Statewide cannabis accounting practice
Cannabis CPA Florida Accounting Services
We are a cannabis accounting practice serving licensed operators across Florida: bookkeeping, tax preparation, IRC Section 280E planning, inventory accounting, financial reporting and CFO advisory. Our role is to keep your books accurate, your records defensible and your numbers useful to the people running the business.
Florida remains a medical-only market, and licensed Medical Marijuana Treatment Centers (MMTCs) carry cultivation, transport and retail activity inside one vertically integrated organization under the Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU). We set up the cost documentation and reporting that structure requires, so you stay compliant, organized and clear on where you stand.
Cost Accounting and Inventory
Batch-level costing, absorption methodology and inventory reconciliation that produce numbers you can defend and use.
Tax Planning and Compliance
Quarterly projections, reserve discipline and return preparation supported by documented workpapers.
Financial Leadership
Forecasting, capital planning and reporting for operators scaling past what spreadsheets can carry.
Practice areas
Cannabis Accounting Services
Engagements range from monthly bookkeeping through cost methodology, tax filings and fractional financial leadership.
Service
280E Accounting & Tax Compliance
Accounting, inventory, cost of goods sold support, documentation and tax coordination for Florida cannabis operators working through Section 280E.
Service
Dispensary Accounting
Daily reconciliation, inventory control and margin reporting built for high-volume retail dispensing.
Service
Cultivation Accounting
Batch-level costing, absorption of production overhead and cost-per-gram visibility for grow operations.
Service
Manufacturing Accounting
Bill-of-materials costing, conversion yields and standard cost variance analysis for extraction and infusion.
Service
Tax Preparation
Business tax return preparation for Florida cannabis operators, built on completed bookkeeping, a finished year-end close, reconciled inventory, documented cost of goods sold and supportable tax workpapers.
Service
Fractional CFO Services
Part-time financial leadership for Florida cannabis operators: cash forecasting, budgets, KPI reporting, margin analysis and decision modeling built on reliable accounting.
Scope of work
What We Handle
The accounting function in a licensed operation carries three jobs at once: producing reliable management information, satisfying regulatory recordkeeping, and documenting a tax position that will be examined more closely than in most industries. We build one system that serves all three rather than three that contradict each other.
We do not promise tax savings, audit protection or guaranteed outcomes. We deliver documentation, consistency and financial clarity.
- Cannabis accounting and monthly close
- Bookkeeping, cleanup and catch-up work
- Tax preparation for operating entities
- IRC Section 280E cost methodology
- Inventory accounting and valuation
- Cost of goods sold documentation
- Financial reporting and consolidation
- Cash-flow planning and tax reserves
- Fractional CFO advisory
- Audit preparation and examination support
- Regulatory recordkeeping alignment
- Internal controls and cash handling
- Entity structuring analysis with counsel
- Payroll and labor cost allocation
- Operational and pricing advisory
Core focus areas
Florida OMMU & Seed-to-Sale Financial Reconciliation
Seed-to-sale tracking data reported under the Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU) has to agree with the general ledger, batch by batch. We reconcile tracked quantities to recorded inventory value, document adjustment cause codes, and keep the financial record and the compliance record telling the same story at every period end.
Navigating IRC Section 280E for Florida MMTCs
Section 280E disallows ordinary business deductions for plant-touching operations, so what a licensed Medical Marijuana Treatment Center owes is driven by cost of goods sold methodology rather than deduction planning. We build written absorption methodology, supporting time and activity records, and workpapers that hold up when reviewed.
Medical cannabis and qualifying delivery devices are exempt from Florida state sales and use taxes, though standard corporate income tax rules apply alongside federal 280E conformity.
Cash-Flow Management & Banking Solutions for Florida Dispensaries
Limited banking access keeps dispensary operations cash-heavy, which raises the bar on controls, deposit documentation and reserve planning. We structure cash handling procedures, forecast tax reserves against real collections, and prepare the documentation packages financial institutions ask for during onboarding and review.
