Is the cannabis sector expanding as quickly as technology matures? It’s difficult to say in the modern world, but one thing is certain: cannabis and tech are co-mingling like never before.

More precisely, touchless automation is enabling cannabis businesses to quickly scale and streamline their operations. The benefits are enormous and include

• Lowered expenses
• Increased productivity
• Reduced costs
• Dependable product quality
• Reliable data to ensure compliance.

Should automation procedures be used by all cannabis businesses? No and yes. The answer is as nuanced as the cannabis market.

While larger firms should automate wherever possible, it may not be an absolute must for small businesses. Long-term quality control benefits of automation for cannabusinesses are greater the earlier they’re put in place.

Adopting precise quality control protocol requires developing your businesses into a well-oiled machine as time goes on. With the extensive testing, reporting, and quality control needs of the cannabis sector, any chance to automate and save time or energy will be a big “yes!” 

Here are a few additional factors to take into account when you consider touchless automation for your business, in addition to business size and quality control.

What Automation Technology Is Available to Cannabusinesses?

There are a large variety of automation options for cannabis-based businesses at the farm and dispensary, although many are still in development.  

However, you don’t need to wait to make use of technology for your business because there are several options you can use right now. 

For instance, using Trym eliminates the need to constantly pick up and set down numerous plants to weigh or measure yields. Goodbye, sticky hands!

Cannabis growers can use Agrify to alter indoor climates, track plant health, and even change the environment (CO2, dew point, humidity and even more), although completely automated harvesting is still some time off.

But How Can You Boost Profit Through Automation?  

Saving time and energy nearly always is the result you can expect from automation. But how does this work for cannabis businesses? There are two key areas where you can benefit the most:

• Payroll: Fewer employees mean less hours worked, which means fewer personnel costs. Automation might also result in less staff overall and payroll is typically one of the largest costs for most businesses—and that’s true for cannabusinesses, too.

• Quality Control: Improved quality control means more consistency and less waste, whether it results from contact contamination, improper temperature regulation, or other factors. Less waste always equates to more profit, regardless of where automation is positioned in the production process.

How Does Automation Play A Role In Compliance?

Data collection is a constant requirement for all businesses. It might be for scaling, making decisions, or ensuring that you follow the stringent compliance rules that bind cannabusinesses. 

You’ll need to keep track of every aspect of how your business operates, regardless or your needs and goals.

The most effective method to accomplish data collection (or anything, really) is to do it as quickly as possible. After all, who doesn’t want a few more priceless minutes added back into their day? 

Another benefit: when you add touchless automation to your cannabusiness, you can relax knowing that all pertinent data points (like internal environment data) are being sent to the correct authorities, while you get to go home in time to enjoy the evening with your loved ones.

How Can You Make Your Workplace Better With Automation?

When you see or hear the word ‘automation’, does the word ‘robots’ immediately come to mind? If so, you’re not being paranoid – and neither are we, thank goodness! Robots and AI go hand in hand with the most recent waves of touchless technology.

Automation, like conveyors, can help improve workplace safety (in addition to temperature checks) because workers can more easily maintain 6 feet of space.

But when it comes to specific operations, automation can never be as thorough as a human touch because a computer can only perform so much analysis and prediction.

How Can Automation Make Your Accounting Better?

There are many software solutions available that can dependably automate your accounting requirements, like tax preparation, forecasting, budgeting, KPI reporting, and credit card and bank reconciliation.

Keep your eyes open for software that plays nicely with your inventory tracking,  payroll, and point-of-sale systems. There are several alternatives out there for these apps, so it’s vital to partner with an accounting professional to get the best advice for your business.

Another essential is specialized inventory tracking software. Your inventory management software should ideally work with METRC (a tracking and reporting system required by many jurisdictions with cannabis). While METRC is one of the 

A METRC friendly POS and inventory management system will track your cannabis and handle any incident reports required by state governments, while cloud-based accounting software will generate financial reports and handle your accounts on autopilot (Read more about POS software and inventories here.)

Where is Automation Headed?

As we mentioned at the outset, technology doesn’t have all the answers to your problems with manual work (yet). But I think there are a few more fixes coming out way soon.

Drone deliveries have a lot of potential—and they may not be as far down the road as science fiction might have us think.

What’s more I anticipate future touchless automation will contribute to less labor-intensive processes for more cannabis-specific work like pot filling, soil mixing, fertilizer prep, and irrigation.

So, Should Your Cannabis Business Operations Be Automated?

I’m inclined to say yes, as the owner of Accounting for Green, but not for the reasons you may expect!

Thanks to your newly discovered competitive advantage in today’s cannabusiness world, you’ll save so many work hours, cut expenses, and more easily scale and grow your business.

Additionally, automation allows you to boost production without compromising quality. Adopting more advanced technology results in higher quality, more consistently.

In case you didn’t know, consistency is the key to success in the long run. So start and end with us if you want consistency in your cannabis business.

We’ll assist you with… 

• getting the right apps
• setting up your systems
• managing compliance
• … and everything you need with your bookkeeping and accounting.

Schedule a free consultation with us right away to start automating the expansion of your business!