Centime vs ShelfSpace: Cannabis AP Software vs a Managed AP Team

Centime is solid AP software. It's still software.

Centime offers real AP capabilities. Their platform includes AI-powered OCR for invoice capture, predictive GL coding that learns your chart of accounts, 2-way and 3-way PO matching, multi-tier approval workflows, and payment processing including check printing. They integrate with NetSuite, Sage Intacct, and QuickBooks. They even earn 2.25% APY on funds held in their system. And they have a cannabis-specific industry page.

For a general business — or even a cannabis business with a dedicated AP team — Centime is a viable option. The software handles the workflow. Your team runs the software.

That's the distinction. Centime gives you tools. ShelfSpace gives you a team.

The cannabis gaps

The same structural gaps that affect every general AP tool apply to Centime:

1. No Metrc integration. Centime can match invoices to POs. But in cannabis, the source of truth for deliveries is Metrc — the state-mandated seed-to-sale tracking system. Without Metrc data, you can't verify that what a vendor invoiced matches what was actually delivered and manifested. You're trusting the invoice, which is exactly how dispensaries end up overpaying vendors by tens of thousands per year. We recently caught a $4,873 duplicate invoice — the kind of cross-entity billing error that's invisible without Metrc cross-referencing. Learn more about delivery verification.
2. No credit recovery. Centime processes invoices and payments. It doesn't identify credits you're owed from vendors — returns, expirations, co-marketing commitments that were fulfilled but never claimed. That's a separate workflow that requires pulling POS and Metrc data, building credit memos, and negotiating with vendors. We routinely find $8,000 to $25,000 per month in recoverable credits during our first evaluation of a new client. Read our credit recovery case study to see what that looks like in practice.
3. No consignment settlements. Cannabis consignment requires weekly settlement calculations based on POS sell-through data, profit splits, and aging discounts. It's not an invoice workflow — it's a settlement workflow. Centime has no concept of it because consignment barely exists outside cannabis and a few other niche industries.
4. You still run it. The most fundamental difference: Centime gives you software and expects your team to operate it. For a cannabis operator stretched across compliance, inventory, customer service, and daily operations, "here's another software platform to manage" is a burden, not a solution.

What managed AP looks like

Here's what happens when you hand AP to ShelfSpace instead of running software yourself:

• Vendors email ShelfSpace, not you. Every invoice, every question, every credit dispute goes to your dedicated ShelfSpace inbox. Our team and ShelfiQ handle 95% of it without you ever seeing it.
• Every invoice verified against Metrc before payment. We match line items to Metrc delivery data. If the invoice says 50 units and Metrc says 47 were received, we flag it before you pay.
• Credits found and applied every cycle. Returns processed in Metrc but never invoiced back. Expirations with credit terms. Promotional commitments that were fulfilled but never claimed. We track every one and deduct them from the next payment.
• Consignment settled weekly. Settlement reports calculated to the penny, with profit splits, aging discounts, and sell-through data pulled directly from your POS and Metrc.
• Payments prepared, you approve, checks go out. We prepare the payment run. You review and approve. That's it.
• Everything synced to QuickBooks. Real-time sync — no double entry, no reconciliation headaches.

Your AP workload: approve payments. 15 minutes per week.

Who should use what

Have a dedicated AP team and want software to make them more efficient? Centime is worth evaluating. The AI-powered invoice capture, predictive coding, and multi-tier approvals are genuinely useful for teams that want to do AP themselves, better.

Don't have an AP team and don't want to build one? ShelfSpace does the work. You don't need to hire, train, or manage AP staff. Our team handles the entire workflow — you just approve payments.

Running cannabis and need Metrc verification, credit recovery, and consignment? ShelfSpace is purpose-built for this. No general AP platform — Centime included — offers Metrc integration, consignment settlements, or credit recovery. Those aren't add-ons we bolted on. They're the foundation.

The real question: tools or a team?

Most dispensary operators don't want more software. They want someone to handle the problem. Centime is a good tool for teams that want to do AP themselves, better. ShelfSpace is for operators who want AP done for them, right.

Centime gives you a dashboard. We give you a team that knows cannabis, knows Metrc, knows your vendors, and handles the work so you can focus on running your stores.

We'll run a free evaluation — show you the credits Centime can't find, the Metrc discrepancies it can't check, and exactly how much a managed service would save you.