What a stock take should actually catch

Shrinkage is the gap between what your records say you should have and what's actually on the shelf. Every retailer has some. Cannabis retail has more places for it to come from than most categories, and weight-based stock makes it harder to spot than a simple unit count would.

Where it actually comes from

• Weighing variance - small differences between what's logged and what's physically dispensed, which compound over hundreds of sales
• Handling loss - trim, moisture loss, and general product degradation over time
• Till errors - a sale rung up against the wrong product or quantity
• Internal error rather than theft - most shrinkage is administrative, not criminal
• Genuine theft, which is real but usually smaller than assumed once the other sources are accounted for

That last point matters for how a store responds. Treating all shrinkage as theft leads to the wrong fix - tighter staff monitoring instead of better weighing and logging processes, which is where most of the gap actually is.

Why weight-based stock is harder to reconcile

A unit count is binary: you either have twelve or you don't. Weight-based stock accumulates small discrepancies constantly - a gram here, half a gram there, on every single sale. None of it looks like a problem in isolation. Over a month, across a full catalogue of flower products, it adds up to a number worth investigating.

What a stock take is actually for

A stock take isn't a compliance formality. It's the point where the gap between records and reality gets measured, instead of assumed. Done rarely, it catches a large number with no way to tell where it came from. Done regularly, it catches a small number early enough to trace back to a cause - a specific product, a specific shift, a specific process that needs tightening.

The same logic applies to daily cash-up: reconciling expected cash, card, and EFT against what was actually counted at close of day. Caught same-day, a discrepancy is a quick conversation. Caught at month-end, it's a mystery.

If you want a starting estimate of what shrinkage, till variance, and manual admin are currently costing your stores, Budstack's cost calculator walks through it with your own numbers rather than an industry-average guess.