Important SOP's and Daily Habits That Support Running a Healthy Business

Please Note: A Daily Checklist can be downloaded and copied from here and then used to encourage daily habits until they become second nature.

There are many facets to running a healthy business.  SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures) can be a huge help particularly by saving time and money and ensuring compliance.  The following micro habits should be practiced daily to ensure your business remains healthy.   

Skip To:

• Checking In Customers
• Clear Customer Queue
• Clearing Saved and Draft Sales
• Ending Shifts
• Closing Shifts
• Viewing Sales Reports
• Returning or Destroying Inventory
• Checking Compliance
• Naming Cash Drawers

Please Note: Detailed step by step instructions can be found in Other Resources in each section. 

 

Checking In Customers

Note: Anyone checking in customers should always ask for a phone number and an email.

When checking in customers, Best Practice is to ask for as much information as the customer is willing to give, to create a solid customer profile.  The minimum, however, should be a phone number and an email.  

Value: Although phone numbers and emails can change, this is the best way to increase your marketing reach and cultivate loyal customers.

Risks: Not collecting phone numbers and emails significantly decreases your marketing reach and ability to communicate with your customers based on their buying preferences.  However, the customer is in control of what personal information they choose to share outside of what is required by your state laws to purchase cannabis. 

Other Resources: 

SellTreez: All About POS (Point of Sale)

SellTreez: All About Customer Management

 

Clear Customer Queue

Note: Clearing the customer queue should be done daily.  Assign your closing manager to do this task every night.

Clearing the customer queue daily is important so that each morning your budtenders can manage the new influx of customers upon opening in a timely manner.  Navigate to Customer > Customer Management 

• In the upper right-hand corner, you will the see the Customer Queue
• Click the trashcan icon to clear your queue

Value: Clearing the customer queue enables a speedier check-in, allows focus on the customer at time of purchase and more accurate reporting on time spent with the customer. 

Risks: Not clearing the customer queue can impact the performance of your system, causing slowdowns.

Other Resources:

SellTreez: How do I clear the Queue from Customer Management?

 

Clearing Saved and Draft Sales

Note: Clearing saved and draft sales should be done daily.  Assign your closing manager to this task every night.

Clearing saved sales ensures that you can start fresh the following business day and not be distracted by or potentially miscount sales that were never completed. It also releases inventory to a sellable state that would otherwise be reserved.

Clearing draft receipts is also necessary.  If the user navigates away from the payment screen, the payment will be processed but the sale will not be completed and will end up in draft receipts. If it's not actioned on (completed) same day, this will cause discrepancies in reporting. The sale will not show up that day and will only show up after it has been completed.

To clear saved or draft sales, navigate to Retail > SellTreez POS and log in

• Click the Current Sale timer > View Saved Sales 
• Find the order you'd like to delete from the 'Saved Sales' list
• Select the order and tap Edit
• From the Current Sale dropdown, select Abandon Sale
• Do this for every saved sale that needs to be cleared

 

• Click the Current Sale timer > View Draft Receipts 
  • Find the order you'd like to take action on in Draft Receipts' list
  • Select the order and tap Edit
  • Complete the sale 
  • Do this for every draft sale that needs to be cleared

Value: Clearing saved sales releases inventory to a sellable state. Completing draft sales allows your reporting to be accurate.

Risks: If you do not clear saved sales daily, your sellable inventory will be inaccurate which could lead to compliance issues.  If you do not complete draft sales your reporting will be inaccurate.

Other Resources:

SellTreez: How do I delete a saved sale?

 

Ending Shifts

Note: Ending shifts should be done daily.  Budtenders are responsible for ending their shifts so that cash drawers are correctly closed out and no one else can inadvertently sign-in to the drawer. 

The end-of-shift procedure ensures that money coming in and money going out is properly tracked. Following this daily micro habit allows you to reduce cash variance and increase accountability.

To initiate End of Shift procedures, navigate to Retail > SellTreez POS and click on No Customer

• Select your name and log in using your PIN. This will take you to the sales screen.
• Click Current Sale and select End of Shift. Clicking this will print an End of Shift (EOS) receipt and end your shift on a given register. Once ended, you’ll be prompted with a pop-up that allows you to reprint the EOS receipt or confirm your end-of-shift action.
• Selecting Reprint will cause your EOS receipt to reprint. Once printed, you’ll be prompted once again to select either ‘Reprint’ or ‘Confirm’ just in case you encountered an error with the initial reprint or want multiple copies for whatever reason.
• Selecting Confirm will log you out of the Treez portal.  

Value: Maintaining this daily habit ensures accountability and transparency on the sales floor and also ensures that what’s inside your cash drawers is never a surprise.

Risks: Not ending a shift properly can result in multiple employees using the same cash drawer.  This can lead to incorrect shift reports, trouble closing shifts, inaccurate cash handling reports, and in some cases theft. 

