Jim Marty, managing partner of Bridge West CPAs and Consultants, knew it was time to roll into the marijuana industry after his clients in Colorado started to inquire about how they could profit from the psychoactive drug.
It all started in 2009, when clients from his former firm, Jim Marty and Associates, wanted to know if they could rent their warehouses to cannabis growers. “Because of the recession, their construction and/or real estate businesses weren’t doing well and they were considering opening a [cannabis] dispensary,” Marty told Accounting Today.
After the constant stream of inquiries, Marty took it upon himself to head to San Francisco to conduct his own due diligence. He met with some of the top lawyers and CPAs in the marijuana industry in California, who shared some vital information. “They said, ‘In the 15 years of medical marijuana in California, a CPA has never been sanctioned for doing tax returns for the industry,’” recalled Marty. “In fact, the IRS wanted people like me to help out with the industry.” This was his cue to jump right in.
Within five years, the cannabis business side of his original firm grew until it exceeded his 30-year-old practice. “January 1 of 2015, I merged all of my non-cannabis business into Brock and Co. To separate the two, I started BridgeWest in 2013 to service my cannabis clients,” said Marty, who now has over 200 clients in his practice, and a staff of 10, including two younger partners.
Jim Marty, Bridge-West CPAs and Consulting
Just like the casino industry, the marijuana business makes sure that there are at least two people in the room when cash is counted. … There are several really good software point-of-sale systems that track the sales and the inventory. Colorado has a system that updates every evening as the shops close up where the entire inventory in the dispensaries is reconciled with the state’s system. The state monitors that inventory very closely.
Read Tamika Cody’s”Practice Profile: Blazing a Trail”: http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/firm-profession/blazing-a-trail-75965-1.html
