Accounting and the US cannabis industry: Federal financial regulations and the perspectives of certified public accountants and cannabis businesses owners

Posted on March 1, 2021 By LabLynx Journal articles

Cannabis-related businesses (CRBs) in U.S. states where cannabis is legal have long had difficulties finding the banking and financial services they require in a market where the federal government continues to consider cannabis illegal. Working in cash-only situations while trying to keep careful accounting, all while trying to keep the business afloat and clear of legal troubles, remains a challenge. This late 2020 paper by Owens-Ott recognizes that challenge and examines it further, delving into the world of the certified public accountant (CPA) and the role—or lack thereof—they are willing to play working with CRBs. The author conducted a qualitative study asking 1. why some CPAs are unwilling to provide services to CRBs, 2. how CRBs compensate for the lack of those services, and 3. what CPAs need to know in order to provide effective services to CRBs. Owens-Ott concludes that "competent and knowledgeable CPAs" willing to work with CRBs are out there, but the CPAs should be carefully vetted. And interested CPAs "must commit to acquiring and maintaining substantial specialized knowledge related to Tax Code Section 280E, internal controls for a cash-only or cash-intensive business, and the workings of the cannabis industry under the current regulatory conditions."

Kadi4Mat: A research data infrastructure for materials science

Posted on February 24, 2021 By LabLynx Journal articles

This 2021 paper published in Data Science Journal explains Kadi4Mat, a combination electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) and data repository for better managing research and analyses in materials sciences. Noting the difficulty of extracting and using data obtained from experiments and simulations in the materials sciences, as well as the increasing levels of complexity in those experiments and simulations, Brandt et al. sought to develop a comprehensive informatics solution capable of handling structured data storage and exchange in combination with documented and reproducible data analysis and visualization. Noting a wealth of open-source components for such an informatics project, the team provides a conceptual overview of the system and then dig into the details of its development using various open-source components. They then provide screenshots of records and data (and metadata) management, as well as workflow management. The authors conclude their solution helps manage "heterogeneous use cases of materials science disciplines," while being extensible enough to extend "the research data infrastructure to other disciplines" in the future.