As a legal cannabis dispensary in a Metrc market, reporting your sales and physical inventory with 100% accuracy is the key to keeping your license.
If your physical inventory, point of sale (POS) inventory, and Metrc account are not aligned, your business is at risk of failing an external audit from the state.
Managing discrepancies can be one of the most time-consuming and inefficient processes for cannabis retailers—but now, it doesn’t have to be.
Flowhub Maui provides dispensary inventory managers a more efficient workflow to quickly identify and resolve discrepancies in a central place, meaning you no longer need to download a csv or log into Metrc!
Watch this short demo video to see Metrc Discrepancy Management in action:
In this post, you’ll learn about Flowhub’s new in-app Metrc Discrepancy Management workflow and how it easily resolves common dispensary data inconsistencies.
Introducing in-app Metrc Discrepancy Management
In-app Metrc Discrepancy Management is a first-of-its-kind workflow in the cannabis industry, only available in Flowhub Maui. By leveraging our 2-way Metrc integration, dispensaries are now able to resolve discrepancies directly within the point of sale with full transparency and control over their data in both systems.
We built this functionality because we realized significant time and money could be saved by automating the work required to keep inventory data consistent and accurate.
It is common for dispensaries performing inventory audits to find that on-hand inventory counts in the store are different than what is represented in Metrc and their POS.
Historically, this required a time-consuming, manual workflow to correct. Retailers would need to:
Run a report in the POS
Verify the physical count in the store
Verify the information in Metrc
Update whichever system is wrong
Now, dispensaries can use Flowhub’s in-app Metrc Discrepancy Management workflow to quickly and easily fix inventory data without logging into the track-and-trace system.
The new workflow enables retailers to:
Quickly fix quantity discrepancies: Easily identify and resolve Flowhub and Metrc inventory differences on a package-by-package basis.
Adjust packages in Metrc from Flowhub: Directly adjust the quantity of packages in Metrc with valid Metrc Reasons and Notes attached.
Import Metrc packages not yet in Flowhub: Clicking "Fix Flowhub" on packages not yet imported will automatically take you to the workflow to add inventory with pre-populated Metrc data.
Identify packages not active in Metrc: Rapidly identify package IDs that are not active in Metrc due to type entry error, or the package no longer being active at your facility.
Benchmark data suggests in-app Metrc Discrepancy Management reduces the time it takes to reconcile inventory by 33%.
One early adopter claimed, “This will save me a million hours!"
When is the best time to reconcile Metrc discrepancies?
We suggest using the in-app Metrc Discrepancy Management workflow at the beginning of each day before you start making sales or at the end of the day after sales have been reported to Metrc.
Here’s why…
When sales are pushed in bulk at the end of the day, Metrc will not yet be aware of the decrements that will occur on packages once those sales are pushed.
If your sales are pushed in real time after each transaction, you will need to constantly re-sync during the discrepancy management process in case a sale has occurred on a package.
For these reasons, resolving quantity discrepancies between Flowhub and Metrc is most efficiently achieved prior to sales being made on a day, or after they've all been pushed.
Pro tip!
We recommend first ensuring Flowhub and your physical quantities match up using our inventory management tools like the Stash® app. This allows you to simply click "Fix Metrc" in order to adjust Metrc data to be in line with Flowhub's—which you will already know matches your physical counts.
How to resolve common data inconsistencies with in-app Metrc Discrepancy Management
The in-app Metrc Discrepancy Management workflow identifies and streamlines the resolution of three common cannabis inventory discrepancies, including:
‘Quantity Discrepancy’
‘Active Package Not in Flowhub’
‘Not Found in Metrc’
This Feature also eliminates two previously common discrepancies listed in Flowhub called “Unit of Measure” and “Multiple Skus”.
Below, we’ll define each of these possible discrepancies, and review how to resolve them in Flowhub Maui.
1. ‘Quantity Discrepancy’
This is one of the most common types of discrepancies and it happens when the total quantity associated with a package tag does not match between your POS and your Metrc account.
Solution: First, make sure your physical inventory and Flowhub inventory are aligned. A Budtender or Inventory Manager can do an inventory audit using the Stash® app, making sure all physical inventory and Flowhub inventory are the same.
Then, managers may use in-app Metrc Discrepancy Management to “fix” inventory quantities in relation to Metrc. The quantity input will be auto-filled with Flowhub's calculated quantity for the item regardless of UOM or multiple weights the item is being sold by. You can always change this number if both Metrc and Flowhub inventory are off.
2. ‘Active Package Not in Flowhub’
This discrepancy type means a package tag is active in Metrc, but not in Flowhub’s inventory, likely because the package has not been imported into Flowhub’s inventory yet. This type of discrepancy is common because there is no way to fully accept a Metrc manifest via Metrc’s API right now.
Solution: To resolve this discrepancy in Flowhub Maui, simply click “Fix Flowhub” on the selected discrepancy which will automatically take you to the workflow to add inventory with pre-populated Metrc data.
⚠️ Warning: Many cannabis point of sale systems claim they are able to fully accept Metrc manifests. This is not possible because these API routes do not currently exist, meaning the promised workflow is impossible.
3. ‘Not Found in Metrc’
With this discrepancy type, a package tag is not found within this license, whether it be active or inactive.
This usually happens when users manually type in package tags and include typos. Another cause for this discrepancy is if a package is marked as finished in Metrc by the user.
Solution: In-app Metrc Discrepancy Management rapidly identifies these package IDs that are not active in Metrc. Then, you can select the discrepancy and edit the inventory item to fix the package tag.
4. ‘Unit of Measure (UOM) Discrepancy’
In this discrepancy type, the unit of measurement between your Flowhub account and Metrc account does not match. For example, a gram of shatter sold in individual containers may be labeled “each” in Flowhub as the unit of measure and may be labeled “gram” as the unit of measure in your Metrc account.
Solution: These discrepancies are automatically resolved in Flowhub Maui! You will never see a UOM mismatch error when you are pushing sales in the Maui system.
5. ‘Multiple SKUs’
In this scenario, there are multiple inventory items, or SKUs, assigned to one package tag. The total quantities associated within those SKUs may or may not match the total quantity for that package tag in your Metrc account. These discrepancies commonly occur when a batch of product is broken up into multiple inventory items in the POS.
Solution: Multiple SKU discrepancies are automatically resolved in Flowhub Maui!
Maui makes Metrc auditing easy
Managing inventory data in two different systems is bound to cause problems and errors. This is why we created the most efficient discrepancy solution available, eliminating the need to log into Metrc and saving your inventory management staff hundreds of hours of manual work.
This time savings equates to cost savings, as well as making it easier for dispensaries to keep Metrc data clean—avoiding red flags that lead to audits and potential fines.
Most importantly, the in-app Metrc Discrepancy Management functionality gives dispensaries full control over their data. Cannabis retailers have the ability to fully manage Flowhub data before pushing any inventory adjustments to Metrc, heavily reducing compliance risks.
To learn how Flowhub Maui’s in-app Discrepancy Management workflow can save your business countless hours and thousands of dollars, schedule a demo today!
