Catching Dispensary Theft with Tech.

Trust is the most fragile of security measures.

One early morning we received a text from a boutique dispensary we had been working with for the past few months. Our first client reached out via our livechat:

Hey guys, I think there may be something wrong with the inventory tracking system. It says on my dashboard that I’ve made only a few grams in sales but I’m seeing almost a whole container of that product missing? Could you check the system to confirm this?

After a quick series of checks we saw that nothing was amiss in their account. 10 minutes later we wrote back:

We’ve done some looking into your issue, and there doesn’t seem to be any errors in the accounting and inventory logic. This may be a user input error. Could you check with your employees? The reporting section should tell you who was working the tills today and at what time.

The POS showed that our client should have more product in stock than he did. The inventory tracker had alerted the owner to a discrepancy in product values, and prompted him to investigate.

After our quick conversation, our client reviewed the security camera footage, and saw an employee pocket fistfuls of Blueberry Kush earlier that morning. The offending employee was promptly fired.

This employee had stolen $50 bucks worth of product since that morning. If that employee had stolen another $50 form his afternoon shift and this had gone on for a week, the store would have lost $700 dollars!

What’s your warning system? How do you know if something’s wrong?

How you can prevent/account for theft:

1. Inventory needs to be audited for discrepancies often to make sure nothing is missing. Therefore, an inventory tracking system needs to be accurate to the second, and inventory reports should be able to be brought up whenever you like.
2. Many multi-store dispensaries are opting for a pre-packaged system managed via bar codes. Sealing product in pre-weighted packages eliminates gram pinching by employees. A pre-packaged system also makes for easier inventory transfers and accounting; its much easier to deal with products in units than in weight.
3. The general trend in the cannabis industry now is automation. Instead of manually weighing and pricing each sale, reputable dispensaries are adopting inventory control systems that reduce human error. Bar codes remove error in sales inputs; one scan = one product. Automatic inventory updating and reporting saves hours of administrative work. Passive employee shift tracking makes employees accountable for their work and doing payroll much easier.

It’s 2017, time to let machines do the grunt work for you.

Greenline Systems is a cannabis technology solutions company based in Vancouver. Interested in our monthly newsletter? Contact us at info@getgreenline.co

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