Why Cannabis Producers Outgrow Spreadsheet Planning

Sep 22, 2025

Part One: Why Cannabis Producers Outgrow Spreadsheets for Planning & Scheduling

Author:

Libby Cutress

Summary

Running a cannabis operation is never simple. Orders fluctuate, compliance demands don’t wait, and every week brings another fire to put out. Many producers still rely on spreadsheets, whiteboards, and “tribal knowledge” to plan production. At first, that works fine. But as soon as your team scales, those tools quickly become the source of delays, overtime, and unnecessary costs.

If you’ve ever started a Monday morning already behind schedule, this blog post is for you.

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When the React library was introduced into the community some years back, it was accepted and soon gained lots of popularity as the choice for building out user interfaces in a composable way. The major idea was that each UI interface can be split into multiple different small components and at the end of the day, these components can be combined or composed to form the whole larger UI as intended.


class App extends React.Component { 
render() { 
return ( 
      <ColorContext.Provider value="white"> 
      <SampleComponent /> 
      </ColorContext.Provider> 
    ); 
  } 
}

As a background to what we are trying to present, if we were building multiple UI components for example, we indeed have a component tree which includes the parent component, which becomes the source of truth for our data, and due to the interrelation dependence on the parent components and those underneath it known as the children or descendant descendant descendant descendant descendant component to share data, it comes a point where this becomes an issue.

As we stated earlier, for small to medium apps, sharing data across many different components could be easy, since all we need to do is pass this data or props across or down from the parent to every child that needs it. Now this is fine. What if we have a hugely nested or a large component tree and we intend to pass the data or prop down this tree?

React context, a core React API provides an easier interface for developers to share data or pass props down multiple levels deep in our React applications. From the React docs, with react context, we can easily pass data down to the very component that needs it at any level in the component tree, without having to explicitly pass this data down each component level in the tree. This is all there is to React context.

To drive this definition further for more clarity, say you have a particular theme color set at the parent component level of the app, and you only intend to pass it down to the thirtieth component down the tree, without having to pass it down every level until you get to that thirtieth level, but just pass it down to only the thirtiet

The Limits of Spreadsheets and Whiteboards

Spreadsheets and whiteboards feel flexible, but they’re fragile. They weren’t designed to handle the complexity of modern cannabis production.

As your business grows, these cracks start to show:

Constant firefighting: Planning happens days in advance, not weeks. A single late QA signoff or missing material derails the whole flow.
Tribal knowledge: Schedules live in one person’s head or one Excel file. If they’re away, the team is guessing.
Resource collisions: Two jobs need the same room, label machine, or team - and you don’t realize until it’s too late.
Missed handoffs: Production is ready, but packaging isn’t. Packaging is ready, but COAs or labels aren’t. Everyone scrambles to catch up.

These issues are more than annoying - they translate into higher operating costs, expensive rush orders, wasted labour, and even missed shipments.

Why Cannabis Operations Feel the Pain First

Cannabis manufacturers operate under a unique set of pressures:

Compliance bottlenecks: COAs can take days to return. If your schedule doesn’t account for that, entire orders stall.
Labeling delays: No labels, no packaging - even if product is ready. That creates ripple effects across rooms.
Shortages: Pre-roll cones, packaging, and cannabis inputs all expire or run short. Spreadsheets rarely flag shortages in time.
Labour constraints: Pre-roll rooms, trimming, and packaging shifts all compete for the same limited workforce.

When demand spikes - like a province order suddenly increasing 7x - your spreadsheet can’t adapt. The result is late nights, rushed jobs, and a reliance on overtime as the safety net (this happened to one of our customers!).

The Hidden Costs of Staying Manual

If this sounds familiar, your planning system isn’t serving your team - it’s draining it.

Here’s what we often hear from scaling cannabis producers:

“We always get the job done, but we’re flying blind while doing it.”
“Half our week is spent reacting to problems we should’ve seen coming.”
“We don’t know we’re missing something until it’s already too late.”

Every one of these challenges chips away at profitability. Rush shipping eats margins. Extra labour drives up costs. Delayed orders damage relationships with distributors and retailers.

What Smarter Cannabis Planning Looks Like

Moving beyond spreadsheets doesn’t mean adopting a heavy, complex ERP. Cannabis teams need a solution that’s flexible enough for day-to-day changes but powerful enough to manage compliance, QA, and production together.

A modern scheduling system should give you:

A live, shared production calendar everyone can see and trust.
Real-time visibility into materials, labour, and QA status - all in one place.
Automatic conflict detection so rooms, people, or machines aren’t double-booked.
Scenario planning to test what happens if COAs are delayed or orders spike.
Audit-ready records tied directly to batches, work orders, and compliance needs.

Instead of juggling five spreadsheets and hallway conversations, your team has one reliable source of truth. That means fewer surprises, fewer late nights, and more time spent on scaling - not scrambling.

How to Spot When It’s Time to Upgrade

You’ve likely outgrown spreadsheets if:

Every week feels like a reset, not a step forward.
Scheduling changes happen over calls, texts, or Post-its.
QA or materials delays throw off your entire plan.
Overtime is your default solution to missed deadlines.
Growth feels like adding weight, not momentum.

If even one of these sounds familiar, your current tools are holding you back.

Next Steps

Spreadsheets and whiteboards got you started, but they won’t get you to the next phase of growth. To scale with confidence, cannabis producers need planning systems built for their reality — complex SKUs, compliance bottlenecks, and fast-changing demand.

Download our free Planning & Scheduling Guide to learn practical steps you can take today to reduce friction, improve visibility, and replace the chaos with a smarter way to plan.

In Part Two, we’ll share how leading cannabis brands are planning smarter — moving from firefighting to proactive growth with real examples from the field.

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Elevated Signals, founded in Vancouver in 2016, offers a GMP‑validated SaaS that unifies real‑time inventory, quality and environmental data, replacing paper systems.

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