> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.clinikehr.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Inventory settings

> Set expiry alert horizons for reagents and consumables, choose your receiving and dispensing rules, and understand the inventory reset.

export const StillStuck = ({topic}) => <div className="ck-callout ck-callout--note" role="note">
    <p className="ck-callout__body">
      <strong>Still stuck{topic ? ` with ${topic}` : ''}?</strong>{' '}
      Check <a href="/platform/help/troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</a> first —
      it covers the failures we see most often. If that does not resolve it,{' '}
      <a href="/platform/help/contact-support">contact support</a> and include
      your workspace name and the time the problem happened, so we can find the
      matching entry in your audit log.
    </p>
  </div>;

export const TaskHeader = ({before, time, after}) => <div className="ck-task">
    {before ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Before you start</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{before}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {time ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">Takes about</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{time}</p>
      </div> : null}

    {after ? <div className="ck-task__cell">
        <div className="ck-task__title">When you're done</div>
        <p className="ck-task__body">{after}</p>
      </div> : null}
  </div>;

export const Path = ({steps = []}) => <span className="ck-path">
    {steps.map((s, i) => <span key={i} className="ck-path__step">
        {i > 0 ? <span className="ck-path__sep" aria-hidden="true">
            ›
          </span> : null}
        {s}
      </span>)}
  </span>;

export const Availability = ({editions = ['all'], plans, roles, note}) => {
  const list = editions.includes('all') ? ['clinic', 'pharmacy', 'lims'] : editions;
  return <div className="ck-avail" role="note" aria-label="Feature availability">
      <span className="ck-avail__label">Available in</span>

      {list.map(e => <span key={e} className={`ck-pill ck-pill--${e}`}>
          {EDITION_LABELS[e] || e}
        </span>)}

      {plans ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Plan</span> : null}
      {plans ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--plan">{plans}</span> : null}

      {roles ? <span className="ck-avail__label">Who</span> : null}
      {roles ? <span className="ck-pill ck-pill--role">{roles}</span> : null}

      {note ? <span className="ck-avail__note">{note}</span> : null}
    </div>;
};

<Availability editions={['lims']} roles="Owner, manager or accountant" note="The Danger Zone is visible to the owner only" />

A lab runs on dated stock. These settings decide when an expiring reagent starts warning you, whether a delivery can be booked in with no expiry date at all, and how strict the system is when something is consumed.

<Path steps={['Sidebar', 'Settings', 'Laboratory', 'Inventory']} />

<TaskHeader before="At least one stock item, so you can see the effect" time="5 minutes" after="Expiry warnings on your own schedule and a receiving desk that refuses undated lots" />

## What this tab controls

The card is headed **Inventory** — "Expiry alerts, dispensing enforcement and inventory data controls."

| Control                                                                         | What it does                                                                          | Default                                          |
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ |
| **Expiry alert horizons**                                                       | Up to four warning points, each 1–365 days. "Get alerted as stock approaches expiry." | **60/30 days**                                   |
| **Enforce inventory on dispense**                                               | Requires every consumed item to be linked to stock with enough on hand.               | **Off** — "Best-effort — never blocks (default)" |
| **New-item defaults** — **Low-stock threshold**, **Reorder quantity**           | Applied to items created without their own values, including catalog imports.         | Empty (no default)                               |
| **Require expiry date on new lots**, under **Receiving quality**                | Refuses to receive stock into a new lot with no expiry date.                          | **Off**                                          |
| **Allow selling items with no recorded stock**, under **Selling without stock** | Lets a till sell an item whose recorded stock is zero.                                | **On**                                           |
| **Danger Zone** → **Reset inventory…**                                          | Erases the whole inventory module for a clean re-import.                              | Owner only                                       |

The three switches save the moment you flip them. **Expiry alert horizons** and **New-item defaults** have their own save buttons.

