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Keep More Of What Crosses The Counter.
Wherever Section 280E still reaches your sales, a dispensary's tax bill is decided by what its inventory records can prove. We cost that inventory properly, tie out the cash behind your sales and close each month on numbers that hold up.
Dispensary Bookkeeping And Cannabis Accounting In Michigan
A dispensary sells a heavily taxed product, much of it for cash, while federal tax law still denies adult-use sellers most of the deductions other retailers take for granted. The line still working in your favor is cost of goods sold, and it only holds up when the inventory behind it is costed and reconciled every month.
That is the work we do for dispensaries and provisioning centers. Our monthly bookkeeping for cannabis retailers runs in QuickBooks Online on the same schedule every month, alongside payroll for your budtenders and managers, so you see where the year stands before the quarter is out.
Nobody here is learning cannabis on your books. Members of our team have completed a Cannabis Associate Program and a Cannabis Specialist Program and hold certificates for both, the DOPE CFO method for cannabis businesses is part of how we work every day, and every partner is a QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor.
Where A Dispensary Loses Money Without Noticing
Small gaps, left open month after month, end up in the tax bill.
What We Tie Out Before Your Month Is Closed
This is what gets checked before a month is called finished.
- Point-of-sale totals matched to cash on hand and bank deposits
- Product purchases recorded at cost, with freight kept with the product
- Book inventory compared with your counts and the state's tracking records
- Shrink, damaged and destroyed product recorded where it belongs
- Excise and sales tax reconciled to the returns filed for the month
- Bank and cash accounts reconciled, with every open item explained
280E Turns Cost Accounting Into The Whole Game
Section 280E still blocks ordinary business deductions on adult-use sales, so the tax fight happens at gross income: sales minus cost of goods sold. Any real product cost missing from inventory gets taxed as if it were profit.
Our founder built her career on cost accounting for businesses with inventory and production, and a dispensary leans on that skill hardest. We set up a chart of accounts built for 280E, then use tax planning during the year so you know the number before it is due.
Grow or process under the same ownership too? That side works under broader cost rules, covered on our pages for cannabis growers and cannabis processors.
A Michigan Firm For Michigan Dispensaries
Michigan adds its adult-use excise tax on top of sales tax at the register, and the state's seed-to-sale tracking means an outside record of your inventory always exists. We prepare the sales and excise tax returns from the same books your income tax return comes from.
We work with cannabis retailers throughout Michigan, and virtually beyond it. Cannabis is the deepest of our industry specialties.
Questions Dispensary Owners Ask Before They Switch
Can you take over books another bookkeeper left behind?
Yes, and it is a common starting point. We tell you plainly what shape the inventory and cost records are in and scope the catch-up in writing before work begins. The open year's cost of goods sold is usually the first priority, because the return depends on it.
Do we still count inventory if you keep the books?
Yes. Your team counts the shelves and the vault, and we make those counts mean something. Each month we compare them with the book inventory and the state's tracking records, record the adjustments and flag anything worth a closer look.
What happens to our books if federal cannabis rules change?
They are already moving. In April 2026, marijuana under state medical marijuana programs moved to Schedule III, while adult-use marijuana stays in Schedule I until a broader federal decision is made. What that means for 280E depends on how your sales are set up, so we keep medical and adult-use activity clearly separated in the books and walk you through the tax effect at each planning meeting. Properly costed inventory and clean cash records keep their value either way.
From The Grow To The Register
Cultivation costs tracked through the grow, so cost of goods sold holds up when the return is prepared.
Cannabis growers in detail Cannabis ProcessorsExtraction and production costs followed batch by batch, from input material to finished product.
Cannabis processors in detail Cannabis TransportersSecure transport operators with cost per run, driver payroll and every manifest tied to an invoice.
Cannabis transporters in detail All Industries We ServeCannabis, food and beverage and retail, with the credentials and detail behind each specialty.
Return to IndustriesLet's Get Your Cost Of Goods Sold Right
Tell us how your store runs and where the records stand. The first consultation is free, and we will tell you plainly what we would change.