“They need to track cannabis isn’t  that different from tracking serialized assets,” says Jeffrey Bullough, Fishbowl’s cannabis inventory management specialist.. 

Fishbowl was drawn into the market when users began utilizing the software after Colorado first legalized the recreational use of cannabis products. “There was a vacuum,” Bullough says. “Anyway who was in the cannabis business had no way to track it.”

Cannabis growers must track plants and their locations “to make sure those plants weren’t just disappearing,” Bullough says.

The software utilizes barcodes to track plant IDs and lot numbers and the presence, location and progress of cannabis within a facility. Like other business people, cannabis growers, cultivators, processors, and dispensaries need to know if they are making money. That includes accounting for the cost of soil, potting, fertilizers and other supplies.

Different parts of the plant must also be tracked. “If you have an eight-inch plant, you will harvest certain materials,” says Bullough. Fishbowl tracks oil and seeds and all consumables and waste by products through all processing stages. Once processed, goods are assigned a lot ID. “For Lot 1-2-3 in a particular strain we will track every gram of that,” Bullough says.