Other Resources:

SellTreez: Ending a Shift

 

Closing Shifts

Note: Closing shifts should be done daily.  Assign your closing manager or head cashier to own this every night.

Best Practice Tip: Your float is the amount of money in your cash drawer that begins every shift. Count your float first and set aside. Then proceed to count the rest of your drawer. This helps avoid confusion as you reconcile your drawers at the end of each day.

In order to help promote accountability, the steps required to close a shift are often completed by a manager. Once a sales associate turns in their cash drawer and End of Shift receipt, close shift procedures can begin.

To initiate ‘Close Shift’ procedures, navigate to Cash > Cash Handling

• From the ‘Shift Report’ page, find the shift that was ended you would like to close
• Click the Shift Options (...) icon on the corresponding line and tap Close Shift. This will open the Close Shift window. 
• Proceed by counting out the amount of cash you'd like to allocate to the next shift's float and confirm the value entered in ‘Ending Float Bills/Coins’ fields matches this amount. This field will default to the beginning float amount, so if your float remains consistent shift-to-shift, you won’t have to touch it. If your float needs to be adjusted, enter the updated amount in the ‘Ending Float Bills/Coins’ fields and set the new amount aside (or back in the drawer).

• Count the remaining cash from the drawer and enter it into the Cash Out Drop Bills/Coins field(s).

• Continue by entering the actuals for all accepted payment types in the remaining 'Payment Total' fields.

•    Reconcile all of your payment solutions not just your cash. What is reported in Treez should equal     what was batched which should also equal what was deposited. 

• Verify the amounts you’ve entered are correct and tap Close Shift > Confirm.

Once this process is complete, the sum of the amounts entered in ‘Cash Drop Out’ fields, plus or minus the float difference that's accrued when the float is adjusted, will be transferred to the Main Vault. Additional payment types will be routed to the accounts you have configured to receive them (via Configurations > Config Page > Cash Handling > Payment Types).

Close of shift information can be viewed on the Daily Totals tab (via Cash Handling > Shift Report > Daily Totals), which is similar to the End of Shift report. From here, managers can make edits to any actuals by tapping on the edit icon within the ‘Cash Drawers Actuals’ section.

Tip: If you find a discrepancy, continue to close the drawer and edit later.  Do not leave the drawer open while investigating as this can lead to confusion and time wasted.

Please Note: Once you have closed shifts, send your sales to Metrc. Do this every day! (This is not the same as Performing a True Up, as you would do this exercise weekly).

Value: Closing shifts daily helps maintain accounting accuracy, alleviates reporting mistakes in Metrc, lessens auditing times, and allows you to investigate any suspicious activity right away. 

Risks: Not closing shifts properly or daily will make reconciliation more difficult and take much more time than it should. It can also lead to reporting mistakes in Metrc which in turn could mean you are out of compliance putting your license at risk. Lastly, not closing shifts can also impact the performance of your system, causing slowdowns.

Other Resources:

SellTreez: Closing a Shift

SellTreez: All About Shift Turnover

 

Viewing Sales Reports

Note: Viewing Sales Reports daily ensures you can track core sales activities. Assign the closing manager to do this daily

Viewing sales reports daily allows you to track core sales activities and can also alert you to suspicious sales activity.  For example, if you routinely view your sales reports, anyone purchasing a very large amount should have the details reviewed. This is a general caution, as some customers may purchase a large amount, but often this can also lead to some type of fraud or theft.  Too many discounts are also something to pay attention to in this same vein. 

Navigate to Reports > Sales to view the following reports:

• Product Report
• Discount Report
• Demographics Report
• Tax Report
• Payment Report

Value:

The Product Report provides valuable insights into what products are being sold, discounted, and returned at your shop.

The Discount Report is a valuable tool to help you better understand the breakdown of how and what discounts have been used at your shop.

The Demographics Report provides valuable insight into your store's customers and their spending.

The Tax Report shows you a breakdown of the amounts of tax your shop owes and has collected.

The Payment Report is a valuable resource for understanding what methods customers are using at your shop.

Risks: Not viewing sales reports on a daily basis can let insights slip, allow discounts to become unmanageable, and potentially have you miss fraud or theft. 

Other Resources: 

SellTreez: Payment Report (In-App)

SellTreez: Product Report (In-App)

SellTreez: Discount Report (In-App)

SellTreez: Demographics Report (In-App)

SellTreez: Tax Report (In-App)

 

Returning or Destroying Inventory

Note: Returning or destroying inventory should be done daily.  Assign your Inventory Manager to ensure these tasks are done every night. 

Returning or destroying inventory should be done on a daily basis to ensure the inventory you are selling remains in compliance. 

