The Devil’s in the Details: A Guide to Managing Inventory

In the cannabis business, it always comes back to the basics: making sure your product and money are right. You get those down, and the rest is easy. Start losing track of product or coming up short when it’s time to reorder? That’s when the trouble really starts. It’s not just about numbers on a spreadsheet, It’s about keeping the wheels on the bus spinning.

The Conflict: Numbers Don’t Add Up

Here’s the thing: keeping the books balanced is more than just a formality. It’s the difference between running a smooth operation and spiraling into a mess that’ll have you scrambling when the Cannabis Control Division (CCD) knocks on your door. When product starts disappearing into the ether—whether it’s due to a bad shipment, theft, or plain old incompetence—you’ve got a serious problem.

Maybe you didn’t catch that one miscount in the last shipment. Maybe someone didn’t flag an expired product, now you’re either stuck with it or worse, you sell it by accident and now you got a pissed off customer.

Or maybe you put all your faith in your inventory system, but one day you realize half the inventory you thought you had is either missing or expired. You’re already on terms, so no one’s letting stack POs. That’s when the walls starts closing in.

How to Get It Right: Some Straightforward Tips

So how do you keep it from going off the rails? How do you run inventory like a pro? The secret is in doing the small things, every day, without fail.

1. Assign Unique Product Names

Forget calling everything “1g vape.” That’s lazy, and it’s a fast track to losing track of what you’ve got. Give every SKU its own identity. Know what’s on the shelf, not just by name, but by potency, batch number, and strain. Your staff should be able to recognize it without a second guess.

2. Use FIFO (First In, First Out)

It’s a classic move for a reason: First In, First Out. Old stock should always go first. It keeps things fresh and makes sure you’re not getting stuck with dead inventory or products that are about to expire. The worst thing you can do is sit on a mountain of old product while the new stuff keeps rolling in.

3. Cycle Counts – Morning, Midday, and Night

Counting stock sounds like grunt work, but it’s probably one of the most important things you can do besides cleaning during down time. Do it in the morning, again mid-shift, and after closing. If that sounds like too much, just wait until CCD shows up for an audit and asks why your inventory doesn’t match what’s in the system.

4. Organization: Your Inventory Is Like a Bookcase

Picture your inventory like a bookcase, every product with its own spot, neatly labeled, easy to find. This is where labeling and signs come in handy. It’s simple but crucial. If your inventory is a mess, don’t expect to get the counts right.

5. Check the Manifest & Expiration Dates

When shipments come in, it’s your chance to make sure nothing’s off. Check every item against the manifest, verify the expiration dates, and reject anything that doesn’t line up. You don’t want to be the guy stuck with expired product that you can’t sell. And by the way, anything within 120 days of expiring? Don’t even touch it.

6. Quarantine and Quality Control

Set aside a space for quarantined or expired products. Keep them separate, clearly marked, and never let them mix with the active stock. Also, vet your vendors. A bad batch from a sketchy supplier can throw your whole operation into chaos, and you’ll be left holding the bag.

7. Track Everything Like It’s Gold

Invest in barcoding or RFID technology. Track every movement of your product from the moment it arrives to the moment it leaves. Theft, loss, shrinkage—it all happens in between, and if you don’t have a way to track it, you’ll never know where the problem is.

When You Don’t Keep It Together

When you don’t manage inventory right, the impact is brutal. Lost revenue, missed sales, overstock of products that die on the shelf, and regulatory fines that could bury your business. The CCD doesn’t care if you “thought” everything was in order. They care about hard facts—what’s in your system versus what’s on your floor. And the moment those two things don’t match up, you’re in for a long day.

Remember, keep it simple, make sure the counts right, and have daddy’s money ready; the rest is fun.