The Inventory module allows you to track sales and use of products, services, and supplies. Each inventory item is assigned a category, which is used for reporting purposes. Only two fields are required to add a new item to inventory - name, and category. However, that are several other useful pieces of information that should be set in order to make the most of the automation available in our software.
Adding an item - the basics
First, an inventory item can be created in a few ways - in the Inventory module, when creating a new medical record, or when adding an item to an invoice or estimate.
To add an item in the Inventory module:
- Click on "Inventory" at the top of the page
- Click on "Add Item" in the blue navigation bar (you will be redirected to a blank inventory page)
- Complete the fields as applicable
- Click on "Save + Done" to save your changes (or "Save + Add New" to add another inventory item)
To add an item when create a new medical record, or when adding an item to an invoice or estimate:
- Type the name of the item in the "item" field
- Click on the "new item" option that appears
- Complete the form that appears
Other default options
As mentioned above, only two fields are required to create a new inventory item - name and category. However, there are many other useful fields that can be set in order to streamline the creation of medical records, invoices, and estimates. The following is a summary of these options:
- Display Name - This is the name of the item that the client will see on their exported invoice as opposed to the 'Name' will be what the clinic will search the item by in their account.
- Controlled - Items that are marked as "controlled" will be tracked for purposes of the Controlled Substances Log that is available under Reports.
- Concentration, Dose Range, and Dose - These values are used by the dosage calculator. To learn more about the dosage calculator, please see Using the dosage calculator
- Print on Invoice - Items that do not need to be shown to clients should be marked to not print on invoices. This setting is useful for supplies, mileage tracking, and other such internal uses. Items that do are set to not print on the invoice cannot have a price assigned to them on the invoice.
- Next Due - This default value is used to populate the "next due" field in medical records, and is used by reminders to determine when the reminder should be sent.
- Base Price - This is the default price for the item. This value is used in invoices, estimates, and bundles to determine what the item should cost based on the quantity that is being sold. There are five price options available:
- Fixed price - This option should be used for items whose prices don't fluctuate over time, such as services.
- % of latest cost - This option will calculate the price of the item based on the latest cost of the item (as recorded under "purchases") and multiply that cost by the specified markup.
- % of highest cost - This option will calculate the price of the item based on the highest cost of the item, and multiply that cost by the specified markup.
- % of average cost - This option will calculate the price of the item based on the average cost of the item, and multiply that cost by the specified markup.
- % of lowest cost - This option will calculate the price of the item based on the lowest cost of the item, and multiply that cost by the specified markup.
- Minimum Price - To ensure that items are not discounted below a certain point, a minimum price can be set. There are two options for setting a minimum price of an item, 'Total' or 'Per Item Sold'.
- Total - This selection applies the minimum price to the line item total on an invoice, not each individual unit. If an item's base price is $1, and the minimum price is $5, the total price of the line item cannot be sold for less than $5. Once the unit quantity of 5 has been reached, it will then charge according to the base price. Ex: quantity of 6 = $6, quantity of 7=7$, etc. If a quantity of 20 is sold, this option of 'Total' looks at the total line item amount, which is $20. This line item total of $20 could be discounted down to $5 based off the minimum price, but never below.
- Per Item Sold - This selection applies to each individual unit of the item. If the base price of an item is $1, and the minimum price is $0.80, each individual unit cannot be sold / discounted below $0.80. If a quantity of 20 is sold, and a discount is applied, regardless of the line item total, the discount cannot go below $0.80 per unit of the item.
- Fees - These are inventory items themselves (they just happen to be of a category "fees"). Fees can be added to the total calculated price of the item, but they do not appear as separate line items on the invoice.
- Base Quantity - This determines the unit of measure that applies to the item. The quantity should always be set to 1. The base quantity works in conjunction with the base price to determine the price of the item for a given quantity.
- Route and Location - These values are used to populate the "route" and "location" fields in the medical record.
- Instructions - These are the default instructions for a prescription label.
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