Landed cost is the whole game
As a reseller, a dispensary's inventoriable cost stops at invoice price plus the costs of acquiring product. Everything else is disallowed federally, so accuracy at receiving determines the tax outcome for the year.
Build the receiving process around a three-way match: manifest, invoice and physical count, entered before product is put away.
Cash controls
Currency volume remains meaningful in Missouri retail. Dual-control counts, sealed deposit bags, vault logs, shift-level over and short reporting and daily ledger reconciliation form the baseline.
Handling the tax layers
State cannabis tax, any local cannabis tax and sales tax should each sit in their own liability account, reconciled monthly to point-of-sale reporting and remitted on a maintained calendar.
Margin management as tax management
Because the federal base is gross profit, discounting has a compounded cost. Track margin by category, brand, vendor and daypart, and evaluate promotions on after-tax contribution rather than units moved.
- Category and brand margin reporting every period
- Vendor performance including credits, returns and fill rates
- Promotion analysis measured on after-tax contribution
- Basket size and transaction count trends by location
Multi-location retail
Groups running stores in more than one Missouri market should standardize the close so results are comparable, and report location-level contribution after allocated overhead rather than revenue alone.
Frequently asked questions
How should a dispensary account for loyalty programs?
As a reduction of revenue when redeemed, with the outstanding liability estimated and recorded. Treating redemptions as marketing expense both misstates margin and creates a disallowed item federally.
What reports should a Missouri retailer review weekly?
Category margin, inventory position against reorder points, cash over and short by shift, and the updated cash forecast including upcoming tax remittances.
