Operations

Checks, Balances, and Good Accounting Practices to Know

Why controls matter more in this building

A cannabis business concentrates two highly portable forms of value — cash and product — under one roof, usually with a lean back office. That combination is exactly where undetected loss lives. Controls are not bureaucracy here; they are the difference between knowing your numbers and hoping about them.

The core set

Separation of duties wherever headcount allows: the person counting cash is not the person recording it. Dual counts with signatures at every till close and safe transfer. Deposit chains that tie POS totals to bank statements without gaps. Monthly reconciliation of bank accounts, the tracking system, and the ledger — with variances investigated when found, not at year-end. Surprise counts on an irregular schedule. And access controls on POS and seed-to-sale systems, so every adjustment has a name attached.

Small operations, adapted controls

A three-person shop cannot segregate duties like a fifty-person MSO — but compensating controls exist at every size: owner review of daily logs, camera-verified counts, and mandatory dual signatures on deposits. We design control sets for the staffing a business actually has. The un-implementable textbook version protects no one.

This article is general information, not tax advice.