Cannabis operators are under more pressure than ever to protect margins and improve efficiency. But while teams often focus on cutting SKUs, negotiating vendor contracts, or reducing headcount—there’s a silent margin killer hiding in your workflows:
Manual procurement
If you’re still using spreadsheets, email threads, or Slack messages to manage purchasing, you’re likely bleeding money—and time—without even realizing it.
1. The Hidden Drain on Margin
Most operators don’t track the cost of how they buy—only what they buy.
But those disconnected workflows come with real consequences:
- Missed pricing opportunities from approved vendors
- Rogue spending that never went through proper approvals
- Duplicated or unnecessary orders due to poor visibility
- Delays in invoice matching and month-end close
- Wasted staff time chasing receipts, approvals, and vendors
Individually? Small friction.
Collectively? A margin killer.
2. A Patchwork Process = Lost Control
Here’s what manual procurement typically looks like:
- A team member emails their GM asking to buy something
- The GM texts or emails a vendor, or uses a personal card
- Someone eventually forwards the invoice—maybe
- Finance tries to reconcile it all at the end of the month
This is not a scalable system. It’s a patchwork—and it only gets worse with more locations, more people, and more vendors.
When your spend isn’t centralized, your control disappears.
3. What It’s Really Costing You
These hidden workflow issues result in real financial drag:
- Manual approvals = slower ordering + missed fulfillment windows
- No real-time budget visibility = overspending
- Personal card purchases = messy reimbursements + audit risk
- Disconnected vendor management = no pricing consistency
- Manual invoice matching = longer close cycles + more errors
Even with tight teams and good intentions, these process gaps add up—often costing operators 10–15% of their indirect spend every month.
4. The Fix: Centralized, Automated Procurement
The most efficient cannabis operators aren’t cutting corners.
They’re cutting friction.
What does that look like?
- One unified system for all purchasing
- Automated approvals tied to department budgets
- Real-time visibility for Finance and Ops
- Consistent pricing through a verified vendor network
- Seamless PO → invoice → accounting sync
This isn’t about overhauling your team—it’s about giving them the tools to work smarter and faster.
5. Want to See What You’re Losing?
We built a free ROI calculator for cannabis operators to quickly measure what manual procurement might be costing them.
Plug in your spend and facility count.
See potential savings in under 60 seconds.
No forms. No emails. Just real numbers.
Final Thought
Manual procurement isn’t just inefficient—it’s expensive.
In a tight-margin industry, the way you buy matters just as much as what you buy.
If your team is still chasing POs in email or tracking spend in spreadsheets, it’s time to clean up the process—and reclaim the dollars slipping through the cracks.
