GrowGeneration Corp. 10-Q

ITEM 4. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES. Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures We maintain disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”)) that are designed to be effective in providing reasonable assurance that information required to be disclosed in our reports under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the SEC, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal control over financial reporting will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, including the possibility of human error, the circumvention or overriding of controls, or fraud, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues, misstatements, errors, and instances of fraud, if any, within our organization have been or will be prevented or detected. As of the period covered by this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, an evaluation was conducted under the supervision and with the participation of our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rule 13a-15(e) and Rule 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act). Our management concluded that as of March 31, 2022, our disclosure controls and procedures were not effective, because of the material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting identified by management as of December 31, 2021 (described below). A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that a reasonable possibility exists that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements would not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Material Weaknesses in Control Activities The following were contributing factors to the material weaknesses in control activities as of December 31, 2021, several of which also were determined to be the material weaknesses at December 31, 2020: • Insufficient resources within the accounting and financial reporting department to review the accounting for complex financial reporting transactions including areas such as business combinations, share based compensation, and the related income tax reporting. • There are inadequate segregation of duties within the various bank accounts of the Company to prevent and detect unauthorized transactions in a timely manner. Additionally, there are deficiencies in the segregation of duties issues within IT, human resources, and manual journal entry posting processes. • There are inadequate information and technology general controls, including segregation of duties, change management, and user access, which were inadequate to support financial reporting applications and support automated controls and functionality. • There are inadequate controls over physical inventory counts. 24 Deficiencies in control activities contributed to material accounting errors identified and corrected through 2021 and prior years. These corrected design deficiencies in control activities were previously considered to contribute to the potential for there to have been material accounting errors in multiple financial statement account balances and disclosures. We have concluded that significant progress has been made toward mitigating the above-mentioned control weakness as of March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, but we have not been able to adequately confirm the design and confirm the control weakness has been remediated as of the date of this report. In making this assessment, management used the criteria set forth by the Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the most recent fiscal quarter that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting, except for the implementation of remediation plans to address the material weaknesses discussed above. Material Weakness Remediation Plan and Status Our remediation efforts are ongoing and we will continue our initiatives to implement and document policies, procedures, and internal controls. In 2021, the Company completed the following remedial actions: • Hired and trained additional resources within the accounting and financial reporting departments to review the accounting for warrant compensation accounting, share-based compensation accounting, and rebates. • Hired and trained additional resources to specifically manage cash and ensure adequate segregation of duties. • Implemented numerous general and access controls over all information technology (IT) systems that supports the Company's financial reporting processes. • Implementation and redesign of controls over inventory count procedures. Our management believes that these actions, and additional actions to be taken, are reasonably designed to remediate the control deficiencies identified and strengthen our internal control over financial reporting. As we continue to evaluate and work to improve our internal control over financial reporting, management may determine to take additional measures to address control deficiencies or modify certain of the remediation measures described above. Remediation of the identified material weaknesses and strengthening our internal control environment has continued during the period ended March 31, 2022 and will continue throughout 2022 and beyond, as necessary. We will test the ongoing operating effectiveness of the new and existing controls in future periods. The material weaknesses cannot be considered completely remediated until the applicable controls have operated for a sufficient period of time and management has concluded, through testing, that these controls are operating effectively. 25 PART II – OTHER INFORMATION Item 1. Legal Proceedings None. Item 1A. Risk Factors For a summary of the Company’s risk factors, please refer to Item 9A of our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021.