Service overview
Cannabis Accounting Services for Florida Operators
Cannabis accounting is not bookkeeping with a different client name on the engagement letter, and it is not a tax return prepared once a year. It is a single financial system that connects sales, cash, bank deposits, inventory, purchasing, payroll, accounts payable, the general ledger, the financial statements and the tax workpapers, so that every number in one place can be traced to its source in another.
The reason that matters is that discrepancies do not stay where they start. A point-of-sale total that never ties to the bank deposit becomes an unexplained variance in cash. An inventory adjustment recorded without a cause code becomes an unsupported movement in cost of goods sold. An unsupported cost of goods sold figure becomes a tax position that is difficult to defend and a gross margin number that management cannot use to price product. One broken link changes the reported result at every level above it.
Our engagements are built so the chain holds. That means a chart of accounts designed for an inventory business rather than a service business, reconciliations performed on a schedule rather than when something looks wrong, written costing methodology, and a close calendar that produces statements while the period is still relevant to decisions.
Roles in the finance function
Cannabis CPA and Cannabis Accountant Services
Operators often ask whether they need a bookkeeper, an accountant, a CPA or a CFO. In practice a licensed cannabis business needs several distinct kinds of work coordinated under one methodology, and confusion between them is a common reason records fall behind.
Bookkeeping
Recording transactions, reconciling accounts and maintaining the ledger through the month. This is the raw material for everything above it, and it is where most problems originate.
Accounting and close
Applying costing methodology, accruals, inventory entries and adjustments so a period can be closed and the statements reflect economic activity rather than cash timing.
Financial reporting
Producing statements and management reporting that are consistent period over period and comparable across locations or entities.
Tax preparation
Preparing federal and state filings from closed books, supported by workpapers that show how the reported figures were derived.
Tax planning
Working through the year on cost methodology, entity considerations, estimated payments and reserve funding so the filing is not the first time the liability is quantified.
Controller and CFO work
Controller work protects the integrity of the numbers; CFO work uses them to forecast, allocate capital and support decisions before they are made.
Some of this work is performed by internal staff, some by our team, and the division is documented at the start of an engagement so nothing sits unowned between the two.
Bookkeeping
Cannabis Bookkeeping for Florida Businesses
Bookkeeping for a licensed operator differs from generic small-business bookkeeping in three ways: inventory is the dominant balance sheet account rather than an afterthought, a meaningful share of revenue arrives as cash that has to be counted and traced to deposits, and the cost detail recorded during the month determines the tax position at year end. A bookkeeper working from bank feeds alone cannot produce any of that.
A monthly cycle we consider complete includes bank and credit-card reconciliation, daily cash reconciliation against register counts and deposits, point-of-sale revenue and discount posting, accounts payable and vendor purchase recording, payroll entries with labor coded to function, inventory receipts, production and adjustments, balance sheet account reconciliation, and delivered financial statements with a variance commentary.
When prior periods are unreliable, the work starts as cleanup rather than maintenance: rebuilding the chart of accounts, re-reconciling balance sheet accounts period by period, correcting inventory balances, and documenting each change so the new starting position can be explained later.
- Bank reconciliation
- Credit-card reconciliation
- Daily cash reconciliation
- Point-of-sale revenue posting
- Accounts payable and vendor bills
- Payroll journal entries
- Inventory receipts and adjustments
- Balance sheet reconciliation
- Monthly close and statements
- Chart of accounts design
- Catch-up and cleanup work
- Prior-period documentation
Retail operations
Dispensary Accounting
Retail dispensing produces a high volume of small transactions, a daily cash position and constant inventory movement. Dispensary accounting is largely the discipline of closing one loop every single day: point-of-sale sales are counted, cash is counted, the deposit is prepared and traced to the bank, inventory relieved at the register is matched to product on the shelf, and the cost of that product lands in cost of goods sold at the value it was received.
Once the daily loop is reliable, the monthly reporting becomes useful: gross margin by category and by location, discount and promotion impact, shrink and waste, labor as a percentage of revenue, payment processing costs where applicable, and vendor purchase patterns that drive working capital. Operators running more than one store need this at store level, because a consolidated statement hides the site that is losing money.
