A shelf of products and no idea what is on it
At the end of a routine appointment, the podiatrist suggests a urea cream or a pair of toe protectors. The patient buys them. Sometimes it is added to the invoice in the clinic system, sometimes paid in cash and forgotten. On home visits, products come out of a box in the car.
When a popular cream runs out, you find out when you reach for it. When the accountant asks for a stock figure at year end, somebody counts the shelves.
Why product sales are hard to track
- Products are added to invoices inconsistently, especially when the podiatrist is running late.
- Home visit sales come out of car stock that is not recorded.
- Stock levels are checked by eye.
- Sizes and variants of insoles and supports multiply the lines to keep track of.
- Patients who want to reorder a cream have to phone or come in.
What it costs
Stockouts of the products patients ask for. Sales that go unrecorded. Money tied up in slow lines. A year-end count that takes an afternoon. And patients buying the same product online instead, because reordering from the clinic is harder.
| Question | Today | With stock tracking |
|---|---|---|
| How many of each cream do we have? | Count the shelf | Shown on screen, by site and car |
| What sold this month? | Unknown | Report by product |
| When do we reorder? | When it runs out | Alert at your level |
| Can a patient reorder? | Phone the clinic | Text link to pay and collect or post |
How we build it
- Your product range is set up once, with sizes and variants, cost and sale price, in your clinic system's products list where it has one, such as Cliniko, or in a small linked stock list.
- Products are added at checkout in a couple of taps, including on home visits from a phone.
- Stock reduces with each sale, by location: clinic shelf, treatment room or car.
- When a line reaches the level you set, whoever orders receives an alert, or a draft order for your supplier.
- Deliveries are booked in, so stock increases and costs are recorded.
- Patients who have bought a product can be sent a reorder link to pay online and collect or have it posted, if they want reminders.
- A monthly view shows sales by product, stock value and slow movers, and can be passed to Xero or your accounts package.
What you recommend and sell to each patient is your clinical choice. The system tracks stock and sales.
Stock that has a use-by date, such as some creams and dressings sold for home use, can carry its batch and expiry, so older stock is sold first and anything close to its date is flagged before it reaches a patient.
If you run more than one clinic, or several podiatrists carry stock in their cars, transfers between locations are recorded in a couple of taps. That keeps each location's figures honest and shows where a product is actually selling, which helps decide what each clinic and car should carry.
What changes
The products patients ask for are in stock. Sales are recorded, including on home visits. Reordering is prompted rather than remembered. Year-end stock is a report, not an afternoon of counting. And patients can reorder their usual cream without phoning.
Is your retail side untracked?
- Products run out without warning.
- Some product sales are not recorded in your clinic system.
- Car stock for home visits is not tracked.
- Year-end stock means counting the shelves.
- Patients phone to reorder the same cream.