Most state medical marijuana authorities require cannabis growers to use some type of seed-to-sale tracking. To meet state regulatory compliance, growers must work within the limitations of these systems to remain legal. The Oklahoma Medial Marijuana Authority (OMMA) has required its state license holders to use the seed-to-sale platform METRC. Most people use the default user interface to enter their data into METRC. In this article, I would like to introduce you to an alternative approach that will help you reduce data entry and automate many of your compliance tasks.
The METRC API
Yes, I firmly believe we can make this a better experience. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with METRC’s existing user interface, but most growers are using their own software. That might be an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) platform or one of the many SaaS (Software as a Service) products available on the market. If you use one set of tools to run your growing operations, and then need to log into another set of tools to enter much of the same information, you miss out on the efficiency that integrating with an API provides you.
But API Integration isn’t Easy!
True, there are technical hurdles to integration with an API. Unless you have someone on staff with the technical knowledge to implement the integration, you will likely find yourself stumbling through technical documentation and complex code needed to make an integration work. Additionally, it’s helpful to use someone with experience in implementing integrations because they will understand the best methods of connecting your existing systems to METRC.
What is METRC and how do I connect to it?
I do want to cover what METRC is. It’s a regulatory tool. It’s designed to monitor and track compliance for public safety. It’s not meant to be a materials resource planning or an enterprise resource planning platform.
How does METRC work? METRC’s architecture is composed of a web interface, an API that connects to web services, and a database. This is a common architecture for web applications. METRC provides private servers to host the applications and data, provides secure on-line access to the METRC application, and they manage all of the backups and support necessary to make the application available.
METRC is basically broken down into two halves. There is an industry half. This is where the grower completes the majority of their work. Then there is the regulatory half. This is where regulation is managed.
Regulation Side
- Data Collecting
- Data Analysis
- Enforcement
- Auditing
- Inspecting
- Licensing
Grower Side
- Cultivation activities
- Testing
- Selling
- Logistical Transfers
If you aren’t familiar with METRC and how it works, METRC does provide training. Training is typically required before you’re issued a license with most states that use METRC.
Once you’ve set up your profile in METRC, you can build out your organizations profile. That’s added as a facility. There are permissions for different types of facilities. Many license holders in Oklahoma will have a license for the three common facility types; cultivation, processing, and selling. METRC provides permissions for grower, processor, dispensary, labs, and transportation. You can use a single login per license, so don’t feel that you need to add each license in its own instance.
The regulatory authorities will set what items are allowed to sell. These are broken down into categories. For instance, Oklahoma allows the following categories:
- Buds
- Concentrate
- Edible
- Immature Plant
- Infused Non-edible
- Pre-rolls
- Seeds
- Shake/Trim
- Shake Trim by Strain
- Vegetable Plants
And though METRC claims that they aren’t meant to be the only piece of software you use, many growers make it their primary system because they don’t want to enter data into two different applications. Data entry slows down efficiency. Connecting to METRC’s API, should help reduce this double data entry burden.
So how does a license holder who uses METRC connect? And what should be done with the connection?
If you want to connect to METRC’s API, there are a few steps you’ll need to go through. First, you’ll want to visit their ‘getting started’ page.
METRC Web API Documentation
One of the first things you’ll notice when you get to the help page is that METRC uses REST for its API. If you aren’t familiar with REST, don’t worry, it’s fairly simple to grasp. REST is actually how the internet works. When you open your browser and navigate to some of your favorite websites, your browser uses REST to make requests and to send responses to servers that host the website content you choose to consume.
Now there are other types of APIs, but I won’t go into those in this articles. What’s important to know is that REST is made up of Nouns and Verbs, and the Verbs are actually pretty simple. The Nouns are resources that you’ll want to use to either query (GET) or update (POST or PUT).
So if you wanted a list of facilities, you would perform a GET request against a web address (URL) called /facilities. This would give you a list of facilities, and within that list you could find a single facility with an identifier.
If you wanted to get more detailed data related to that specific facility, you would normally perform another GET request against a web address called /facilities/{id} where you would replace the id variable with an actual identity from the list.
If all of this sounds a bit overwhelming and beyond something you want to tackle yourself, you’re in luck, because there are multiple ways to still take advantage of the API without taking on programming tasks.
Vendors That Connects to METRC
One of the easiest ways to take advantage of the METRC API is to use a software solution that already provides integration with METRC. This isn’t a complete list, but it will give you a good place to begin your search for a solution that fits your needs.
Canix
Canix is a company that offers a set of software and hardware solutions across the three primary verticals of cultivation, manufacturing, and distribution. I believe they have enough products to cover every need of the cannabis business that needs to connect to METRC. METRC isn’t their only integration. They also connect to the following services:
Additionally, they make Leaftrade reporting available and an integration with Biotrack is in development.
