Stock Control in Front Desk
Front Desk includes stock control features to help manage the inventory of products sold at your practice. This includes features for stocktake, stock adjustments (for loss/breakage), stock level reporting and supplier management.
Stock can also be managed per location so that each physical site can maintain their inventory.
This article covers:
Creating stock items
Stocktake
Stock Levels Report
Stock Order Report
Stock Arrivals
Stock Adjustments
Enabling Stock Control
Select the Advanced tab in System Information.
The Stock Control feature is enabled by default. If your practice has Multiple Locations enabled, you can also choose to Manage Stock per Location to maintain separate stock levels per site.
Please note the Advanced tab of System Information is only available when logged in as the Admin user. Front Desk will also need to be restarted for any changes on the Advanced tab to take effect.
Creating Stock Items
Open the Item Codes window from the toolbar
or the File menu.
Click New to create an item code or double-click to edit an existing item.
The Item Details tab is used to set the item code, description and the amount that will be charged to patients. It can also be used to list the product’s barcode when using the inbuilt barcode scanner integration.
Click here for more information about Front Desk barcode scanner integration.
Select the Stock Control tab within the Item Code, then enable the ‘This is a stock item’ option.
Stocktake
When first setting up stock items, it is important to record an initial stocktake, which is done by entering the current stock amount in the quantity box and clicking ‘Now’ to Date/Time stamp on entry. This can be repeated in future when completing a stocktake.
Other important information is also entered on this screen:
Stock at Location (if enabled) – The business location this stock information applies to.
Supplier - The wholesale or retail supplier of the product.
Supplier Item Code - The code used by your supplier, which may be required placing orders.
Unit cost - The cost of each unit from the supplier.
Order quantity - The number of units to be purchased with each order.
Minimum level - Items that reach the minimum level will be listed on the Stock Order Report
Date/Time - A record of the last stocktake time for this item.
Quantity - The number of units available as of the last stocktake (date/time above).
Current - Current units available since stocktake, which will decrease automatically with each sale or stock adjustment and increase with each stock arrival.
Click Close to save these changes.
This item code is now considered a Stock Item, which can be further managed using the features below.
Stock Levels Report
Each sale of an item will reduce its current stock level. Stock levels can also be reduced manually with a stock adjustment, which may be used to record lost/stolen goods and breakage.
Go to Reports > Stock Control > Stock Levels Report.
The Stock Levels Report provides a list of all stock items and their current levels at each location.
The report lists the minimum level, current stock and unit cost as per the individual item code setup. The total Value of the stock is also listed, based on the current stock count and unit cost.
If required, this report can be filtered by Item Code, Schedule or Item Group. Additional filters are available to include archived item codes or to limit the report to a specific location.
Stock Order Report
The Stock Order Report will list items that are below the set minimum level and includes the appropriate Supplier information to place an order.
Go to Reports > Stock Control > Stock Order.
As with the previous report, this can also be filtered by Item Code, Schedule, Item Group, archive status and Location. The report can also be filtered by Supplier and include stock notes if required.
Stock Arrivals
New stock deliveries can be entered in Front Desk from File > Item Codes > Stock Arrivals.
Click New to record a stock arrival.
Enter the Date/Time that the stock arrived, the location and the Supplier. The Notes field can be used to record additional information.
For each product that has arrived, select the corresponding Item Code and set the Quantity. Click Add to add the item/s. This process can be repeated as many times as required for all items that have arrived at the same location from the same supplier.
Click OK to finalise the Stock Arrival.
Stock Adjustment
The Stock Adjustment feature is used to reduce stock levels for items that are lost/stolen, broken, or cannot be sold.
Go to File > Item Codes > Stock Adjustment.
Click New to create a stock adjustment.
Select the Date/Time and Location (if enabled), then enter a Reason for the adjustment.
Next, select the Item Code being adjusted and the Quantity to be removed from available stock. Click Add, repeating for multiple unique items.
Click OK to finalise, which will then reflect the change in stock levels on the item code and stock reports.