The other four CRB owners agreed to participate and provided additional names of CRB owners in their networks to contact at the conclusion of their interviews. This process of referrals continued until the study reached ten CRB participants. The unresponsive CRBs varied in terms of location and type of firm as did those CRBs that participated. In addition, Certified Public Accountants may believe there is risk that associating with the cannabis industry could damage their reputation in the business community with current or prospective clients.
Recordkeeping and Accounting
For example, the Colorado Society of Certified Public Accountants holds an annual symposium for Certified Public Accountants interested in the cannabis industry. In addition, the accountant may want to interview a Certified Public Accountant from a more mature state to get advice on how to competently proceed and minimize risk. A cash-intensive business requires some unique internal controls to safeguard the asset and to maintain adequate records of cash transactions (Frazer 2016). The IRS defines a cash-intensive business as one that receives most of its revenues in cash and/or pays many of its expenses in cash (Internal Revenue Service 2010). Cash may be stolen by employees and is most susceptible to theft when entering or exiting the business (Frazer 2016). The regulatory environment for cannabis inventory accounting is complex, shaped by international and national standards, along with specific laws and regulations related to the cannabis industry.
Practical Applications Of Cannabis Inventory Accounting
Historical prices of MSOS, the first US focused cannabis exchange-traded fund (ETF), reflect this trajectory. Substances in this schedule have no currently accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision, and a high potential for abuse. We anticipate shifts in the industry and adjust our strategies accordingly, ensuring your business stays ahead of the curve. At Green Space Accounting, we offer a depth of expertise and understanding unparalleled in the Maryland market. Blockchain technology is also playing a part, providing a secure and transparent way to track the entire lifecycle of cannabis products. Additionally, due to the unique nature of cannabis production, the Work-in-Process Inventory (WIP) – items that are in the production process but are not yet finished goods – is significant.
Audit and Audit Ready
Without reliable benchmarks or historical averages on which to base future performance expectations, these investors will inevitably come to different and disparate conclusions. For marijuana business operators, the chance of an audit has been reported as high as 10 to 15 percent, according to the Cannabis Business Professionals of Oklahoma. For cannabis, accounting, simply stated, is a service you cannot afford to be without. We’re not just accountants, we’re partners in your business journey, helping you navigate the complex regulatory landscape with confidence. Cannabis inventory accounting is a multifaceted discipline with unique challenges and considerations. Overall, practical application requires adaptive strategies that conform to regulatory requirements while optimizing for profitability and accuracy in reporting.
Regardless of state laws, cannabis is a Schedule I drug according to the federal government, and those found trafficking in cannabis could face criminal prosecution (Uniform Controlled Substances Act 1970). They’re fresh on the scene — which means your services, adapted for the cannabis industry, are also still budding. If you’re fielding calls from cannabis business owners, you may have discovered that they have a written business plan but don’t always understand how to use it. Other times they’re wading around in their finances without cannabis accounting understanding how to maximize their profit, pay appropriate taxes, and read what the numbers in their books mean for their overall profitability. NACAT Pros provides educational tools for accountants and financial professionals to enter into the Cannabis industry for untapped professional potential. Our mission is to help accountants fall back in love with accounting again by changing the current state of the accounting industry from being high-stress and highly competitive to a collaborative, value-producing network of services.
- For dispensaries, this is the cost you paid for the product (plus shipping, if applicable).
- In general, there are many Certified Public Accountants who do not provide any audit or attest services to any industry due to litigation risks.
- It begins with understanding the components of cannabis inventory – from seeds and seedlings to processed products – and employing standard accounting methods such as FIFO, LIFO, and WAC.
- As Johnson told me, she doesn’t think the technology has reached a level where she could rely on it to apply a judicial decision to the particular facts of her case or to distinguish away a precedent.
- Add in the fact that most industries that pay well are either over saturated or they can’t afford to pay enough money for our services, which leaves us with having to take on dozens of clients in order to make a decent living… until now.
- If you’re fielding calls from cannabis business owners, you may have discovered that they have a written business plan but don’t always understand how to use it.
- There are not enough trained Cannabis specialized accountants, which is unfortunate because accounting in this industry is incredibly important due to the fact that they must have it in order to maintain licensing.
For Certified Public Accountants that are considering accepting CRB clients, this study showed that there are risks that should be weighed such as the risk of federal prosecution and potential loss of the Certified Public Accountant license. As cannabis legalization continues to expand to new states, the need for Certified Public Accountants to serve the industry continues to grow. This creates considerable business opportunity for Certified Public Accountants who are willing to bear the related risk. Data for this grounded-theory qualitative study was gathered from twenty-three semi-structured phone and face-to-face interviews. Ten cannabis-related business owners were recruited from a convenience sample after attempting a broad recruiting effort. Thirteen Certified Public Accountants with active licenses in Colorado or Washington State participated from firms of varying size and willingness to serve the cannabis industry.
We bring together world-class capabilities, insights, and services to address clients’ most complex business challenges. Cannabis investing encompasses not only plant-touching companies — the growers, edible and joint manufacturers, and dispensaries — but also companies that provide services to cannabis firms, from technology to fertilizers. Plant-touching companies incur the federal government’s punitive cannabis tax structure. Because cannabis is still classified as an illicit substance, cannabis companies can deduct expenses only for cost of goods sold (COGS). This leaves a high effective tax rate that hits dispensaries, with their large staffing costs, especially hard.
The CPA’s guide to getting started in cannabis accounting
Singer spent the last decade leading William Blair’s Dynamic Allocation Strategies macro investment team. He has written extensively in the investment industry, including books and articles appearing in the Financial Analysts Journal, The Journal of Portfolio Management, and The Journal of Performance Measurement. On a voluntary basis, she serves on the Board of Trustees of the CFA Institute Research Foundation where she chairs the Marketing and Planning Committee. She has seven years of experience as an analyst on William Blair’s Dynamic Allocation Strategies team, which was responsible for global macro research. She also served in the Swedish Defense Forces, including two missions in Kosovo, and has worked for the Swedish foreign ministry in Russia. Her writing has appeared in economics journals including The Journal of Institutional Economics, The Review of Austrian Economics, and the Financial Times.
- Remind your client how outsourced professional bookkeeping services will bring them confidence in compliance and significantly help boost their growth potential.
- This is the basis of the conflict for legalization, which affects accounting, which rolls into taxation, and the discrepancy between state and federal government.
- The study utilized the five steps of the data analysis process from Creswell and Creswell (2018).
- Ten cannabis-related business owners were recruited from a convenience sample after attempting a broad recruiting effort.
- While the US market may have the highest upside, its international counterparts, for both medical and recreational use, are growing, and many developing countries have lower production costs and more favorable growing climates.
Seven of ten CRBs indicated they had accounts closed at multiple banks and had to find new ones. Four CRBs in remote areas often had to transport cash long distances to a bank that would give them an account. Four CRBs identified alternative ways to bank including setting up management accounts to handle the cash through a bank, though these often were closed once the bank discovered https://www.bookstime.com/ the transactions were from a cannabis business. Having worked with many medical marijuana growers, processors, and dispensaries in Oklahoma, it has become abundantly clear that the cannabis industry still lacks best business practices and accounting support. As I meet with business owners during my capacity as a c-suite consultant, the stress of the cannabis business is ever-present.