Dispensary accounting servicesDaily retail loop
- 1Point-of-sale sales recorded by category
- 2Register cash counted and documented
- 3Bank deposit prepared and traced
- 4Inventory relieved and compared to shelf
- 5Purchases received at documented cost
- 6Cost of goods sold posted to the ledger
- 7Location-level margin reviewed
Federal tax position
Section 280E Accounting and Tax Compliance
Where Section 280E applies to a plant-touching business, ordinary trade or business deductions are disallowed and the amount properly included in inventory and cost of goods sold becomes the central determinant of taxable income. That moves the work from tax planning into cost accounting: what is capitalized, on what basis, with what support, and applied consistently across periods.
The distinction that matters most is between a documented capitalization method and relabeling. Inventory costing rules describe which costs attach to product; they do not permit an operator to move selling, general and administrative expenses into cost of goods sold because the tax result is better. A methodology that survives review is written down, tied to activity and time records, applied the same way each month, and reconciled to the ledger rather than calculated at year end.
Federal treatment of cannabis, including scheduling and the reach of Section 280E, has been subject to change and litigation. We work from current guidance with your tax counsel and document positions so they can be revisited if the law moves rather than rebuilt from scratch.
Written methodology
A memorandum describing which costs are capitalized, the allocation bases used and the authority relied on, updated when operations change.
Supporting records
Time and activity records, square-footage studies and production data that make an allocation a measurement rather than an estimate.
Workpapers
Schedules that move from the trial balance to the return, so a reviewer can follow each figure without reconstructing it.
Reserve discipline
Quarterly projections and funded reserves, because a disallowed-deduction liability can exceed the cash the period generated.
Filing season
Cannabis Tax Preparation for Operators
A cannabis return is assembled, not calculated. The quality of the filing is determined months earlier by whether inventory was counted, whether cost allocations were documented as they occurred, and whether the books were closed on a schedule. Preparation done well is mostly verification.
Books maintained through the year
Reconciled monthly rather than reconstructed in the spring.
Year-end close
Accruals, cutoff testing and final adjusting entries recorded.
Inventory and COGS review
Physical counts tied to the ledger and costing methodology applied consistently.
Tax workpapers
Schedules linking the trial balance to each reported figure.
Federal and state returns
Entity-level filings prepared from closed books and reviewed against the workpapers.
Liability and estimates
Projected through the year with reserves funded, so filing confirms a known number.
Tracking and the ledger
Seed-to-Sale Tracking and Cannabis Accounting
Seed-to-sale tracking systems and accounting systems answer different questions. A tracking system records product in units, packages and tags for regulatory purposes. The accounting ledger records the same product in dollars for financial reporting and tax purposes. Neither is a substitute for the other, and neither automatically agrees with the other.
Reconciliation is the bridge. Every event with an operational record — a purchase, a production run, a transfer between rooms or sites, a retail sale, waste, a correction — should have a corresponding financial effect. When it does not, the variance is either a timing difference, a valuation difference, a data entry error or a genuine inventory loss, and each of those has a different accounting treatment and a different management response.
We reconcile units to dollars on a defined schedule, require cause codes on adjustments, tie physical counts to both records, and document the explanation for remaining differences before the period is closed. The objective is not identical numbers; it is differences that can be explained the same way twice, months apart.
Inventory tracking reconciliationUnits to dollars
- Seed-to-sale records
- Purchasing and production
- Inventory movement
- Sales and point of sale
- Physical inventory counts
- Accounting inventory balance
- Cost of goods sold
- General ledger
- Financial reporting
Cost accounting
Cannabis Inventory and Cost Accounting
Inventory accuracy is where operational reporting and financial reporting meet. The same balance drives gross margin on a management report, the largest asset on the balance sheet, and the cost of goods sold figure that determines taxable income. An error in one place is an error in all three.
Dispensaries
Cost is largely acquisition cost plus directly attributable receiving and handling. The risk sits in shrink, discount treatment, category-level costing and counts performed while the store is trading.
