Starting July 1, the way Illinois tracks cannabis plants and products is changing. They currently use a system called BioTrack, but will use a new system called Metrc. Canix has partnered with Metrc to help customers migrate from BioTrack to Metrc connected facilities in Illinois. We've built a migration tool to make transitioning your inventory to Metrc seamless. Read more below on how inventory and facility information moves from BioTrack to Metrc with Canix, and see the steps to migrate your facility here.
- Illinois Migration Timeline from Metrc
- Prepare in Metrc
- Facility Data (Strains, Locations, Items)
- Plants
- Harvests
- Inventory
- Historical Data
- Metrc > BioTrack Terminology Overview
Illinois Migration Timeline from Metrc
- April 25th - May 25th: Cannabis cultivators and processors are advised to commence utilizing Metrc for all newly initiated cultivation cycles.
- By May 25th: All cannabis products held by cultivators and processors should be affixed with Metrc tags and accurately recorded within the Metrc system.
- May 25th: Cannabis testing laboratories will exclusively report testing results via the Metrc platform.
- June 2nd: All inter-facility cannabis transfers must be documented and tracked within the Metrc system.
- June 17th: Full operational utilization of the Metrc system is expected across all licensed cannabis establishments.
- July 1st: The BioTrack system will cease to be the official cannabis tracking system for the state of Illinois.
Prepare in Metrc
Tags will be required to migrate your inventory information from BioTrack to Metrc. Ensure you've purchased enough tags from Metrc before migrating to cover all new plants and package inventory.
Facility Data
Items, Strains and Locations will be migrated from BioTrack and created in Metrc based on the current inventory in your facility.
Migration Details
Items
Metrc will migrate finished good product names that have been approved by the state to your Metrc facility as active items, and any strains associated with the finished good product will also be created. Any non-finished good products will be created by Canix as active items in your migration process. Items can be added and removed (if not yet used) in Canix's Metrc connected facility.
Strains
BioTrack does not pre-create strains to select from when creating plant inventory. Therefore, there is no strain list for Canix to pull from to create strains in your Metrc connected facility. Canix will instead create any strains associated with current plants or products in BioTrack. Strains can be added and removed in Canix's UI once migrated to a Metrc connected facility.
Locations
BioTrack separates locations by Plant or Inventory locations. Metrc will also have Location Types but has not announced those types as of April 22nd. All locations will be migrated as an active location in Metrc. Locations can be added and removed from Canix's UI.
Plants
In BioTrack's API, plants do not have a growth phase associated with them. In Metrc, plants are required to be given the growth phase of Immature, Vegetative or Flowering. Immature plants require a plant batch to group the plants together under 1 plant tag in Metrc until they've reached the growth stage of Vegetative and receive individual plant tags.
Migration Details
- BioTrack Plants will be grouped by Strain, Location and Planted Date and created as "Plant Batches" in Metrc. "Plant Batches" are single tags used to track multiple Immature Plants in Metrc. Once the Plants move into the Vegetative Growth Phase they are individually tagged.
- For example if you have 100 Blue Dream plants located in Bay 1 and Planted on February 1st, in Metrc this will be migrated as a single Plant Batch called "Blue Dream - Bay 1 - February 1st, 2025" with a count of 100 Immature Plants.
- Once you have assigned individual Metrc tags to these Plants, you can use the Update Growth Phase action in Canix to move them to the Vegetative or Flowering phase in Metrc.
- Plants DO NEED to be retagged in Metrc - All plants will receive new tag numbers from Metrc.
- Plant Locations will be migrated to Canix and assigned to the plants created in the transition.
Harvests
Metrc does not have an integration point for migrating harvests from BioTrack. Metrc's guidance is to leave harvests in the curing phase, and migrate the cured weight to Metrc once tagged as a lot item (i.e. Flower Lot, Other Material Lot or Kief Lot). Once tagged as a lot, Canix can migrate the package inventory to Metrc.
Inventory (Packages)
BioTrack Inventory (named Packages in Metrc) will be migrated to Metrc by Canix using a process called External Transfers. This is a process in Metrc where inventory is brought in from a non-Metrc license (your BioTrack license) and able to be accepted in Metrc with your active package inventory. Package inventory will retain the following information:
- BioTrack ID (Package Tag) - Packages will be required to assign Metrc tag numbers upon acceptance to your Metrc connected facility. BioTrack IDs will no longer be used in Metrc.
- Product Name - package inventory will receive the generic item name provided by BioTrack (i.e. Flower Lot) but can be changed in Canix once migrated to a Metrc connected facility. Metrc will allow the package's item name to be changed for 24 hours after receipt. After that, the item name for that package cannot be changed, but a new item name can be used on new inventory created moving forward.
- Strain - if a strain is associated with your package inventory, the strain will be used to create the product name in Canix.
- Package Location - locations will be migrated and assigned to the package inventory when accepted into your Metrc connected facility.
- Quantity - The package quantity and individual unit weight will be migrated to Metrc.
