What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word “Cannabis”?

Did your thought(s) lean negative or positive?

The stigma surrounding the Cannabis plant often prevents seasoned accounting professionals from entering the Cannabis niche. There is sometimes a fear of not maintaining professionalism or damaging their reputation when they sign Cannabis clients, or a resistance to working with a federally illegal product and the accompanying tax complications.

You’re here, however, which me...

Cannabis/CBD accounting is overwhelming for CEOs and seasoned accountants alike. At times, both niches can seem impossibly complex and leave you, the accounting professional, with a headache as you sift through state and federal rules and regulations. 

Your clients’ success hinges largely on you unraveling the tangle of rules and regulations and implementing the necessary processes required to keep Cannabis companies compliant. Few standard procedures and controls have been set in this emerging...

Proper cost accounting is essential for all Cannabis and hemp verticals, but it gets particularly tricky when you're dealing with cultivation. From the moment a seed is planted in the ground to the harvest of the crop, high-level accounting procedures are mandatory to keep cultivation companies compliant. 

Cannabis growers tend to be uninformed as to the importance of proper accounting. Often focusing more on the science and passion of growing, they have little patience for numbers. Because the...

Cannabis accounting is a complex, ever-changing niche due to the plant’s federally illegal status (regulations and rules vary from state to state). One key (but extremely complicated) aspect of Cannabis accounting is seed to sale tracking and compliance. Cannabis business owners can easily flub these complex accounting and compliance processes without the help of a trained Cannabis accountant on board. Even worse, inaccurately inputting seed to sale data can lead to significant penalties or even...

$8.1 billion of capital was raised by Cannabis companies in 2019 alone and, as more states move toward full legalization, that amount will only continue to grow. Additionally, industry experts are seeing that these niches appear to be recession-resistant (even “virus-resistant”) with many states experiencing recent record sales, mainly since Cannabis and hemp/CBD markets have been deemed essential during the pandemic. 

However, even recession-resistant companies can experience challenges when f...

Now that most of the nation is holed up under shelter-in-place guidelines, Cannabis and CBD are considered essential (in most states) and sales have been increasing, While other companies are on lock down and laying off their employees, there is truly no time like the present to build your own 100% remote Cannabis or CBD accounting firm. 

But how do you even get started? What is the actual process to transfer from a full-time job at a corporate accounting firm to running your own remote account...

As with any other major industry, access to quality insurance coverage is of the utmost importance for Cannabis companies. Most big-name insurance carriers, however, won’t come near the Cannabis industry due to the plant’s classification as a Schedule 1 drug, which also makes it federally illegal. With so many vertical moving parts, Cannabis companies need insurance for equipment, employee benefits, E&O, and various other aspects of their operations.

There are, however, plenty of insurance comp...

The Cannabis industry is booming, and trained and knowledgeable accounting professionals are in extremely high demand. Although federally illegal (for the time being), Cannabis is now legal for medical use in 33 states and 11 states recreationally, and is responsible for some $20 billion of revenue in the legal market. With around $70 billion still lurking in the illegal Cannabis market, business owners in the industry are constantly searching for ways to turn those who still purchase on the ...

With Halloween just around the corner, we decided to speak to a certain kind of horror… specific to the accounting industry. The mention of the word “cleanup” is enough to scare any seasoned accountant. We’ve all heard horror stories from our peers about leftover financials that were too tough to tame. Although most of those stories end with the accounting professional saving the day, the path to a successful cleanup can be a bumpy one, to say the least.

Cleanup is the concept of needing to go ...

So you’ve decided that you want to take the plunge and dive into cannabis accounting. Great!

While these are new and exciting times, it is completely understandable if you have concerns about promoting your business within your personal and professional networks.

People have their opinions about the cannabis industry; some good, some bad. But don’t let that get in the way of promoting your business and becoming an expert.

The truth of the matter is that in order to be seen as an expert, you have to...