## Set it up

<Steps>
  <Step title="Set your expiry horizons">
    Type a number of days and select **Add**. Each becomes a chip like **60 days**; remove one with its ✕. Up to four. Select **Save horizons** — you get "Expiry alert horizons saved". A lab typically wants a long horizon for reagents on order lead times and a short one for the bench.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Require expiry dates on delivery">
    Turn **Require expiry date on new lots** on. For a lab this is the single most useful switch on the tab — an undated reagent lot is invisible to every expiry alert.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Decide on dispense enforcement">
    Switched on, an unlinked item or insufficient stock aborts the whole consumption. Switched off, it never blocks and the drift is logged for review.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Set the new-item defaults">
    Enter a **Low-stock threshold** and a **Reorder quantity** in whole units, then **Save defaults**. Leave either empty for no default.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What changes once you save

| Setting                             | What you'll notice                                                                                                                                                                        |
| ----------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Expiry alert horizons**           | An item crossing a horizon appears on the inventory **Alerts** tab and in the daily digest email. Removing a horizon stops those alerts; adding one can surface a batch of items at once. |
| **Require expiry date on new lots** | From that moment, **Receive** refuses a new lot with no expiry — on direct receiving and on purchase-order receipts alike. Topping up an existing dated lot is unaffected.                |
| **New-item defaults**               | Applied only to items created from now on. Existing items keep what they have.                                                                                                            |
| **Enforce inventory on dispense**   | On, consumption stops when stock is not linked or not sufficient. Off, it proceeds and the discrepancy is logged.                                                                         |
| **Allow selling…**                  | Decides whether a till refuses an out-of-stock item or sells it and logs the oversell for reconciliation.                                                                                 |

**Requiring expiry dates does not fix the past.** Lots already booked in without one stay undated, and an undated lot is invisible to earliest-expiry picking and to every expiry alert — it will never warn you. Find them and correct them through a stock count.

**Reagent lots flagged for lot-to-lot validation are a separate rule and are not set here.** That flag lives on the item itself, and new lots of a flagged reagent arrive **quarantined** until someone validates them — they are not available to the bench in the meantime, however healthy their expiry date looks. See [Reagents and consumables](/lims/inventory/reagents).

## The Danger Zone

<Warning>
  **Reset inventory…** permanently erases the entire inventory module — catalog, lots, stock levels, ledger, purchase orders, vendors, locations and device history. It cannot be undone. Your patient records and results are kept. It exists for one purpose: a clean re-import after a bad first load.
</Warning>

The card is **hidden entirely** from anyone who is not the lab owner — a manager or an accountant sees nothing at all, not a greyed-out button, and gets no explanation. That is intended.

The owner gets a preview first. The dialog is headed "Reset the whole inventory?", lists how many records would go from each area, and only then asks you to type `RESET` to confirm. If the inventory is already empty it says so and offers no confirm button.

## Check it worked

Reload the tab — every switch and chip should be where you left it. Then try to receive a lot with the expiry left blank: it should be refused. Check the **Alerts** tab lists the items your shortest horizon should now be catching.

## Common issues

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="I get no expiry alerts at all">
    Either every lot is dated beyond your longest horizon, or the lots have no expiry date. Undated lots never trigger an alert — which is what **Require expiry date on new lots** prevents happening again.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Add is missing next to the horizons">
    You already have four, the maximum. Remove one and the field returns. A fifth gives "Up to 4 horizons."
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="A reagent lot I just received is not available to the bench">
    That reagent is flagged for lot-to-lot validation, so new lots arrive quarantined until validated. See [Reagents and consumables](/lims/inventory/reagents).
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="I can't find the Danger Zone">
    It is owner-only, and hidden rather than disabled. Ask the lab owner.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="The reset is blocked">
    The banner reads "This inventory cannot be reset" — clinical administration records reference these lots and a reset would destroy that traceability. Adjust quantities through a stock count instead.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="New items still have no low-stock threshold">
    Defaults apply only to items created after you saved them, and only where the item supplies no value of its own.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

<StillStuck />