- Package Date - The date the inventory was packaged and produced in BioTrack will be retained when migrated to Metrc.
- Expiration Date - If the package inventory has an expiration date in BioTrack, that will be retained when migrated to Metrc.
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Warning: Test results will not be transferred to Metrc automatically. If tested inventory is not sold through by the deadline, or you would like all inventory to be managed in Metrc at the same time, they offer a process for creating a "virtual test sample" - an overview of this process is below:
- This process does not require you to physically package the test sample or physically send the sample to the lab. Since this inventory is already tested before moving to Metrc, the lab will send the test results for the requested sample to Metrc that will then be updated on the current inventory associated with that sample.
- Contact your lab and work with them on a process for updating virtual lab results in Metrc - determine timing for when you can virtually transfer the samples, and how long it will take them to update the results in Metrc
- Once connected to Metrc, a test sample package is created from the current inventory
- That test sample is added to an outgoing transfer to the lab that had tested the material previously
- The lab will virtually receive the lab samples and add test results to them for Metrc to sync to your current inventory
- This process does not require you to physically package the test sample or physically send the sample to the lab. Since this inventory is already tested before moving to Metrc, the lab will send the test results for the requested sample to Metrc that will then be updated on the current inventory associated with that sample.
Finished Goods Inventory
Metrc will create finished goods products approved by the state as active items in your Metrc facility. They expect to have this completed mid-May. Once that's complete, Canix can migrate any finished good inventory to Metrc as an external transfer for acceptance into your facility. It may be that your finished goods inventory is migrated after your non-finished good inventory as Metrc's timeline is later than the initial date licenses can start migrating to Metrc.
Non-Finished Good Inventory
Inventory with product names that don't require approval by the state can be migrated to Metrc without waiting on Metrc's migration of approved product names. Non-finished good inventory will be sent to Canix as an external transfer for acceptance into your facility.
Tested Inventory
Test results will not be transferred to Metrc automatically. If tested inventory is not sold through by the deadline, or you would like all inventory to be managed in Metrc at the same time, they offer a process for creating a "virtual test sample" - an overview of this process is below:
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- This process does not require you to physically package the test sample or physically send the sample to the lab. Since this inventory is already tested before moving to Metrc, the lab will send the test results for the requested sample to Metrc that will then be updated on the current inventory associated with that sample.
- Contact your lab and work with them on a process for updating virtual lab results in Metrc - determine timing for when you can virtually transfer the samples, and how long it will take them to update the results in Metrc
- Once connected to Metrc, a test sample package is created from the current inventory
- That test sample is added to an outgoing transfer to the lab that had tested the material previously
- The lab will virtually receive the lab samples and add test results to them for Metrc to sync to your current inventory
- This process does not require you to physically package the test sample or physically send the sample to the lab. Since this inventory is already tested before moving to Metrc, the lab will send the test results for the requested sample to Metrc that will then be updated on the current inventory associated with that sample.
Historical Data
Historical data will not be migrated to Metrc. It is recommended to download any reports and data from BioTrack prior to migrating to Metrc.
Metrc > BioTrack Terminology Overview
| Metrc Term | BioTrack Term | Definition |
| Strain | Strain | This term is used in the same way in Metrc and BioTrack to define the cultivator/genetics of a particular Plant or Package. Items in Metrc are required to be associated to a Strain, and Strains in Metrc also require an indication of Sativa vs Indica %. To simplify the migration, Canix will populate 50/50 for all Strains created in Metrc. These values can be updated later. |
| Item Type | Product Type |
Item Type and Product Type refer to the category of Item/Product. For example “Vape Carts” or “Bulk Flower”. Metrc is in the process of publishing the official mapping of Metrc Item Types to BioTrack Product Types. |
| Item Name | Product Name |
Refers to a unique item/product/sku and is associated with each Package or Lot to categorize inventory. During the migration duplicate BioTrack product names will be made unique by adding the Strain to the title of the Item. Item Names may be updated at a later time. |
| Packages | Lots | Packages / Lots are the terms used to describe cannabis inventory of a specific Item or SKU. In both Metrc and BioTrack a unique ID is required, in Metrc these RFID tags are shipped to the facility in advance and must be attached to the physical Package. In BioTrack the IDs are digitally generated and then printed by the operator. |
| Location | Room |
Rooms in BioTrack are Locations in Metrc. The main difference is that the type of Room (Inventory vs Plant Room) must be specified in BioTrack, whereas in Metrc all Locations will be assigned to the “Default Location Type”. |
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Plant Batch |
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Plant Batches are groups of Immature plants, they are labeled with free-text in Metrc IL, for example “250501 - Mimosa” and do not require a specific tag ID. In BioTrack Immature Plants are either individually tagged or stored in a Lot Tag. |
| Plants | Plants | In both Metrc and BioTrack a unique ID is required, in Metrc these RFID tags are shipped to the facility in advance and must be attached to the physical Plants. In BioTrack the IDs are digitally generated and then printed by the operator. |