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Metrc is a cannabis traceability solution providing end-to-end tracking and tracing specifically designed for government agencies regulating legalized marijuana. Metrc provides regulatory bodies a compliance management solution, and provides marijuana businesses a cloud based reporting system to manage and report supply chain activities as determined by regulations.
Metrc, which stands for Marijuana Enforcement, Tracking, Reporting & Compliance. It is software built by a company in Florida called Franwell that has been building RFID software for the past few decades. Various states contract with Franwell to use Metrc, which means that the states are the primary customers, not the operators. While Metrc has friendly customer support staff you can reach out to for help, they aren’t primarily concerned about helping you run a successful business.
Although Metrc provides track and trace capabilities that you must comply with, it is not software designed to help you run your business. Thus, you need additional tools to manage your customer relations, purchases, orders and team, which is where Metrc-integrated business software comes into play. To learn more about this, check out our blog called Can I Manage My Business with Metrc and Spreadsheets Alone.
The State of Colorado contracted Franwell in 2011 to help implement Metrc for their regulatory body MED, Marijuana Enforcement Division. Prior to using Metrc, Colorado was using a hard copy method of record keeping that was delivering sub-par results. The adoption of Metrc ushered in a higher standard of reporting and accountability around cannabis inventory and sales data. Colorado elected to work with Franwell because the vendor demonstrated an ability to provide on-going hosting, maintenance and support of its system--something other vendors were not willing to do at the time.
Colorado thus became the first state, in 2013, to implement a track-and-trace system, setting the stage for other states to follow in its path.
METRC is a web application. It has secure web services that lets them integrate with state systems and outside systems. There's an application program interface, or API, that lets them communicate with 3rd party companies. There's a database and reporting tools, one facing the state and one facing the industry. There's also a mobile device application for use should operators desire to use it, but is not required. METRC has its own private dedicated hardware. Every licensee gets their own set of logins that cannot be shared with others.
There's a regulatory side which has the licensing, inspecting, auditing, enforcing, analyzing and collecting. Then there's the industry facing side which tracks a plant from seed to sale. The breakdown is as follows:
Seed ➜ Immature Plant ➜ Vegetative ➜ Flowering ➜ Harvest ➜ Package ➜ Transfer ➜ Processed, Tested, or Sold
As mentioned, Metrc is not business software. Although its primary purpose is in supply chain tracking of plants and packages as they are transformed, repackaged and transferred, Metrc does not give you specific financial and operational insight you need to manage your operation.
To summarize, Metrc does not provide:
Understanding what Metrc is and isn’t is the first step for every operator. Once you understand this, you can know what to expect with Metrc. To begin setting up Metrc, every business creates their own account and sets up their business profile, adding an administrator, facilities, employees, strains, items and locations. Each type of facility has different permissions. For example, processors don't have plants and don't do sales to consumers, and thus they don't have access to those features within METRC.
Next, in the product profile, businesses enter items they carry (we recommend following this cannabis inventory naming convention guide for best practices), specifying the category and type of product (here is a list of cannabis product categories and what they mean), each defined by the state, along with quantity and unit of measure. This process takes roughly half a day, but is a fairly in depth process.
In Metrc, everyone is operating within the system, enabling effective tracking and recalls which other industries don't get. In addition, serialization is controlled and supplied through Metrc, making it easy for each company in the system to have unique serials (UIDs) that can be assigned to your plants and packages. All UIDs are connected in a supply chain so you can quickly see what was the source material in any sold package etc.
Once you are setup, it is important to be aware of what can go wrong. To learn more, check out our blog called 7 Metrc Mistakes Cannabis Distributors Make.
So you understand what Metrc offers and how to set it up, but that still leaves you needing actual business software to run your operation. How does that work with Metrc?
As mentioned earlier, Metrc allows 3rd party software vendors to connect to its API, allowing cannabis operators to use the software while automatically updating Metrc. There are a multitude of integration points that allow for seamless communication from the software to Metrc, and each software vendor connects across some or most of those API points depending on the aspect of the cannabis supply chain they service ranging from cultivation to distribution to retail.
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