Read moreCultivators
Costs accumulate over a grow cycle across labor, nutrients, utilities and facility overhead, then attach to harvest batches and follow them through drying, curing and packaging. Yield variance and waste need cause codes to be interpretable.
Read moreManufacturers and processors
Raw material, work in process and finished goods each carry different costs, and conversion, packaging and quality-control activity must attach to the right stage rather than being expensed as incurred.
Read moreAcross all three, the same disciplines apply: a consistent costing method, physical counts on a schedule, documented adjustments, and a roll-forward that explains the movement from opening to closing balance every period.
Labor
Cannabis Payroll and Payroll Accounting
Payroll is usually the second-largest cost in a licensed operation and often the most consequential to code correctly. The same wage dollar can be a cultivation production cost, a packaging cost, a retail selling expense or a general administrative expense, and where it lands affects inventory value, gross margin and the tax position.
We record and reconcile payroll to the ledger each period, verify that payroll tax liabilities agree with filings and remittances, code labor by department, function and location, and produce labor reporting management can act on — hours against revenue, overtime concentration, and labor cost per unit produced or per transaction.
Cannabis payroll services- Payroll journal entries
- Payroll tax liability reconciliation
- Labor coded by function
- Department and location coding
- Production labor capitalization
- Accrued wages and PTO
- Contractor versus employee review
- Labor cost management reporting
Forward-looking finance
Fractional CFO Services for Cannabis Companies
Accounting explains what already happened. CFO work uses that record to decide what happens next. Most operators reach a point where the close is reliable but nobody owns the forecast, the pricing analysis or the capital plan — that is the gap fractional CFO support fills, without the cost of a full-time executive hire.
Budgeting and rolling forecasts
Annual budgets maintained as rolling forecasts so plans reflect current conditions.
Cash-flow forecasting
Thirteen-week and longer cash views built around tax reserves, payroll and inventory purchasing.
KPI and margin reporting
Gross margin, labor, inventory turns and working capital tracked against targets.
Entity and location performance
Comparable reporting across sites and entities, with shared overhead allocated consistently.
Capital planning
Capital expenditure evaluation, financing analysis and return expectations documented before commitment.
Scenario planning
Pricing, staffing and expansion modeled before the decision rather than explained afterward.
Reporting
Financial Reporting and Management Visibility
Reporting is only valuable when it changes a decision. A monthly package should let an owner separate revenue growth from margin performance and cash performance, because those three frequently move in different directions in an inventory-heavy, cash-intensive business. Growing revenue while margin compresses and inventory absorbs cash is a common and expensive pattern.
We deliver statements alongside the short list of questions the numbers raise: which category lost margin and why, whether inventory turns are slowing, whether labor moved with volume, and whether the reserve funded to date matches the projected liability.
Financial reporting services- Income statement with margin detail
- Balance sheet with reconciled inventory
- Statement of cash flows
- Budget versus actual
- Location-level profit and loss
- Department reporting
- Gross-margin analysis by category
- Inventory turns and shrink metrics
- Rolling cash forecast
- Accounts payable and receivable aging
Why this work differs
Why Cannabis Accounting Is Different
Inventory intensity
Most of the balance sheet and most of the income statement run through inventory, so costing method and count accuracy determine reported results rather than merely refining them.
Multiple systems of record
A tracking system, a point-of-sale system, a payroll system and an accounting system each hold part of the truth. Nothing reconciles them automatically, so reconciliation has to be an explicit monthly process.
Cash handling
Limited banking access leaves more currency in the business, which raises the bar on segregation of duties, dual counts, deposit documentation and reconciliation to the ledger.
Cost accounting complexity
Allocating labor, facility and overhead costs to product requires measurement — activity records, time studies, square footage — not a percentage chosen at year end.
Specialized tax treatment
Where Section 280E applies, the deduction planning available to other industries is not, and the entire outcome shifts onto inventory and cost of goods sold documentation.
Regulatory recordkeeping
Financial records and compliance records are reviewed by different parties for different reasons, and they must tell the same story at every period end.
