According to Grand View Research, Inc., the legal cannabis market is projected to reach USD 102.2 billion by 2030 and is also expected to expand at a CAGR of 25.5% from 2022 to 2030. This phenomenal growth as well as ongoing legalization efforts—by individuals, organizations and states alike—are opening doors of opportunity for cannabis businesses.
But there’s a catch.
If cannabis businesses want to take advantage of this growing customer base, stay ahead of the regulatory changes, and manage a sustainable operation, they must efficiently produce a high-quality and regulatory compliant product. And this can only become a reality if they effectively manage their multifaceted operations, whether it’s a multi-state distribution or a seed-to-sale operation.
The good news is that effective management is possible with comprehensive cannabis business software, like CannaBusiness ERP. Launched in 2019, CannaBusiness ERP is innovative cannabis business management software designed specifically for the cannabis industry. Built in Sage X3, our software aids cannabis businesses in managing their quality, compliance, traceability, manufacturing and finance needs from a single, end-to-end ERP solution.
And today, we’re excited to introduce our latest release, CannaBusiness ERP 2022 R3.
All About CannaBusiness 2022 R3
As with our previous two 2022 releases, CannaBusiness 2022 R3 provides our users with new features that focus on regulatory compliance, enhanced quality, and customer experience—all of which are driven by user feedback. Because our customers use CannaBusiness ERP every day, we are able to use their experiences—good, bad or otherwise—to continually improve the functionalities of our software.
Let’s take a closer look at the features and functionalities that build upon our already robust ERP foundation.
Regulatory Improvements
To understand the many regulatory improvements brought by CannaBusiness 2022 R3, we need to first understand the regulatory environments found in the U.S. and Canada.
Canada has a Cannabis Tracking and Licensing System (CTLS) that handles the licensing and monthly tracking report requirements, whereas in the U.S., the legalization and regulatory requirements are established state by state. CannaBusiness ERP supports CTLS, which requires no further integrations, but the U.S. systems do require integrations.
The two primary track-and-trace systems in the U.S. are Metrc and Biotrack. CannaBusiness ERP provides integrations for ten Metrc states and one Biotrack state (Illinois). With CannaBusiness 2022 R3, we added Nevada, and we also added additional regulatory software and integration features that will help cannabis businesses manage their quality and compliance needs.
For example, because cannabis is a consumable product that must be thoroughly tested before it’s sold to the public, cannabis sampling testing is a necessary requirement. Cannabis businesses must pull a sample and send it to a lab. While it’s a fairly simple process, it is step intensive in the ERP solution, and at times, within the state regulatory system. Now, our added functionality consolidates and automates many of the steps, significantly reducing the time and increasing efficiency.
In the past, customers in states using the Metrc system would have to access the test results in the system’s portal and manually input it into CannaBusiness ERP. Once they input the information, they could then release the stock. Using the Metrc API, we have a live integration that allows our customers to pull the data automatically, which eliminates manual input and improves accuracy. They can also complete a stock audit with our new release, allowing for easier and faster evaluation of the results and for dispositioning the stock. This functionality has essentially cut the steps and transactions in half.
Another aspect of the trace-and-track systems is their use of a package ID as a unique identifier for all inventory. An ERP, however, often uses an SKU hierarchy that includes lot numbers and individual packages within the lot numbers. To help customers using both systems, we’ve created an inquiry that allows users to select using the package, enabling them to look at the stock in CannaBusiness ERP and drill into test results.
Also upping the usability factor is our separation of business licenses from cultivation and processing licenses. The separation within the release was based on customer feedback, and it allows our customers to easily control access to the different license types. This reduces the risk of having an operational delay due to a user error.
And one other regulatory enhancement we’ve provided is the ability of cannabis businesses to easily manage product approval prefixes. Some states—like Massachusetts—require the product prefix to be a part of the product descriptions and to be used for the life of the product, and our new functionality simplifies the process.
Customer Experience Improvement
Though the features and functionalities we’ve just discussed directly affect our customers, we’ve provided some additional features that will improve their experience even further. For example, CannaBusiness ERP 2022 R3 makes it easier for our consultants and our customers to not only see configuration settings but to easily and quickly adjust them based on their unique needs.
We’ve also improved or added the following:
- Product Quality Management. As a tool, this allows consultants and customers to expedite and take advantage of all new features in the system, which provides increased visibility and a mass update capability to facilitate the quality management set up process.
- Crop Gantt View. On the cultivation side, we’ve provided a quick navigation feature as well as an informative view of activities with a new Gannt view. This view breaks down crop growth in each phase (e.g., propagation, vegetation, or flower stage) and users can go beyond an inquiry and drill down into a crop workbench, allowing them to change, adjust, or take an action directly in the feature.
- Estimated Cost Calculation. We’ve also taken a proactive approach to prevent errors when calculating the estimated crop cost. The calculation relies on user setup to rollup the time and materials planned for the production process into a per plant estimate. An incomplete setup can result in an understatement of cost. We have added some additional logging to show all items that are potentially missing. This log can be used as a checklist for correcting errors before releasing the strain for use in production.
- Package Consolidation. For cannabis businesses that consolidate packages, we have adjusted the default logic, allowing a user to perform their job faster by reducing the keystrokes required.
- Waste Methods. Recording how a cannabis business disposes of by-products of cannabis production (e.g., mixing it with other products) is required. For cannabis businesses that are in states without a mandated solution, such as BioTrack or Metrc, our latest release allows customers to set up a list of waste methods and tag the proper option as they process their waste.
Learn More About CannaBusiness ERP
As CannaBusiness ERP 2022 R3 rolls out, we can’t wait for our customers to utilize its new features and functionalities, but we’re not resting on our laurels. We’re already working on the powerful, customer-fueled enhancements we’ll be including in CannaBusiness ERP 2022 R4. Additionally—and very importantly—we’re running maintenance during this release, which means we’re correcting any bugs or corruptions and publishing that all-important information during the rollout.
Ultimately, our newest cannabis business management software release, along with our critical maintenance processes, are geared to meet—and exceed—our customers’ expectations, while also enhancing quality management capabilities and adhering to regulatory compliance requirements. If customers have questions about our newest release or about our cannabis business software in general, CannaBusiness ERP Help Central provides the information they need.
Grow your business with an ERP solution designed for the cannabis industry. Learn how CannaBusiness ERP can set your business on the right path. Manage your financials, operations, quality, compliance, traceability, customers and more. CannaBusiness ERP is software that is purpose-built for the cannabis industry. Our specialization in developing solutions for the cannabis cultivation and processing industry has resulted in some of the most respected companies around the world managing their day-to-day operations using CannaBusiness ERP.
To learn more about our software and team of industry experts, reach out to us. We’d love to show you what CannaBusiness ERP can do for your business.