FEATURED PARTNER

Staffing: Cannabis Back-Office Talent, Fully Managed

Hire cannabis-savvy back-office staff

If you’ve tried to hire help for a cannabis business, you’ve probably seen this. The person knows accounting, or sales, or marketing fine, but they’ve never touched METRC, never read a manifest, and have no idea what LeafLink or Dutchie even is. You spend two or three months training them before they’re useful. We do it differently at Headquarters. We hire and train back-office staff who already know the cannabis platforms you’re using, so they’re useful from week one. A cannabis-experienced senior operations lead oversees each team, joins your weekly check-ins, and owns the quality of the work.

Tell us what you need to hire → or book a 30-min intro call

Trained on the platforms cannabis operators actually use

  • LeafLink
  • Distru
  • Nabis
  • Treez
  • Dutchie POS
  • Flowhub
  • Cova
  • Blaze
  • Meadow
  • METRC
  • BioTrack
  • QuickBooks
  • Sage Intacct
  • NetSuite
  • Bill.com
  • Klaviyo
  • Alpine IQ

Why “cannabis-savvy” matters more than headcount

Most of the back-office mess at small cannabis businesses traces back to the same thing. Nobody on staff has done this work in cannabis before. So wrong product names get punched into LeafLink. COAs go missing from manifests. Customer payments sit for 60-plus days because nobody’s chasing them. Menus on Dutchie go stale. The books get coded in a way that turns 280E into a nightmare next April. It’s not a people problem. Cannabis just has its own software, its own rules, and quirks that take a long time to learn from scratch.

Headquarters was built for cannabis operators. Our team already knows the platforms you’re on, the compliance rules in your state, and the way orders, payments, and inventory move around the industry. They report to cannabis-experienced senior operations leads who meet with you every week, learn how you run things, and make sure the work gets done right. You get a small back-office team for less than what one in-house hire would cost you.

Roles we staff

Start with one function or build a complete back-office team.

Sales Operations

Same-day order entry, substitutions, buyer database management, and territory reporting so reps can sell instead of admin.

  • Order entry into LeafLink, Distru, Nabis
  • Live menu & substitution management
  • Buyer CRM cleanup & preference tracking
  • Sell-through reorder recommendations

Accounts Receivable

Full-service receivables: daily retailer outreach, statement reconciliation, and aging reports that drop DSO 30–45%.

  • Daily collections outreach
  • Statement & credit reconciliation
  • Aging bucket & escalation reporting
  • Customer record hygiene

AP & Bookkeeping

Bill capture, vendor payments, monthly close prep, and 280E-clean coding, all built around your QuickBooks, Sage, or NetSuite.

  • Bill.com / Ramp / Melio workflows
  • Vendor onboarding & statement audit
  • 280E-compliant GL coding
  • Bank & CC reconciliations

Controller & FP&A

Month-end close, entity-level P&L integrity, 13-week cash forecasts, and decision-ready dashboards your operators can actually use.

  • Standardized close checklists
  • Multi-entity P&L & COA cleanup
  • Cash flow & forecasting
  • SKU- & territory-level margin analytics

Marketing Operations

Lifecycle email, paid social for dispensaries, and weekly performance reporting that ties campaigns to in-store revenue.

  • Klaviyo & Alpine IQ lifecycle flows
  • Meta paid media for dispensaries
  • Creative ops & weekly reporting
  • Cannabis-compliant segmentation

Data & Catalog Ops

SKU deduplication, image and description standardization, and ongoing catalog QC so your menus and reports stop lying to you.

  • Master catalog cleanup & dedupe
  • Photo & description standardization
  • Ongoing SKU governance & QC
  • Distributor portal data sync

Why operators choose Headquarters over a staffing agency

  • Cannabis-trained on day one. No 90-day ramp. Our team already knows METRC, manifest workflows, 280E, and the major POS/distribution platforms.
  • Managed, not just placed. Every role is supported by a larger team structure, giving you built-in management, coverage, and quality control as your needs evolve.
  • Roughly 60% lower cost than US in-house. Get the leverage of a 3–5 person back-office team for what a single domestic hire costs you fully loaded.
  • Scale up or down on short notice. Add coverage for a state expansion, harvest season, or year-end close without payroll and HR overhead.
  • SOPs and reporting you keep. Every workflow is documented in shared SOPs. You own the playbook, even if you ever leave us.
  • Built by cannabis operators. Founders ran sales and ops at cannabis brands and distributors. The playbook is shaped by real operating pain.
40%
average drop in AR aging within 60 days
99%
same-day data entry accuracy across the stack
30%
average back-office overhead reduction in Q1

“Our AR aging dropped by 40% in month one. The HQ team knew our stack from day one. We didn’t have to teach anyone what a manifest was.”

— MSO Head of Accounting

How it works

  1. 1

    Scoping call (30 min).

    We map your current back-office stack, the gaps causing the most pain, and the roles that would move the needle fastest.

  2. 2

    Team match & SOP build.

    We assign trained back-office teammates and experienced operations leadership, then document workflows in shared SOPs you own.

  3. 3

    Embedded delivery, week one.

    Your team gets Slack, system access, and a weekly cadence. You start seeing cleaner data, faster orders, and tighter AR inside 30 days.

  4. 4

    Scale on demand.

    Add roles when you expand, scale down off-season, swap functions as your business changes. No hiring overhead.

FAQ

Are your staff actually licensed for cannabis work?

Our team handles back-office and operational work, not regulated activities like manufacturing, retail handling, or transport that require state-issued cannabis licenses. They work alongside your licensed staff, supporting administration, accounting, data, and reporting from outside the regulated chain of custody.

Where is the team based?

Our delivery team is global and trained on cannabis workflows. Every engagement is supported by a cannabis-experienced operations lead who serves as your day-to-day point of contact, and backed by a U.S.-based senior operations leadership team that provides oversight, quality control, and ongoing support.

What does it cost?

Engagements are monthly retainers scoped to the role and volume. Typical operators replace a single in-house hire with a 3–5 person Headquarters pod for roughly 40–60% less fully-loaded cost.

What size operators do you work with?

From single-state brands and 1–3 store dispensary groups to multi-state operators and licensed distributors. The smallest engagements start at one role; the largest run full back-office across 5+ functions.

How fast can a teammate start?

Typical kickoff is 7–10 days from contract signature. We’ve onboarded urgent engagements (peak harvest, AR crisis, sudden departure) in under 72 hours.

See case studies and pricing examples on TryHeadquarters.com →

TALK TO HEADQUARTERS

Tell us what you need to hire. We’ll send a same-week scoping plan.

One short form. A real Headquarters operator reads each response and replies within one business day with a shortlist of roles, estimated cost, and timeline. No automated sequence.

PREFER TO TALK? Book a 30-min intro call →

    We’ll only use your details to reply to this request. No newsletter, no resale.

    Headquarters has supported back-office for brands, distributors, dispensaries, and MSOs across CA, NY, MA, NJ, MI, CO, IL, AZ, NV, and OK.