Skip to main content
A weight-loss clinic buys tirzepatide in a 125 mg vial and gives it by the shot. A med spa draws 20 units of Botox from a 100-unit vial. A lab aliquots a reagent. In all three the vial is opened once and used many times, and the question at the end of the week is the same: how much is actually left, in which vial, from which lot? Partial-vial dispensing answers it. Each vial is tracked as itself — what is left in it, when it was first punctured, when it must be thrown away, and which lot it came from.

​
What it looks like

A patient has a 7.5 mg dose: The second dose went into the already-open vial, not a fresh one. That is deliberate: finishing an open vial before puncturing another is what stops a clinic throwing away half a vial every time a use-by date passes.

​
Set up an item

1

Turn on fractional dispensing

Open the item in Inventory → Items and, under Partial-vial dispensing, turn on Allow fractional dispensing. Until you do, the item behaves exactly as before — whole units only.
2

Write the strength as it is printed

Under Printed strength, enter the pair the way the label reads it — Amount 125, Unit mg, per mL 12.5. Both halves matter. From them the dose screen works out that a 7.5 mg dose is 0.75 mL, and 75 units on a U-100 syringe — the number the person holding the syringe actually reads.
3

Say how much one vial holds

One container holds is the amount in a single container — 125. Called a is the name your team uses: vial, pen, ampoule, bottle.
4

Set the dose step and the use-by rule

Dose increment (e.g. 2.5) shapes the dose box and warns on an off-step amount. Beyond-use days after opening (e.g. 28) is stamped on a vial the first time it is punctured.
5

Decide whether a vial may be shared

Single-patient container binds a vial to the first patient it is drawn for and refuses anyone else. Leave it off for shared multi-dose vials, which is how most clinics run.
6

Price it per vial

Under Pricing per vial, enter the Cost per vial and the Price per vial — the figures you actually know. Each dose is charged its share of the vial: at 350.00 for a 125 mg vial, a 7.5 mg dose is 21.00 and a 24 mg dose is 67.20. The line underneath works it out as you type, with the cost and margin of one dose.A Single-patient container is sold whole instead — the patient buys the vial, which is theirs once it is opened — so it has a price per vial and no price per dose.
For an item priced per vial, the ordinary Unit cost and Sale price fields step aside, so the item has one price in one place.

​
Receive vials

A vial item is received as vials, never as a bare amount. In Receive stock (or Opening stock when you add the item):
1

Say how many arrived

Enter the number of Vials received. Each holds is filled in from the item and can be changed for a delivery that came in a different size.
2

Enter the cost per vial

Cost per vial is what you paid for one. You can also change the Price per vial here — a new delivery is often when a price changes, and every dose from then on is charged its share of the new price.
3

Check the total and receive

The sheet reads back what goes into stock — “250 mg into stock as 2 vials — 400.00 at cost” — and what one dose will cost and sell for. Select Receive: the lot and each vial are created together.
What a dose costs is exactly its share of what the vial cost, so your cost of goods and margins are right to the milligram. Stock that arrived before vials were used — or a lot you received as a plain amount — can still be divided afterwards: open the stock row’s menu, choose Vials, then Set up. The system refuses to create vials that would claim more than the lot holds, and says by how much.

​
Give a dose

For a vial item, Dispense becomes Give a dose. Choosing a vial item in the general Dispense sheet takes you there too.
1

Choose where from, and for whom

The Location opens on the one that holds this item’s vials: the one with an open vial first, otherwise the one with the most left. Only vials that can be used count: a vial past its beyond-use or expiry date, a vial from a recalled or quarantined lot, and, for a Single-patient container, a vial that belongs to another patient are left out, so the sheet never opens where the dose would be refused. Change it if the dose comes from somewhere else; changing it sets Draw from back to the automatic choice. If the location you choose holds none of this item’s usable vials, the sheet names the locations that do. Then choose the Patient. The patient is required for a Single-patient container, because that vial becomes theirs, and until you choose a location yourself the sheet moves to where that patient’s vials are.
2

