Payroll Providers and Cannabis
Some national payroll providers still decline cannabis clients or drop them without notice, leaving an employer mid-quarter without a processor and filings due. We help New Mexico operators select and implement providers that serve the industry reliably and support departmental cost allocation.
Where a transition is required, we manage it so year-to-date wage and tax data carries over correctly and quarterly filings stay intact.
Labor Cost Allocation for Inventory
For a producer or manufacturer, labor allocation determines how much payroll reaches inventory rather than being lost to disallowance. That requires time tracking by activity, not just by shift: propagation, cultivation, harvest, trim, processing, packaging, quality assurance, and non-production functions like sales and administration.
We configure departments and job codes in the payroll system to match the accounting structure, so the allocation is a data extract rather than a year-end estimate.
- Job-code time tracking mapped to production activities
- Payroll burden allocated with wages, not estimated separately
- Supervisory and quality assurance time analyzed by function
- Documentation retained to support the allocation on examination
New Mexico Wage and Hour Compliance
New Mexico wage and hour law covers overtime, minimum wage requirements that can vary by municipality — including local ordinances in cities like Albuquerque and Santa Fe — final pay timing, and itemized wage statement requirements. Cannabis employers should track municipal wage floors alongside standard state and federal rules.
We coordinate payroll configuration with those requirements and flag exposure areas, working alongside employment counsel where the question is legal rather than accounting.
Worker Classification
Treating cultivation or trim workers as independent contractors is a persistent industry habit and a meaningful liability under New Mexico's employment classification standards. Reclassification assessments carry back taxes, penalties, interest and wage claims.
We review classification against the applicable test, quantify exposure where current treatment isn't supportable, and design a corrected structure.
Multi-Entity and Common Paymaster Structures
Operators with several entities often centralize employment in one company and charge time out to the others. Done properly with agreements, documented time and consistent charges, this holds up; done informally, it undermines both the intercompany position and the inventory allocation.
We structure the arrangement, set the charge methodology and keep supporting records aligned across entities.