Multi-entity structures
Holding companies, property entities and management companies create intercompany activity that must be documented, eliminated on consolidation and supportable as arm's length.
Decision timing
Purchasing, pricing and staffing decisions are made weekly, so financial information delivered a quarter late has no operational value regardless of accuracy.
System architecture
How the Cannabis Accounting System Fits Together
The objective of a cannabis finance function is one coherent system rather than several disconnected sources of truth. Each layer below feeds the one after it, and a failure at any layer degrades everything downstream.
Layer 1
Operations
Cultivation, production and dispensing activity as it happens.
Layer 2
Seed-to-sale and inventory
Units, packages and movement recorded operationally.
Layer 3
Point of sale and revenue
Sales by category, discounts and returns.
Layer 4
Cash and bank
Counts, deposits and bank activity reconciled daily.
Layer 5
Payroll and accounts payable
Labor and vendor obligations recorded and coded.
Layer 6
General ledger
All activity posted to a chart of accounts built for inventory.
Layer 7
Month-end close
Reconciliations, accruals and inventory entries completed.
Layer 8
Financial statements
Income statement, balance sheet and cash flow produced.
Layer 9
Tax and 280E workpapers
Schedules supporting each reported tax figure.
Layer 10
Management reporting and CFO
Forecasts, KPIs and decisions built on the closed record.
Process
Our Monthly Cannabis Accounting Workflow
Scope varies by engagement and by operator type, but a full-service monthly close generally follows this sequence. Each step has a defined owner and an expected completion date on the close calendar.
- 01Collect operating and accounting data from each system of record
- 02Reconcile bank accounts and documented cash activity
- 03Reconcile point-of-sale and other revenue to deposits
- 04Reconcile inventory records against tracking data and counts
- 05Review purchasing and accounts payable for cutoff and coding
- 06Record and reconcile payroll, including labor coding
- 07Review inventory valuation and post cost of goods sold
- 08Reconcile remaining balance sheet accounts
- 09Investigate unusual transactions and adjustments
- 10Post closing entries and lock the period
- 11Produce financial statements and management reporting
- 12Update tax projections and coordinate CFO deliverables
Operator types
Accounting for Dispensaries, Cultivators, Manufacturers and Other Operators
Vertical integration means one license holder may run several of these activities at once, each with its own cost behavior. Reporting that treats them as one business hides where value is created and where it is lost.
Dispensaries
Point-of-sale revenue, daily cash, inventory relief, payroll, category margin, location reporting and tax coordination.
Read moreCultivators
Production accounting across grow stages, labor and overhead accumulation, yield and waste analysis, and batch-level cost of goods sold.
Read moreManufacturers
Raw material, work in process and finished goods tracking, conversion and packaging costs, and margin by product line.
Read moreProcessors
Extraction and refinement cost accumulation, input-to-output yield measurement, and inventory staging through each conversion step.
Read moreTesting laboratories
Service revenue recognition, technical labor, equipment capitalization and depreciation, and operating cost reporting per sample.
Read moreCannabis brands
Product-level economics, wholesale margin, contract manufacturing costs, marketing spend and cash planning around receivables.
Read moreDistributors and transporters
Route and fleet operating costs, custody documentation, and reporting on the cost to move product between sites.
Read moreAncillary businesses
Service and product companies supporting licensed operators, with conventional tax treatment and industry-specific credit risk.
Read moreMulti-state operators
Multi-entity reporting, intercompany activity, consolidation, shared overhead allocation and a consistent chart of accounts across states.
Read moreWho we work with
Operators and Business Types
Industry
Dispensaries
Retail dispensing operations with high transaction volume, patient records and tight inventory tolerances.
Industry
Cultivators
Indoor, greenhouse and mixed-light production with long cycles and heavy fixed overhead.
Industry
Manufacturers
Infused product, concentrate and packaged goods production with recipe-driven costing.
Industry
Processors
Biomass conversion, extraction yield economics and intermediate product valuation.
Industry
Distribution & Logistics
Internal transport, manifest control and freight cost allocation across locations.