Canix provides lots of support for the Oklahoma market. Sophie Humphrey provides multiple articles to help you on your Canix to METRC integration journey. The best place to start reading about this process is in the following posts in the Canix Help Center:
- Oklahoma: Auditing Your Canix Inventory Before Metrc Integration Onboarding
- Oklahoma: Canix + Metrc Integration Onboarding
- Oklahoma: How to Use Canix’s Metrc Integration
Canix has done a great job of providing a clear path for integration. Other than their website, they also provide help on YouTube.
FloEnvy
FloEnvy is a company bringing a Software as a Service product to market that offers solutions around forecasting, cultivation, compliance, manufacturing, sales, and labor. METRC integration is built in and available at their lowest pricing tier. There aren’t many details related to the integration process, but FloEnvy seems to be open to scheduling conversations. Their METRC page is here. And like Canix, they also offer integrations with QuickBooks and LeafLink.
IndicaOnline
IndicaOnline is an Enterprise Resource Planning platform that provides numerous Cannabis Related Business services. They provide services to help boost sales, manage your inventory, hardware for RFID scanning, order management, and of course compliance.
IndicaOnline supports integration with METRC with full synchronization of packages, test submissions, vendor and license holder management, as well as tags. This functionality is managed through their Distro App.
Similar to FloEnvy, IndicaOnline provides a way to book a demo.
Dutchie
Dutchie is an all-in-one technology platform. They provide Point of Sale, Ecommerce, Payments, Insurance, and what we’re most interested in here, Integrations.
Much like Canix, Dutchie is connected with multiple partner platforms, making it easier to remain compliant with systems like METRC. They boast a connection to over 60 different partners and provide dedicated customer support teams to help.
365 Cannabis
Based on Microsoft’s popular ERP Dynamics 365, The NAV People have built a complete cannabis business platform. The present their services as modules for Financials, Cultivation, Processing, CRM, Distribution, and Retail. Besides the modules, 365 Cannabis also offers services around Compliance, Analytics and Reporting, Software Training, and Integrations.
365 Cannabis does offer METRC integration, along with a number of other compliance services. They also provide a METRC guide for their customers, and guide specifically for the Oklahoma market.
Flowhub
Flowhub is a retail management platform that integrates with many partners. They provide a large number of products from POS System, Payments, Dispensary Compliance, Checkin ID Scanner, Dispensary Management, Inventory Management, Order Management, and Dispensary Analytics.
Flowhub’s METRC integration information can be found here.
Integration Partners
Most of the platforms I mentioned above have more than one integration partner. This makes it easy to select a primary platform and connection your desired solutions to that platform. This is a great solution if you plan to make one piece of technology your primary system to work from. For instance, platforms like 365 Cannabis and Canix are designed to manage almost every aspect of your cannabis business.
However, what if you don’t want your systems so tightly coupled? What if you want to build your enterprise solution and connect it with a custom data store and integrate it with custom applications?
This is when you need an integration specialist. Now there are different types of integrators. It’s important to know the difference. Systems Integrators typically bring together hardware and software to create a solution. You’ll often find System Integrators in the Point-of-Sales and Internet of Things domain. These specialists can often do software integration, as well. There are also Software Integrators who specialize in combining multiple software platforms into a single platform.
If you have a custom solution and you want to integrate with METRC, unless you have the staff inhouse who can work with integrating with APIs, you’ll want to find a good software systems integrator to help you connect your data and software systems to METRC.
How do Integrations Improve the Seed-to-Sales Experience for Oklahoma Growers?
We’ve discussed some of the reasons you’ll want to integrate METRC with your existing information systems. One of the primary reasons is to stop duplicate data entry, but what are some of the other areas where integration can make the grower or retailer’s life easier?
METRC status within your POS
Many systems will integrate your point-of-sale with METRC’s reported statuses. Things like order status and product transfers can show up as success, failed, or pending making it easier to get a view of your current sales and deliveries.
METRC Weight and Scanning
Integrating METRC in with RFID tagging and scales can save time entering data related to cultivation, processing, and sales.
Transporter Management and Route Planning
Working directly with third party delivery services who integrate with METRC will allow for easier selection of vehicle, driver, and route information for transport orders.
In Closing
If you aren’t familiar with the benefits of integration, this article should give you an idea of the many ways it could help save you time and improve your workflow with METRC. This is an industry with many software solutions, and as you can see, many of them are working hard to make integrating with compliance platforms like METRC easier. Just to recap, here are some of the primary advantages of using METRC’s API capabilities to integrate with the platform of your choice:
- Reduce duplicate data entry
- Track METRC status from your primary platform of choice
- Simplify cultivation, processing, transportation, and retail sales workflows
- Remain compliant with state authorities
