Most cannabis compliance problems start before the first sale. A new cannabis operator who doesn't set up their chart of accounts for §280E compliance from the beginning will spend thousands correcting it later — or face an IRS examination with no defensible COGS documentation. 420Ledger's new license onboarding establishes the financial infrastructure every new cannabis business needs before opening: chart of accounts, accounting software, METRC workflow, tax registration, and a 280E strategy specific to your license type.
New license onboarding covers everything from chart of accounts setup to your first closed month — so your compliance infrastructure is correct from transaction one.
We build your chart of accounts from scratch for §280E compliance — correctly separating COGS, plant-touching costs, and non-plant-touching operating expenses. This structure is the foundation everything else runs on.
We configure QuickBooks Online for your cannabis business: POS integration, bank and credit card feeds, tax mappings, and the account structure required for 280E. You get a system configured for cannabis from day one, not adapted later.
Before you sell a single unit, we walk through your business model and establish your 280E strategy. What activities are plant-touching? Where is your COGS? How should shared costs be allocated between production and administration? These decisions affect your tax liability for as long as you operate.
We establish your seed-to-sale reconciliation workflow so your METRC data and financial records stay in sync from the first transfer tag. Reconciliation discipline from day one prevents the METRC-to-financial discrepancies that create regulatory exposure later.
We close your first month of operations with you, side by side. Every transaction categorized correctly. Every account reconciled. Your books correct from month one — not after months of cleanup.
State excise tax account registration, sales tax registration (where applicable), employer payroll account setup, and regulatory fee schedules — we get the compliance infrastructure in place before your first filing deadline.
Whether it's your first dispensary or your fifteenth state license, accounting setup done wrong at the start compounds every month after.
Retail is where the highest 280E exposure lives. Getting your dispensary's books structured correctly before the first sale is the single highest-ROI decision a new operator can make.
Cultivation COGS is complex. Labor, inputs, overhead — all of it needs to be tracked from the first planting cycle to support your 280E position at harvest and sale.
A new processing license often means a new entity, a new chart of accounts, and new compliance requirements. We onboard the new license into a properly structured accounting system from the start.
Adding a state to your MSO means a new regulatory body, new excise tax structure, and new bookkeeping requirements. We onboard your new state entity into your existing accounting infrastructure correctly.
Before you make your first sale. Most cannabis accounting problems — incorrect chart of accounts, missing COGS documentation, unsupported 280E positions — originate before the business opens. A dispensary that starts selling with a default QuickBooks setup and a general bookkeeper will spend thousands correcting structural problems later, or face an IRS examination with no defensible documentation. 420Ledger's new license onboarding establishes your accounting infrastructure before your first transaction, not after the problems have compounded.
A chart of accounts is the classification system for every financial transaction in your business. For a cannabis company, the chart of accounts must separate Cost of Goods Sold from plant-touching operating expenses from non-plant-touching operating expenses — because these three categories are treated completely differently under IRC §280E. A standard QuickBooks chart of accounts doesn't make these distinctions. 420Ledger builds a cannabis-specific chart of accounts from the first day of your engagement, structured to support your 280E compliance from the first transaction.
Yes — and this is when the engagement is most valuable. Before your first sale, we can establish your chart of accounts, configure your accounting software, set up your METRC reconciliation workflow, register your tax accounts, and walk through your 280E strategy for your specific license type and business model. The cost of getting this right before opening is far lower than the cost of reconstructing and correcting it after a year of disorganized books.
420Ledger configures QuickBooks Online for cannabis clients. QBO integrates with most cannabis POS systems (including Dutchie, Flowhub, and others), allows bank feed connections, and supports the multi-account structure required for 280E compliance. We configure the account structure, set up POS integration, connect bank and credit card feeds, and train your team on the workflows we'll maintain together on a monthly basis.
Every month of correctly categorized transactions is a month of documented COGS that supports your annual 280E return. A new cannabis operator who has 12 months of clean, 280E-aware books enters tax season with a defensible position already built. An operator who spends the first year with a misconfigured chart of accounts enters tax season needing a retroactive reconstruction — which is expensive, imprecise, and creates audit exposure. The ROI on correct setup from day one compounds every month.
All tiers include chart of accounts setup, software configuration, 280E consultation, and ongoing monthly bookkeeping. Pricing scales with entity count and complexity.
Single-license new operator. Chart of accounts setup, software configuration, 280E consultation, and ongoing monthly bookkeeping.
Multi-location or expanding operators. Multi-entity setup, METRC workflows across locations, and ongoing compliance.
MSOs launching new state entities. Full new-license onboarding integrated into your existing MSO accounting structure.
The first 90 days of a cannabis license set the pattern for every filing after it. Book a free consultation before you open — not after your books need reconstructing.
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