Type the dose

The line under the box reads back the dose, the volume and the syringe units — 7.5 mg · 0.75 mL · 75 units on a U-100 syringe — and, for a shared vial, what this dose is charged and costs. If the item has no strength recorded, the volume is shown as a dash rather than a guess.
3

Choose the vial, or let it choose

Open vial first, then earliest-expiring is the default and is almost always what you want. You can pick a specific vial instead.
4

Give it

Select Give dose. Stock, the vial’s remaining amount, the lot and the ledger all move together. A controlled item asks for a Witness first.
If less could be drawn than you asked for, you get a warning naming the shortfall — not a success message. The syringe has less in it than the chart would otherwise claim, so check the remaining stock before giving that dose.
A vial is never drawn from once it is past its use-by date or its lot has expired. If every vial is in that state, the screen says so in those words rather than reporting “out of stock” — the drug is in the fridge, and it must not be used. Every way stock leaves — a prescription filled from inventory, a ward dose, a till sale, a kit, a consumable used at an appointment — draws from the vials the same way, so the shelf and the vials can never disagree. Stock of the same item that is not in a vial is used only after the vials.

​
Throw a vial away

When a vial is finished with while drug is still in it, use Discard. A reason is always required, and for a controlled item a second staff member must witness it. What was left is recorded as waste, so the shelf and the ledger still agree at the end of the month.

​
Dose plans for GLP-1 and other step-ups

A patient on tirzepatide climbs a ladder — 2.5 mg, then 5, then 7.5, usually four weeks a step. Record that ladder once on the patient and the dose screen will propose the next dose and the date it is due, and flag it when today’s dose skips a step or arrives early. It advises; it never refuses. Holding a patient at 5 mg for tolerability is a clinical decision, and the chart follows the clinician.

​
How many doses do I have left?

The item shows doses, not just milligrams: “47 doses at 7.5 mg”, how many are at risk of passing their use-by date within the month, and how long your stock lasts at the rate you have actually been using it. A vial too empty for one more full dose counts as none — 3 mg left when the dose is 7.5 mg is not a third of a dose. Where there is no usage history yet, days of cover shows a dash rather than zero.

​
Who can do this

Giving a dose needs the same permission as any other medication administration. Receiving vials and setting them up need the permission that covers receiving stock. Both are set in Settings → Staff permissions.

​
Common issues

Allow fractional dispensing is off for that item. Turn it on in Inventory → Items.
You tried to waste, move or adjust stock that is inside vials. Use Give a dose to draw from a vial, or Discard a vial with a reason — that way the vials and the shelf keep agreeing.
The feature is on Essential and above (Professional and above on the Pharmacy and Lab editions). Vials already set up keep working if a plan changes — only setting up new ones stops.
There is stock, but none of it may be used. Discard those vials, with a reason, and set up the replacement.
The item is set to Single-patient container and every open vial belongs to somebody else. Open a new vial, or turn that setting off if your clinic shares multi-dose vials.
Either the item does not allow partial dispensing, or the clinic’s plan does not include it. Both are named in the message above the box.

​
FAQ

Yes. Every draw records the vial and its lot, so a part-used vial is always traceable to the batch it came from — which is what a recall needs.
Yes. A shared vial’s line starts at one dose, steps by the Dose increment, and is charged its share of the vial — the price reads “per mg” on the line and on the receipt. A Single-patient container is sold a whole vial at a time. Either way the sale draws from the same vials the chart does.
Discard it with a reason. The leftover is recorded as waste rather than quietly vanishing, so your counts still reconcile.
They cannot take the same milligrams twice. A draw locks the vial for the moment it takes, so two tills cannot both take the last 2.5 mg.
For lots and expiry in depth see Batches and expiry; for the rest of the module see Inventory.