On Oct. 1, 2026, Michigan's Cannabis Regulatory Agency revoked the license of Budbridge LLC, dba Muha Meds Ypsilanti, and fined it $251,250. Employees had split orders to get past oversale warnings. In Oregon, the OLCC settled with BTE 3, LLC, dba Floyd's Fine Cannabis, for $2,145 plus a five-day suspension, or 18 days, after an employee sold to a minor decoy.
Both surfaced at the register. Our Seven Deadly Budtender Sins story covered what went wrong. This is the follow-up: a scored Excel checklist you can print, run at every huddle, and sign at close — plus this explainer for how to use it. Each item names the sin it prevents. The suggestions are editorial advice, not legal requirements; check them against your state's rules.
Before the shift
Check Metrc for holds and recalls, and post a "pulled today" list. Prevents Sin 3: Selling something that's on hold or recalled. A Kalamazoo store accepted a consent order after selling a recalled tag; an employee said the store "was not initially aware of the recall." The order required a rewritten hold-and-recall procedure.
Ask the team out loud: "Anything on hold today?" Sin 3.
Confirm the ID scanner works at every station. Prevents Sin 2: Waving someone through without scanning the ID. If one is down, that station doesn't sell until it's fixed.
Remind staff: an oversale warning is a hard stop. Prevents Sin 1: Splitting a sale to get around the limit. Repeat the script: "The system won't let me. Let me get a manager."
Name the manager on call for big orders, refusals and tag problems. Sins 1, 2 and 7.
Review today's promotions, samples and visiting guests, and confirm each has a written plan and a manager's signature. Prevents Sin 6: Freebies, samples and the influencer hookup. The Muha final order found "upper management decided" to give influencers free product.
At the counter
Scan every ID, every visit, regulars included. Read the birthdate yourself. Sin 2. The Muha order records that employees "relied on familiarity rather than checking licenses or IDs."
When the line grows, add a person, not speed. Sin 2. Oregon settled with three retailers this year over sales to minor decoys, two of them second offenses.
Never split a ticket to clear a warning. Sin 1. In the Muha case, the judge's findings, adopted in the CRA's final order, say both influencer orders "were intentionally fulfilled by scanning numerous, consecutive, compliant transactions... to avoid triggering the oversales warnings." The company argued that what mattered was whether any single transaction exceeded the limit. The decision called splitting a sale into smaller transactions "contradictory to the unambiguous intent of the law and administrative rules."
Big or unusual orders get a manager's written sign-off. Sin 1. In Maryland, The Apothecary, dba Grow West, accepted a consent order over four over-limit sales and nine sales to patients with expired certifications; it included Metrc training for all agents.
Ring every sale, staff sales included, at the approved price. Prevents Sin 5: "Pennying out" and off-book discounts. The Muha order describes three in-house POS profiles used to log free product, about 175,000 transactions in all, and says employees would "penny" out sales.
Nothing leaves the store unless it's rung up or logged in Metrc to a named person. Sin 6. A Michigan store's consent order followed trade samples going into customer goody bags without being recorded in Metrc.
If a tag won't scan, stop. Don't remap it. Write it down and hand it to the inventory lead. Prevents Sin 7: Fixing the tag yourself. At House of Dank 2, a sales employee changed a Metrc tag in the POS to fix a discrepancy, which made it look as if a recalled tag had been sold (consent order).
When in doubt, refuse and call the manager. All seven. A refused sale costs nothing.
End of shift / manager review
Two people sign every waste entry, senior staff included. Prevents Sin 4: "Nobody will miss one cart." In Maine, the Office of Cannabis Policy revoked a seasonal employee's own ID card in a Jan. 6, 2026 notice, after video showed a vape cart being pocketed. The company's CEO reported it, and the notice was directed at the employee, not the business.
Reconcile the count against Metrc and note any gaps. Sins 4 and 7.
Review the "flag it" log and close out every tag issue. Sin 7.
Scan the POS for split-ticket patterns: same customer, back-to-back sales near the limit. Sin 1. Our Michigan audit guide walks through what to look for.
Scan for sales at or near $0 and for discounts outside written policy. Sin 5.
Log every refused sale, and thank the person who refused it. Sins 1 and 2.
Manager initials the sheet; file it. All seven.
How to run it
Huddle (five minutes). Read the "Before the shift" items aloud at opening and at each shift change. Walk through one sin's counter script each day.
Sign-off. The opening manager initials "Before the shift." Each budtender initials "At the counter" to confirm they've heard it. The closing manager signs the review. Keep the sheets.
Refreshers. Rotate one sin per week so the team covers all seven every couple of months, and retrain after any recall, near miss or new hire. Put in writing that no one is disciplined for refusing a sale or calling a manager.
How the Excel score works
The printable checklist lives in the companion spreadsheet . Mark each of the seven sins Pass, Fail, or N/A on the Shift Summary tab.
Shift Score % = Passes ÷ (Passes + Fails). N/A does not count — it never drags the score down. The grade is blank until at least one sin is marked Pass or Fail.
Grade | Band | What to do (editorial advice) |
|---|---|---|
Clean | 100% | Every scored sin passed. File the sheet. Thank the team at the next huddle. |
Watch | 85–99% | Usually one Fail. Note what happened, fix it before close, and cover that sin’s counter script at the next huddle. |
Escalate | Below 85% | Two or more Fails (or one Fail when several sins are N/A). Tell the GM or compliance lead before close; don’t wait for the weekly meeting. |
An optional weighted score on the same tab gives Sins 1–3 (limits, ID, recalls) double weight. That weighting is our editorial suggestion, not a regulator metric. A Fail on Sin 1, 2, or 3 also flips a “tell GM before close” flag, whatever the overall percentage says.
This score is a training aid for your store. It is not a state grade, and it does not replace your SOPs or your regulator’s rules.
The bottom line
Most of the cases behind this list surfaced at the counter, where the right training, tools and backing give staff the chance to stop a problem. Strong budtender training, and sharing what works across dispensaries, lets this industry grow on its own terms and may keep individual budtender licensing at bay. It starts with a checklist and five minutes before the doors open.
FAQ
What should be on a dispensary pre-shift checklist? At minimum, the items above: a hold-and-recall check, working ID scanners, the oversale script, a named manager on call, and sign-off on any promotion or samples. That list is our advice, drawn from the cases above. It isn't a state requirement. Your state's rules, and any order or SOP your store is under, come first.
How do dispensaries prevent split-ticket oversales? Treat the POS oversale warning as a hard stop, require a manager's sign-off on big or unusual orders, and review sales for back-to-back tickets to the same customer. Those are best practices, not rules. The rule that matters is your state's purchase limit, which varies by state. In the Muha case, Michigan's regulator rejected the argument that no single transaction broke the limit.
How often should budtenders scan IDs for regular customers? Our advice is every visit. Muha's final order cited employees who "relied on familiarity rather than checking licenses or IDs," and Oregon settled three cases over sales to minor decoys. Check your state's rules for exactly what ID check is required.
What should a budtender do when a Metrc tag won't scan? Stop, don't remap or swap the tag, write down what happened and hand it to the inventory lead. That's best-practice advice. At House of Dank 2, a sales employee who changed a tag in the POS made it look as if a recalled tag had been sold, and the store was cited for inaccurate tracking. Who may correct a tag, and how, depends on your state's tracking rules and your store's SOP.
How does the shift checklist score work? Mark each sin Pass, Fail, or N/A. Score % is Passes divided by Passes plus Fails; N/A is left out. Clean is 100%, Watch is 85–99%, Escalate is below 85%. Those bands are our editorial advice for managers, not a regulator score.