In this article, they will find FAQs, tips, and best practices that we have outlined for the Oklahoma dispensaries to help them remain efficient and compliant now that Metrc has been implemented as the state track and trace system.

 

Inventory Transfers Best Practices

 

1) Do not accept untagged inventory from a vendor.

All new inventory you purchase must come from licensed, Metrc-credentialed vendors. Additionally, the inventory supplied by the vendor must be Metrc tagged and received via Metrc. 

 

If a vendor arrives with untagged inventory, we recommend that you refuse to accept the shipment. If you accept and sell products from the shipment, you will be out of compliance which can result in costly fines, license suspension, and even revocation.

 

2) Avoid intake errors when reviewing your new inventory shipments.

All new inventory you receive will be tagged and tracked in Metrc, and as such, you should take the time to verify that the order is accurate to avoid unnecessary discrepancies.

 

 

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Inventory Management Best Practices

 

1) Make sure you always have package tags on hand.

While the inventory you receive has package tags already applied, you will need package tags on hand to transfer inventory out of your store. This includes returns, destruction, or even transferring a partial shipment to another store in your organization. 

 

To transfer inventory out of your store, you will need to create a new package in Metrc and then apply the physical Metrc package tag to the transfer package. Failure to take these steps can result in you being unable to report sales and adjustments against the package, which could lead to a compliance violation. 
 

 

2) Best Practices for ordering and managing Metrc tags.

Regarding ordering tags, we recommend, at a minimum, a sleeve of package tags from Metrc. They take between 7 to 14 days to arrive, so it’s better to order now than risk needing them and not having them. 

 

Regarding tag management, we recommend that you: 

 

• Assign someone to be in charge of tracking the number of package tags on hand so you can re-order before running out. 
  • If you order more than one sleeve, we recommend handing them out to your employees one sleeve at a time. Order more when the team asks for the final sleeve of tags.
  • If you order only a single sleeve, we recommend you track how long it takes to get through a sleeve and order accordingly. To be safe, we recommend ordering a new sleeve once you’ve used 50% of your package tags.
• Label your containers to keep track of packages with more than one container or box associated with them.
  • Photocopy the tag and apply the photocopied label to the other containers.
  • Physically label each container (i.e., Container 1 of 3, Container 2 of 3, etc.) to know how many containers are associated with the tag.

 

3) Conduct regular inventory audits.

We highly recommend you conduct regular inventory audits, at least twice a month, to confirm that your physical inventory matches your virtual inventory in KlickTrack AND Metrc. Discovering a discrepancy early will make it easier to rectify.

 

A few best practice tips:

• Verify that physical and virtual inventory match per inventory name, flavor/strain, barcode SKU and Metrc Package ID.
• Physically organize similar inventory together with the same strain/flavor, potency, and batch. This will help make the audit more efficient. 

 

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Reporting Best Practices

 

1) Utilize the KlickTrack compliance tools to identify problematic packages and sales that have failed to report. 

For KlickTrack to accurately report your sales and inventory data, the Metrc package tag ID (known as the Purchase SKU in KlickTrack) must match across both Metrc and KlickTrack. Even a slight deviation of that identification number will result in KlickTrack being unable to report against that package. 

 

To help you identify problematic packages and sales that have failed to report, we have set up a compliance dashboard that allows you to quickly identify products in KlickTrack that do not match your inventory in Metrc and any sales that the product has been included in. 

 

We have also implemented register compliance warnings that alert you to a potential non-compliant sale before completing the transaction.

 

 

2) Manually submit any failed sales and regularly audit your sales data.

If a sale appears in the compliance dashboard, then it means that one or more items from that sale failed to report. To avoid a compliance violation, you must manually report the sales receipt to Metrc via your Metrc account. 

 

We also recommend conducting regular reviews of the sales reported to Metrc and comparing them to your KlickTrack reports. Why? It is not unheard of for Metrc's API to fail to inform our system that the sale has failed to report. If our system doesn't receive the failure information from Metrc, then we are unable to alert you to this issue, and we recommend that you conduct audits in addition to regularly reviewing the compliance dashboard. 

 

3) Keeping your data clean and organized will make reporting more manageable and efficient.

To ensure that your inventory and sales data can be reported to Metrc, we recommend following the best practices outlined below:

 

a) Clear and consistent naming conventions for your inventory

• Standardizing your product naming conventions will make it significantly easier to control your inventory across multiple software platforms and lessen the risk of accidental compliance violations.
• Our recommended naming convention is as follows: {Brand}{Inventory Type}{Strain} (i.e. Carney Flower Banana Cake)
• If you have more than one licensed location, we recommend that each location follows the same naming conventions. This will make it easier to transfer inventory between locations. 

b) Make sure your inventory location naming conventions are the same in KlickTrack and Metrc

• Create location names in the system that are easily recognizable for your employees (i.e., If your Admin names a location "Fridge 1" but your staff calls it "Edibles Fridge," then it may cause confusion during audits and data reviews)
• If you have multiple locations for storing inventory, we recommend you put physical labels on the locations that match how you've labeled those locations in Metrc. For example, Storeroom 1, Storeroom 2, etc.

c) Keep your inventory locations up to date

• It is not only important that your inventory location names match, but it's also important that the data in them are kept up to date. 
• If you move inventory from one room to another, make sure to update that in KlickTrack so that you have a record of when it was moved and where it currently resides. 

 

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FAQs

1) Do I need to follow all these best practices? What happens if I don’t?

What we’ve outlined above is our recommendation for how to stay compliant. If you choose not to follow our recommendations, you will likely end up with data discrepancies in your Metrc data that render us unable to accurately report on your behalf, which can lead to a costly regulatory audit further down the road. It should be noted that data discrepancies are the leading cause of regulatory audits, and issues found during an audit can result in fines, license suspension, or even license revocation. 

 

Remember, Metrc is a system designed to help regulators track and trace cannabis, and any irregularities in your data can trigger Metrc to take a closer look at your shop. We’ve heard of situations where Metrc has audited a dispensary 3 years after the alleged data discrepancies. Hence, we always recommend adhering to protocols that keep you compliant.