software can come with a high price tag. We live in a time where anything is possible, money talks, and time is money. But there are ways to get a personalized result quickly and for less cost than traditional customization.
365 Cannabis is an ERP dedicated to helping your cannabis business run smoothly. We provide a robust core product and an ever-growing network of partners and integrations to help meet all your needs. The 365 Cannabis product is configurable, out of the box, to give individual users a personalized UI with all the most important information front and center on their home screen.
We’ll be honest. You probably won’t use every feature 365 Cannabis has to offer. Our system was designed to fit almost any need that any cannabis business owner, across multiple states and countries, might have. We give you the ability to personalize the UI for every user so that they can focus on what really matters from day one.
Interested in configuring your UI in 365 Cannabis? Check out this video to get you started.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
The cannabis industry is booming. As more states legalize, demand will drive unfathomable expansion for cannabis companies. Start-ups are quickly turning into large scale enterprises in a matter of months, outgrowing basic software that is unable to scale. Now, businesses need to look for solutions going beyond seed-to-sale; systems that can track business operations, not just plants.
Implementing a new ERP solution doesn’t happen overnight. It requires careful planning too. Here are a few things to consider when deciding to switch to a cannabis-specific ERP solution.
An ERP system integrates data and processes across multiple departments and locations, allowing a company to produce, move, and track cannabis and non-cannabis products alike quicker than ever.
Especially true for cannabis, no two businesses have the same operational needs. Each operation requires specific software functionality to run efficiently. ERP software is extremely flexible, customizable, and scalable, making it ideal for the cannabis industry.
For example, a company that only cultivates needs robust facility management features such as: yield forecasting, cost per gram, and automated inventory replenishment capabilities. Dispensaries on the other hand require a solution that can automate inventory replenishments, track loyalty, and manage multiple stores. Vertically integrated companies that cultivate, manufacture, distribute, and operate their own retail dispensaries need a solution that can manage every aspect of their operation and communicate between departments.
Fortunately, cannabis industry specific ERP systems like 365 Cannabis tailor the software to accommodate every operation size and type; from cultivators to retailers, startups to multi-million-dollar enterprises. Investing in a cannabis-specific ERP ensures that no matter your operation type, size, location, your business is equipped with the right tools long-term.
Software should not be seen as a cost, but an investment in the health and future of your business. So how do you ensure that this investment delivers ROI immediately and into the future? When selecting a solution that will house all your business-critical information in a highly regulated industry, consider the time, effort, and cost involved to implement and maintain your new system.
New technology is only as good as its implementation. Your ERP supplier should have the knowledge and industry experience to guide you through deployment. It is up to you to ensure you have a dedicated team to put in the time to train, practice, and pass this knowledge on to manage the system independently. Initial effort in equals long-term value out.
Maintaining the integrity of an ERP system requires knowledge of use, best practices, and standard procedures to be spread and passed along to employees. Under-utilization and miss-use due to staff churn or “forgetting” what features and functionality are available will degrade the value of your system. Select an ERP solution with the capacity to provide documentation as well as refresher training courses to ensure that your ERP is continuously used to its full potential.
True ERP systems connect various departments and processes that are currently fragmented in your company. Ditching a cluster of standalone systems will instantly drive efficiency, increase productivity, and reduce manual processes and errors. It’s time to switch to an integrated ERP system built to scale with you.
Expanding your business across state lines is a great way to increase your footprint, customer base, and of course, your sales. However, it can be difficult to begin expansion in such a young, heavily regulated industry in which each state has disparate traceability and reporting requirements. Rest assured, we have compiled a list of the 4 most important things to consider when expanding your operations across multiple states:
Of course, the most important thing to consider when expanding your business is the regulatory seed-to-sale tracking system. Expanding to a state that has a different regulatory system than the one you are currently operating in can cause dilemmas to arise. Each system has different requirements for various aspects of your operation. Seed-to-sale tracking solutions like Metrc and BioTrack are configured to meet the different regulatory requirements in each market. For example, Metrc in Colorado might not be configured the same as Metrc in Michigan and some states may require you to use certain available functions (like recording additives or recording waste prior to harvest) where other states do not.
Luckily, with the help of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions, such as 365 Cannabis, the complications that could manifest as a result of these differences are alleviated. These ERP solutions will not only integrate into the different state seed-to-sale tracking solutions, but they will also help facilitate your compliance needs from state to state and allow you to consolidate your data, so that you will maintain complete visibility across every location in your organization.
