Importing and Editing Items (advanced)

In this section we discuss the setup of stock items and then the ongoing management of the items. If you have used the quick start guide steps to begin working with inventory, you can still edit the items, tailoring them to your operations as needed.  We discuss this in this guide.

Adding Items to your Inventory Register – Automatic Additions

The easiest way to add items to inventory is to use the Import from Personal Catalogue (Shopping Basket) routine in your Inventory Settings area. Go to Inventory - Settings - Import from Personal Catalogue.

The Settings Import area allows you to select either a group of items, or a single item from your Personal Catalogue / shopping basket. 

Of note, any items listed in your catalogue but not already imported will be listed for import. If you have problems finding an item it may be because the item is already in your inventory register.

To begin the import process, on the import page select a Category (or the default Any) from either All Baskets (default), or one user’s basket.

Next, select those items you wish to import by checking the left check boxes (box at the top checks all) and then clicking the + Import Selected button, at the top of the page. You can also use the keyword search at the top right to refine your selection. 

One good way to start is to only import NHS Reimbursables (Advanced version) as there are fewer items to work with, but they are one of the most important classifications, and most commonly tracked. To do this, select Any in the category dropdown and then click the NHS Reimbursables only box.

The system will then display your selected items with suggested stock names and numbers. You can use these default settings and change them at a later point in time. Normally the default settings are used, but you can edit them by clicking the green button on the right side of the page.

Then two edit choices appear:

• to change the suggested details;
• or select an existing stock item already set up in inventory:

When complete, click the Import button in the bottom right to import your selection into inventory.

Adding Items to your Inventory Register – Manual Additions

An alternative to the automatic import process is to create and add an inventory item manually. You can do this by clicking the Create button on the Settings page. 

This will display a popup with fields that you can update and save. When complete, click the Import button in the bottom right.

Please note: if the manual option is used there will be no connection to the Private Catalogue / Basket items. This will mean that the automatic interface to update the basket with low stock warnings and the reorder functionality will not be available.

Once you have set up your inventory register you are able to review and edit the items. If you are authorised to make inventory register changes, you can access and edit items in one of two different places.

The first and easiest, is by finding an item in your inventory register and clicking on the description:

This brings up a detailed page with links to all activity related to that item including the setup fields, supplier products linked to this item and a history of activity including purchases, transfers and usage. 

To access and edit the stock details click on the description just below the stock name:

This displays the key fields that you may wish to change:

Please pay special attention to the inventory item pack sizes and usage quantity. Pack sizes are often different from how you consume items. Typically, items are used in singles, but purchased in packs or batches. The system automatically runs conversion calculations when recording usage quantity which is different from purchased quantity. 

So please ensure that when you edit an inventory item that your Usage Quantity, if normally consumed in singles, is set to one (1). The system will then display your available stock at any point in time in singles even if you buy in different pack sixes. This is very important as it ensures that items purchased from different suppliers with different descriptions and pack sizes are correctly updated to your Real-Time Inventory.