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Inventory is one stock record for the whole hospital — “Stock, lots, and expiry across your rooms and devices.” The dispensary, the wards, theatre and the online store all draw on it, which is what stops two departments holding two different answers to “how many do we have”.

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What you’re looking at

Eight buttons run along the header: Below them, the tabs. A hospital normally sees eleven, with two more appearing when they apply: Where an alert is open, a line above the tabs says so: “{n} open inventory alerts — see the Alerts tab.” Empty states are per tab — Stock reads “No stock on hand. Receive a lot to get started.”

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The two tabs that make this a hospital screen

Most of Inventory works the same anywhere. Two tabs exist because the hospital has departments hanging off the stock record: Fill Rx is the bridge to the pharmacy unit. A prescription written anywhere in the hospital waits here until someone draws stock against it, with a witness where the item is controlled. See the pharmacy station. Filling from stock follows the same Settings → Facility → Clinical access → Dispense a prescription choice as the pharmacy counter — with one difference: until an owner saves a role on that row, filling from stock stays open to everyone on the team, while the counter’s own dispense screen follows its Pharmacist default from the start. Ward MAR is the bridge to the wards, and appears only when your hospital runs them — “Each dose given to an admitted patient depletes stock and is logged here.” That is the connection people miss: a nurse signing a dose on the drug chart is a stock movement, not just a clinical note. See the nursing station. A prescription can only draw stock when its medicine is linked to a stock item. A medicine that is not linked is still dispensed, and shows under Reconciliation as Not linked to inventory.
1

Open Link medicines

Select Link medicines in the header, or Link to stock on a Not linked to inventory row under Reconciliation.
2

Choose the matching item

Each unlinked medicine shows up to three stock items with similar names. An exact name match is marked Exact name. Select the item that is really the same medicine.
3

Confirm the row

Select Link to this item. Linking changes nothing else: no stock moves, no item is created, and a dispense that already happened is not drawn again. If the medicine had no price, it takes the stock item’s selling price; a price already set is kept.
Link all exact matches is the only bulk action. It links only medicines whose name matches exactly one stock item that no other medicine uses, and asks you to confirm first. A similar name is always confirmed row by row. Link to stock on a Reconciliation row links the medicine first and marks the entry reconciled only once the link has been saved. Mark reconciled on its own records that you have dealt with the entry; it does not link the medicine.

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Choose what doctors can prescribe

The prescriber’s medicine list shows a badge beside each medicine — In stock 24, Out of stock or Not stocked — and lists stocked medicines first. Nothing is hidden because of quantity, so a medicine that is out of stock can still be prescribed. To remove medicines nobody stocks, an owner or manager selects Catalogue medicines, filters to Not linked to stock, selects the medicines and chooses Switch off. They stop appearing when a doctor prescribes; prescriptions already written are not changed, and you can switch them back on.

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Receive a delivery

1

Open Receive

From the header, or from the row of the item you are booking in.
2

Enter the lot and its expiry

Record the lot number and its expiry date. This is the step everything else depends on.
3

Choose the location and save

Say which room, store or device the stock is going to — picking later only offers what that location holds. The on-hand figure rises and a Ledger entry records who booked it in.
Picking is earliest-expiry-first, and an undated lot is invisible to it. A lot received with no expiry date will not be picked ahead of anything, so short-dated stock sits at the back of the shelf until it expires. Switch on Require expiry date on new lots under Inventory settings and the problem stops arising.

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Where the deeper mechanics live

Stock control is the same engine the Pharmacy edition documents in depth — including the Ledger’s Via API marker and API changes only filter, for a movement a connected integration made:

Batches and expiry

How lots, expiry dates and earliest-expiry-first picking work.

Purchase orders

Raising, approving and receiving against an order.

Stock counts

Cycle counting and reconciling the shelf against the record.

Import and export

Bringing a catalogue in, and taking your data out.

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Who can do this

Role decides whether the screen opens. Inventory needs the Inventory care area in Settings → Facility, and on Enterprise an owner controls which roles reach the Supply Chain group under Settings → Role Navigation. Permission decides what you may do inside. The acts a stock screen distinguishes, in the product’s own words: Two things to know. First, that is the Pharmacy edition’s permission catalogue: a hospital’s own staff sheet offers the clinical and billing toggles instead, so on Enterprise these stock acts are open to anyone whose role reaches the screen. Restrict access at the Role Navigation layer, not by hunting for these toggles. Second, that withholding is a Pharmacy-edition behaviour too. A standalone pharmacy that denies View cost prices and margin sees “Hidden — needs authorisation from your clinic owner.” in place of the figure, never a 0. A hospital has no such switch, so everyone who can open Inventory sees every cost and valuation on it. Enforcement generally is opt-in per person: a colleague never saved in the permissions sheet is unrestricted, and the sheet warns “Saving starts enforcing”. A denied action is recorded; an allowed one is not.

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Check it worked

  • The item’s on-hand figure on Stock matches the shelf.
  • A Ledger entry names you, the movement and the time.
  • A dispensed script has left Fill Rx, and ward doses appear under Ward MAR having reduced the stock they came from.
  • Alerts (n) falls on its own as low-stock and expiry warnings stop being true — receive stock above the threshold, correct an expiry date, use a lot up or archive the item, and the alert leaves the tab without a refresh.

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Common issues

The shelf holds the quantity you asked for, but part of it has passed its expiry date, and Transfer only moves stock that can still be used. Transfer a smaller quantity, or remove the expired stock first with Waste or Return to vendor. Your count is not wrong — expired stock is also written off automatically overnight.
This is a warning, not a refusal — Transfer never blocks stock that is merely close to its date, only stock already past it (see above). Once you enter a quantity, the form lists which lot it would come from, how much, and how many days remain, soonest first, right under Quantity. If the whole quantity would come from short-dated stock it says so plainly. The Transfer button stays enabled and nothing extra needs confirming — moving short-dated stock to a busier location is often the right call. “Close to expiry” is your facility’s own expiry-alert horizon under Settings › Inventory › Expiry alert horizons.
Run a cycle count from the Counts tab rather than adjusting item by item — a count reconciles and records why; an adjustment only changes the number.
It has no expiry date, so earliest-expiry-first cannot rank it. Add the date, and switch on Require expiry date on new lots.
It appears only where wards exist — see Wards and beds.
Either it is already filled, or it was never saved. Check the prescription list.
Cost and margin figures are withheld from your account. The screen still works; the money column does not show.
It needs the Enterprise plan and the Inventory care area in Settings → Facility. See Care areas.

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FAQ

No — one hospital, one stock record. The pharmacy station’s Inventory tab is this same screen, which is why a counter sale and a ward issue move the same figure.
Setting your starting position when you first go live, so day one’s figures are your real shelf rather than zero. Use it once, not as a way to correct a count later.
Vendor or regulator recalls. Opening one quarantines the affected lots and lists the patients who received them — the part you cannot reconstruct by hand.
Yes. A store product links to an inventory item, and its stock and cost are read-only in the store — see the online store.