Another factor to consider when expanding your operations is the legal environment of the new state. Recent legalization data from DISA Global Solutions shows that 12 states in the United States have fully legalized marijuana, 27 have limited legalization, and 11 have yet to legalize in any way. Having a solid understanding of the legalization status of each state is instrumental in procuring first-mover advantages, enabling you to secure huge profit margins and market share.
On the other hand, moving into a new state prematurely could be extremely volatile and result in significant setbacks. All too often, companies that attempt to undergo expansion into new states too soon face potential pitfalls such as insufficient capital and technological limitations due to unstable regulatory environments. This happens frequently in the cannabis industry, where laws are ever-changing, and businesses are constantly blind-sided by new legislation and struggle to meet compliance. Finding the right technology partner to help you navigate these complex regulatory environments is essential to your success. 365 Cannabis and their dedicated compliance team stay on top such regulations to provide your company with the clarity it needs to expand.
Inevitably, different tax rates will apply to different states as you expand. It is important to consider these rates when considering expansion. Each state has its own method of taxing cannabis. The most common types of taxes are placed on sales, wholesale transactions, and local government duties.
Most states tax cannabis as a percentage of the retail prices. These tax rates can range from 0% in Alaska to 37% in Washington. Some states also have a tax on the wholesale purchase of marijuana. For example, Nevada enforces a 15% excise upon growers for the wholesale sale of cannabis. Additionally, some localities can levy taxes on retail sales. With so many different layers of tax to consider, manual data entry can be a risky, time-consuming task. To avoid costly penalties, business owners would benefit greatly from an ERP solution equipped with the capabilities to handle taxes for multi-state operators. The core of 365 Cannabis, Microsoft Dynamics, has been successfully deployed globally and can handle all manners of tax for multi-state and even multi-country operators.
An honest readiness assessment of your company’s scalability can make or break your business. Attempting to expand before your operations are ready to scale could easily lead to operational inefficiencies and could lead to the loss of countless dollars and hours. In the cannabis industry, it is not unlikely to find multi-state operators using multiple systems to manage their enterprise. Typically, these systems do not fully integrate with one another and cause outages, miss-matched data, and accounting errors, especially when they are asked to handle operations in across departments and state. These errors make it difficult to forecast your profitability.
Just as you should be able to predict future performance, to scale a company you must implement a system that helps you see what your business will look like one month, one year, and even five years in the future. 365 Cannabis is a GAAP compliant ERP solution that will allow to you easily expand and evaluate your company’s cash flow forecast without having to worry about losing your financial data as you scale.
You’ve heard the term API before, you've undoubtedly interacted with one, but what exactly does it do?
Today, connectivity between technology is crucial for clean data and efficient processes. For instance, you wouldn’t hire an employee to count inventory by hand every time there is an online inquiry. Additionally, you wouldn’t start making/ordering new inventory until that employee notices that you are out of stock. APIs at their core push and pull crucial data between two systems, automating operations and maximizing efficiencies.
At its most basic level, an API lets one piece of software talk to another piece of software. APIs define the rules that programs must follow in order to interact with another programming language, software library, database, or other software tool. APIs make it possible to move information between programs, automating activities that were once done manually.
There are two different ways APIs collect and share data; push and pull.
Push - The system you want to connect to has an API, allowing your software system to write programming code to connect to it and marry the two systems. Both systems can push data back and forth to ensure all data is up-to-date no matter which system you’re in. Most integrations listed on the 365 Cannabis product roadmap are set up to push data.
Pull – The program you want to use doesn’t have an API or your software system hasn’t integrated to that program yet. If this is the case, they can integrate to your system with read-only access to your data. This way, your system can expose data (item list, inventory, customer information) and display it elsewhere.
Regardless of the methodology, APIs clearly define exactly how a program will interact with the rest of the software world.
Streamlined processes, and automation significantly maximize efficiencies for success and growth. APIs can reduce and eliminate manual data entry in areas of your operation. Because the APIs simply provide data, there are no limits on how your company can use and present that data. These programs can be automated to happen automatically or run on a schedule. API integrations can save businesses time, money, and sanity by reducing manual data entry/retrieval as well as human error.
Your company has a website that lists the products you sell and the inventory/stock levels. Since you have an API connecting the two systems, that webserver accesses the 365 Cannabis database (with the inventory data) and retrieves up-to-date inventory levels to be displayed on the website. Now, anyone that visits your website can see exactly what you have in stock and can request accordingly.
365 Cannabis integrates to some incredible, cannabis-specific platforms including Leafly, Weedmaps, Sprout, and Shopify. Learn more about our current APIs and checkout our product roadmap to see what new and exciting integrations are coming soon.