Destroying Inventory

To select items to destroy and remove from your inventory navigate to Inventory > Inventory Management > Inventory Control

• Check the boxes on the far-left side of the page for each batch you'd like to destroy
• Click Destroy on the action bar at the bottom of the screen.
•  For each item, select the reason for the destruction from the 'Reason' dropdown. You can also submit additional information by clicking the notes icon. 

NOTE: For operators on Metrc, when you destroy inventory from any location the destruction is sent automatically to Metrc.

Note: You can only take action on entire inventory batches. To destroy only certain units from an existing batch, you need to first split these units into their own batch. Review the Split Batches section above for step-by-step instructions.

Returning Inventory

Navigate to Inventory > Inventory Management > Inventory Control

• Check the boxes on the far-left side of the page for each batch you'd like to return
• Click Return on the action bar at the bottom of the screen
• For each item, select the reason for the return from the 'Reason' dropdown. You can submit additional information by clicking the notes icon.

If you're returning multiple batches, you can apply the same reason and notes to every batch being returned by filling out the fields across the top of the dialog box. 

• Click Return to Distributor. This removes the batch of items from your inventory

NOTE: You can only take action on entire inventory batches. To return only certain units from an existing batch, you need to first split these units into their own batch. Review the Split Batches section above for step-by-step instructions.

NOTE: If you’re operating on Metrc, any units you’re returning to a vendor will also need to be manifested and transferred in Metrc to the distributor picking them up.

• When you see the ‘Record Credit Note’ pop-up, select Yes if you want to create a credit note for the returned item(s) with the distributor now, or select No if you want to decide later.

If you select No, the item will appear on the Refunds page in Purchasing and you’ll have a choice to leave a credit note then or dismiss (remove without creating a credit note). 

NOTE: A credit note is used to record when a distributor has granted you a credit for a return. Any credit notes will be available to apply to incoming invoices from that distributor.

Value: Destroying or returning inventory daily ensures that all available inventory can be put on the floor so that you can maximize your sales opportunities. 

Risks: Waiting to destroy inventory puts your compliance at risk.  Waiting to return inventory makes it harder to reconcile inventory, payments, credits or adjustments, as well as being unable to sell items on your floor. 

Other Resources:

SellTreez: How Do I Destroy Cannabis Inventory?

SellTreez: How Do I Return Inventory?

 

Checking Compliance

Note: Check your Compliance dashboard and ensure all tasks are completed every day! This should be assigned to an Inventory Manager for best results.  Just as important is to understand and reference Metrc errors to avoid confusion.  Metrc Error Glossary can be a helpful resource. 

Check your compliance dashboard at the end of each day and complete any outstanding tasks. Navigate to Inventory > Compliance Management > Metrc Control

Above the main table are 4 tabs. Each tab shows sales and adjustments in different send statuses. The tab you're currently viewing is underlined in red. 

• To Do (Error): Sent from Treez, but not successfully received by Metrc due to an error. 
• In Progress: Currently sending from Treez to Metrc.
• Done: Sent from Treez. (This tab shows tasks successfully received by Metrc, and also includes any Errors you Dismissed from the To Do tab.)
• All: Displays all tasks from Treez in all statuses. 

Once all sales and adjustments have been resolved, there may still be packages with inventory quantities still out of sync between Treez and Metrc. These can be ‘trued-up’ on the Metrc True Up page, where you can easily adjust Metrc quantities to match Treez quantities. 

Value: Checking compliance daily ensures that your counts match which is critical to remaining in compliance with the state. If counts are off, it is much easier to reconcile if you are only dealing with a daily count. 

Risks: Managing your compliance haphazardly can quickly lead to you being out of compliance which in turn could put your license at risk.  

Other Resources:

SellTreez: All About Compliance Management - METRC

SellTreez: Performing a Metrc True Up

SellTreez: Navigating Metrc True Up

SellTreez: Metrc Error Glossary

 

Naming Cash Drawers

Note: Naming cash drawers is not a daily practice, however cash drawers can be edited, deleted or added at any time.  These tasks should be performed by a manager. 

When naming cash drawers, it is a best practice to name them numerically and then assign them to an employee.  For example, CashDrawer1 is assigned to "Brian" in the morning.  Brian then ends his shift and CashDrawer1 can be reassigned to the evening employee. This eliminates issues when budtenders rotate drawers, and you are filtering all transactions for internal reports. 

To name cash drawers navigate to Configuration > Config Page > Cash Handling > and click on Existing Accounts to edit or Add Account to create a Cash Drawer. 

Value: Numerically naming cash drawers are easier to track and reduces issues associated with budtenders rotating drawers. 

Risks: If you are not using this method, and multiple people are using the same drawer, you will have to export the report and filter by pin number, which is time consuming and can lead to errors during reconciliation. It also makes it much more difficult to find and track mistakes in over/under drawers or investigating possible theft. 

Other Resources:

SellTreez: Cash Handling Configurations