Dispensary payment processing usually spans three channels: the retail counter, delivery, and wholesale invoicing. Bank-to-bank ACH covers all three from one platform, using in-store QR at checkout, SMS pay links before a driver leaves, and recurring B2B invoices. Cash acceptance continues unchanged, and funds settle the next day.
The short version
- Four payment channels, one platform: in-store QR, SMS pay links for delivery, e-commerce prepay, and B2B invoicing.
- No app download. The customer connects a bank once, then pays with a single confirmation.
- Next-day settlement into the merchant’s own bank account.
- Runs alongside the existing point of sale rather than replacing it.
Start with the constraint
A dispensary takes payment in more places than a typical retailer: at a counter with a line behind it, at a customer’s front door, on a website for a pickup order, and on a 30-day invoice to a wholesale buyer. Cash handles one of those well and the other three badly. Card workarounds handle all four only until the account closes, because there is no merchant category code for cannabis and the mismatch is eventually enforced.
Bank-to-bank ACH moves money on federally regulated banking rails, directly between the customer’s bank and yours. The card networks are not part of the transaction, which is why the same rails can cover all four channels without a category problem in any of them.
1. The retail counter
The customer scans a QR code with their phone camera. First time, they connect their bank, which takes about 30 seconds. They confirm the amount, add a tip if they want to, and the sale is done. No app store, no account creation ritual, no card present.
After the first visit there is nothing left to set up. A returning customer completes a purchase in under 20 seconds, which is faster than counting change. Greencard Payments platform data puts the repeat rate at around 87%, and that figure is the thing that actually shifts the cash mix over a few weeks.
What it does to average ticket
Cash caps the sale at what is in the wallet. Cashless ATM caps it at a rounded increment and hands back change. Bank-to-bank ACH charges the exact basket total, so the ticket is whatever the customer actually wants to buy. For most stores this is the single largest revenue effect, larger than the fee difference between any two vendors.
2. Delivery
An SMS pay link goes to the customer and is paid before the driver leaves the store. The order is settled in advance, the driver carries no cash, and the “customer says they only have forty dollars” call disappears from the dispatch queue.
Two secondary effects tend to matter as much as the payment itself: driver safety improves when there is nothing to rob, and the end-of-shift reconciliation stops being a manual count.
3. E-commerce and pickup orders
Online checkout for pickup and delivery orders, prepaid. The order is paid when it is placed rather than when it is collected, which removes no-show shrink on prepared orders and lets the store staff against real committed demand instead of a menu of maybes.
4. Wholesale and B2B invoicing
Cultivators, distributors, and any retailer with a wholesale side can issue invoices with recurring billing on the same platform. This is usually the part operators do not expect. Most cannabis payment vendors solve retail and leave wholesale on checks, wires, and cash drops, which means two systems, two reconciliations, and no single view of receivables.
Running both sides through one platform means one ledger, one set of reporting, and one export at month end.
| Channel | How the customer pays | What it replaces |
|---|---|---|
| In-store retail | Scan the QR at the counter, confirm, tip | Cash and card workarounds |
| Delivery | SMS pay link, paid before dispatch | Cash on the driver |
| E-commerce | Online checkout for pickup or delivery | Pay-on-arrival |
| Wholesale | Invoice with recurring billing | Checks, wires, cash drops |
The dashboard behind the payments
Payments are the front door. The operating layer behind it is where most of the daily value sits:
- Customer data you own. Every sale captures name, phone, and email in your account, not the vendor’s.
- Built-in outreach. One-off emails or group campaigns to that list, from the same dashboard.
- QuickBooks sync. Transactions post to the ledger automatically.
- Employee logins. Budtenders ring up and send pay links; you decide who can see revenue.
- Refunds and reporting. Refunds from the dashboard, reports for any date range, PDF or CSV.
- API and POS integrations. Connects to the stack already in place, e-commerce included.
Owning the customer list matters more than it sounds. If you ever change payment vendors, the list is the asset that either comes with you or does not.
What switching actually involves
- A 30-minute working session. Your volume, your channels, your current setup, mapped on screen.
- Underwriting and account setup with the Greencard Payments team, who handle onboarding directly.
- Counter rollout. QR at each register, a short budtender walkthrough, and pay links live for delivery.
- Integration with the POS and e-commerce stack, plus QuickBooks if you use it.
Pricing is one flat fee per transaction, with no monthly or setup fee. It takes about five minutes of the demo, which is roughly the attention it deserves next to the channel and settlement questions.