Inventory: stock on hand and reordering

Inventory answers one question: what is in the store room, and what is about to run out. It carries no prices. Supplier costs live on a separate page for the people whose job that is.

Role: stores and administration (biller and administrator).

Clinical staff do not appear on this page and cannot reach it. That is deliberate. A nurse records what was used at the bedside, which happens automatically as part of charting the session, and the stock comes off by itself. The person who uses stock is never the person who can receive, count or write it off, because that combination is how shrinkage disappears: take the item, then count the shelf to match, and nothing ever looks wrong. Keeping the two apart is a standard control, not a comment on anyone’s honesty.

What appears here

Items marked as stock tracked. An item that is only ever billed, like a consultation fee, is not stock and does not appear.

The two things you record

Received. A delivery arrived. Enter how many units came in. This is the movement that was missing before: without it a balance only ever falls.

Counted. You have physically counted the shelf. Enter what you actually counted, and the system records the difference. Use this to correct a balance rather than trying to enter a negative delivery.

You never subtract usage by hand. Consumables charted at the bedside during a session come off stock automatically, so the ward and the store room cannot disagree.

Reorder levels

Set a reorder level for each item. When the balance reaches it, the item is flagged and appears under “Needs attention” at the top of the page. Set these once, honestly, from how fast the item actually moves and how long your supplier takes.

Negative balances

A negative balance is shown in red rather than hidden. It means usage has been charted against stock that was never booked in, almost always a delivery nobody entered. Fix it by recording the delivery if you can find it, or by counting the shelf if you cannot.

Movement history

Every movement is kept and nothing is overwritten, so any balance can be explained: what came in, what was used, and what a count corrected.

See also Machines for the equipment register.