Cannabis Expired Product Credits

How Cannabis Expired Product Credits Work

A cannabis expired product credit is the amount a vendor owes when product expires before it sells. Cannabis products have regulatory shelf lives tracked in METRC, and when product ages past its expiration date, someone absorbs the loss. If your vendor agreement includes expiration protection, that someone is the vendor. ShelfSpace monitors every package expiration date and generates the credit memo the moment product crosses that threshold.

Expiration credits are one of the most commonly missed credits in cannabis retail. Dispensaries carry hundreds of SKUs, and tracking expiration dates across all of them manually is not realistic. Our credit recovery system handles the monitoring so nothing slips through.

METRC Expiration Tracking

Every cannabis package in METRC has an expiration date tied to its lab results. ShelfSpace pulls this data and cross-references it with your current on-hand inventory. When a package is within 30 days of expiration, we flag it in your dashboard. When it actually expires, the credit memo process begins.

The memo includes the METRC package tag, original cost, expiration date, and days on shelf. This gives vendors full visibility into what expired and why the credit is valid.

Consignment vs. Wholesale Expirations

How expiration credits work depends on whether the product is on consignment or was purchased wholesale.

• Consignment product — The vendor still owns the inventory. When consignment product expires, it is removed from the settlement calculation entirely. The vendor never gets paid for product that did not sell, so no credit memo is needed. ShelfSpace handles this within the weekly settlement process.
• Wholesale product — You already paid the vendor. When wholesale product expires and your agreement includes expiration protection, a credit memo is generated against the original purchase cost. The credit is applied to the vendor's next AP payment.

This distinction matters because consignment vendors sometimes dispute expiration credits, arguing the product should have been promoted more aggressively. ShelfSpace tracks days on shelf and sales velocity for every package, giving you data to back up the credit if a dispute arises. See the approval workflow for how disputes are resolved.

Preventing Expiration Losses

Beyond credit recovery, ShelfSpace helps you avoid expirations in the first place. Our Insights dashboard shows aging inventory heatmaps so you can identify slow-moving product early. Pair that with co-marketing promotions to move aging stock before it expires, and you reduce waste while preserving your vendor relationship.