Industry
Delivery Operations
Home delivery fulfillment with mobile inventory custody and route-level economics.
Common challenges
Common Cannabis Accounting Challenges
Inventory That Will Not Reconcile
Tracking system quantities drift from the ledger, adjustments are recorded without cause codes, and the audit trail disappears.
Undocumented Cost Allocations
Allocations applied without written methodology or supporting time records are difficult to sustain under examination.
Tax Liabilities Larger Than Cash Profit
Disallowed deductions can produce a liability disproportionate to available cash when no reserve has been funded through the year.
Reporting That Arrives Too Late
Statements delivered ninety days after period end cannot inform pricing, staffing or purchasing decisions.
Reference material
Guides and Explainers
Guide
280E Explained
What the statute says, why COGS matters, and how to document a defensible methodology.
Guide
Bookkeeping Guide
The routines that keep records reliable: daily, weekly and monthly.
Guide
Seed-to-Sale Guide
Connecting compliance tracking data to the ledger, with a workable reconciliation routine.
Guide
CFO Guide
Forecasting, KPI design and capital planning for operators scaling past startup.
Guide
Dispensary Guide
Retail close routines, inventory control and margin management for dispensing.
Guide
Cultivation Guide
Batch costing, overhead absorption and yield economics for grow operations.
Questions We Hear Often
- What does a cannabis CPA do?
- A cannabis CPA maintains the accounting records a licensed operator needs to run and defend the business: monthly close and reconciliation, inventory and cost of goods sold methodology, financial statements, tax workpapers and return preparation, and forward-looking analysis for owners and management. The work centers on connecting operational records to the general ledger so one set of numbers supports management decisions, regulatory recordkeeping and tax filings.
- Why does a cannabis business need specialized accounting?
- Licensed operations are inventory-intensive, run several operational systems that do not automatically agree, handle more cash than most retailers, and face a federal tax position driven by cost accounting rather than deductions. Generic bookkeeping usually records transactions accurately but leaves inventory, cost allocation and documentation in a state that cannot support examination or margin analysis.
- Do you provide cannabis accounting services throughout Florida?
- Yes. The practice serves licensed operators and ancillary businesses statewide, including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tallahassee. Engagements are delivered remotely with scheduled working sessions and on-site visits arranged when inventory or cash procedures require them.
- Do you provide bookkeeping for cannabis businesses?
- Yes. Monthly bookkeeping covers bank, card and cash reconciliation, point-of-sale revenue posting, accounts payable, payroll entries, inventory activity and balance sheet reconciliation, ending in a closed period and delivered statements. Cleanup and catch-up work is scoped separately when prior periods need rebuilding.
- Do you work with dispensaries?
- Yes. Dispensary work concentrates on the daily loop between point-of-sale sales, cash counts, bank deposits, inventory movement and cost of goods sold, plus location-level reporting and gross margin analysis for operators running more than one retail site.
- Can you help with Section 280E accounting?
- Where Section 280E applies to a plant-touching business, the tax outcome depends on inventory accounting and documented cost of goods sold rather than on deduction planning. We build written absorption methodology, supporting time and activity records and tax workpapers. Labeling ordinary selling or administrative expenses as inventory costs is not the same as a supportable capitalization method, and we do not do it.
- How does inventory affect cannabis accounting?
- Inventory is usually the largest balance sheet account and the direct input to cost of goods sold, so an inventory error moves gross margin, net income and taxable income at the same time. Accurate counts, documented adjustments and a consistent costing method are what make financial statements and tax workpapers reliable.
- How do seed-to-sale records connect to accounting?
- Seed-to-sale systems track product in units and packages for regulatory purposes; the accounting ledger tracks the same product in dollars. Purchases, production, transfers, sales, waste and adjustments recorded operationally should have a corresponding financial effect, and month-end reconciliation is where the two records are compared and differences explained.
- Do seed-to-sale and accounting systems need to reconcile?
- They serve different purposes and are rarely identical, but they should be reconciled on a defined schedule and the differences should be explainable. Unexplained variances between tracked quantities and recorded inventory value are the most common source of both restated financials and difficult examination questions.
- Do you provide cannabis tax preparation?
- Yes. Return preparation follows a year-end close, an inventory and cost of goods sold review and a workpaper package, so filings trace back to the accounting records. Estimated payments and reserve planning are handled during the year rather than at filing time.
- Do you provide fractional CFO services?
- Yes. Fractional CFO work is forward-looking: budgeting, cash-flow forecasting, KPI and margin reporting, working-capital and capital-expenditure planning, and scenario analysis for pricing, staffing or expansion decisions. It sits on top of a reliable close rather than replacing one.
- Can you help multi-location cannabis businesses?
- Yes. Multi-location and multi-entity groups need a consistent chart of accounts, location-level profit and loss reporting, documented intercompany activity, shared overhead allocation and consolidation. Those structures are set up deliberately, because retrofitting them later usually means restating prior periods.
- What financial reports should a cannabis business review each month?
- At minimum an income statement with gross margin separated from operating expenses, a balance sheet with reconciled inventory and cash, a cash-flow view, budget versus actual, and location or department detail where more than one site operates. Reports delivered within a few weeks of period end can still influence purchasing, pricing and staffing.
- Can you clean up cannabis books that are behind or inaccurate?
- Yes. Cleanup engagements start with a diagnostic of the ledger, inventory records and prior filings, then rebuild the chart of accounts, reconcile balance sheet accounts period by period and document what changed and why. The deliverable is a defensible starting balance and a monthly process that keeps it that way.
State tax framework
Florida Cannabis Tax & Excise Compliance
While federal IRC Section 280E restricts standard business expense deductions, licensed operators under Florida frameworks face unique state rules. Notably, medical cannabis and qualifying delivery devices are completely exempted from state excise tax, as well as state (6%) and local (up to 1.5%) sales and use taxes. However, standard state corporate income tax rules apply alongside federal 280E conformity definitions.
- No state excise tax on medical cannabis
- Exempt from the 6% state sales and use tax
- Exempt from local surtaxes of up to 1.5%
- Qualifying delivery devices exempt when dispensed
- Florida corporate income tax still applies
- State conformity follows federal 280E definitions
Beyond these categories, operators generally have federal filing obligations, Florida business-level filings depending on entity type, payroll tax obligations, and taxability questions on non-medical merchandise. Confirm current treatment for your entity with your adviser; the details are covered further in our Florida cannabis tax guide and Florida cannabis accounting guide.
Regulatory systems
Navigating Complex Florida Regulatory Compliance
Florida's medical cannabis industry operates within a highly restrictive, vertically integrated environment. We provide specialized cannabis accounting and inventory costing systems engineered to keep financial ledgers flawlessly aligned with the Florida Office of Medical Marijuana Use (OMMU) and state seed-to-sale track-and-trace inventory tracking mandates.
Coverage
Serving Cannabis Businesses Across Florida
We serve licensed operators and the businesses that support them throughout Florida, including the Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Jacksonville and Tallahassee markets. Engagements are delivered remotely with scheduled working sessions, and on-site visits are arranged where inventory counts, cash procedures or systems work require being in the building.
Because Florida licenses are held by vertically integrated operators, a single client often has cultivation, processing, transport and retail activity spread across the state. Our reporting is built to show performance by site and by function rather than as one consolidated total.
- Miami
- Fort Lauderdale
- West Palm Beach
- Boca Raton
- Tampa
- St. Petersburg
- Orlando
- Jacksonville
- Tallahassee
Elsewhere
Where We Publish
Practice notes, explainers and community discussion on cannabis accounting, compliance workflows and tax documentation.
Firm updates on cannabis accounting standards, 280E developments and financial reporting practice notes.
Plain-language explainers for operators and owners on bookkeeping, recordkeeping and tax season preparation.
Community discussion on compliance workflows, seed-to-sale reconciliation and inventory documentation.
Talk through your accounting position
A short conversation is usually enough to identify where documentation, inventory costing or reporting needs attention.