Adding Products to Your Catalog
Introduction
Maintaining a well-organized product catalog is key to accurate inventory tracking, efficient order fulfilment and billing workflows, streamlined purchase orders and drop-ship processes, and quick access to item details. Your catalog serves as the central source of truth for all products purchased or sold through the system. This article will guide you through the process of adding new products to your catalog.
Accessing the Catalog
To begin adding or editing products:
Navigate to Management > Products and Suppliers > Catalog.
Here, you'll see a list of all current products in your system.
You can view, edit, or add new products from this screen.
Adding a New Product
To add a new product:
Click the + Blue button located in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Select New Product from the dropdown menu.
This will open a page where you can enter details about the product.
Product Details
Fill out the following fields:
Name: Enter the name of the product as it should appear in the catalog.
Description: Provide a brief description of the item to help users identify it.
SKU: Enter a Stock Keeping Unit. Note that this should be a generic SKU, not tied to any specific vendor.
Active Status: Select whether the item is currently active. Only active items will be available in certain workflows and searches.
Classification
Assign the product to the appropriate organizational categories:
Manufacturer: Choose from your existing list of manufacturers.
Category: Select the category that best fits the product.
Group: Choose the appropriate group for reporting or filtering purposes.
Part #: Enter the item’s part number, which can help identify the product more precisely.
Uploading a Picture
In the Picture section:
Upload an image of the product.
Including images enhances the user experience by making it easier to recognize items visually throughout the system.
Properties
In the Properties section, you'll define how the system should treat this product:
Type: Choose from the following options:
Non-Serialized: Use this for products that do not require tracking by serial number. These items can be managed without additional attributes.
Serialized: Use this for items that must be tracked individually. You’ll be required to scan or enter a serial number during specific workflows, such as inventory transfers, receiving, and order fulfillment.
Bundled: Select this when creating a product that includes multiple components but is treated as a single item in the system.
For example, if you regularly purchase and sell a widget made up of several individual items, you can create a bundle product that includes those components.
Bundled products are treated as a single item in orders, but all underlying components are still represented. Delivery tickets, billing, and claim documentation will display each individual item included in the bundle.
Important: All sub-items must already exist in your product catalog before they can be added to a bundle.
Lotted: Check this box if the product requires lot number tracking. This is useful for items where tracking by lot is necessary for compliance, recalls, or quality assurance.
Resupply: Check this box if the item should be available for inclusion in resupply programs. This is recommended for items that are regularly replenished for patients, such as recurring disposable supplies (e.g., CPAP supplies, diabetic testing strips).
Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition: Check this box if the product requires the use of an enteral calculator during the order entry process. This calculator assists users in determining the appropriate quantity of product to dispense based on the patient’s nutritional needs, such as daily calorie intake and supply dates.
HCPCS
In the HCPCS section, you can assign billing codes that will be used on invoices and insurance claims:
Primary HCPCS: Enter the main billable HCPCS code for the product. This code will automatically populate on claims and invoices that include this item.
Additional HCPCS: Use this field to add any supplementary HCPCS codes that should also appear on the claim. This is useful when a single product needs to generate multiple billable service lines with different HCPCS codes.
Adding accurate HCPCS codes ensures proper billing and helps avoid delays or denials in claim processing.
Price
In the Price section, you can define the cost and asset management settings for the product:
Purchase Price: Enter the generic purchase price for the item. This represents your cost of goods for this product and may be used for reporting or margin analysis.
Depreciation (for Serialized items only):
If the item is serialized and you intend to manage it as a fixed asset, check the Depreciation box. This enables asset tracking and depreciation over time.Useful Life Period: Specify the expected useful life of the item, typically in months (e.g., 60 months).
Salvage Value: Enter the estimated value of the item at the end of its useful life.
Enabling depreciation allows the system to calculate and track the asset’s book value over time, which is especially useful for durable medical equipment and other capital assets.
Preferred Delivery and Purchase
In the Preferred Delivery and Purchase section, you can define how the item should be fulfilled and purchased by default. These settings are especially useful for streamlining workflows like Quick Ship and Purchase Orders, but they can be adjusted by users as needed during those processes.
Preferred Delivery Method: Choose the default fulfillment method for this item. This selection will be used when processing orders through the Quick Ship workflow. Options include:
Inventory: Requires the user to pick items from available on-hand stock.
Non-Inventory: Allows the user to proceed without selecting from available inventory.
Drop Ship: Indicates that the item should be fulfilled directly by a third-party vendor.
If Drop Ship is selected, you must also choose a Drop Ship Provider. The provider must already exist in the system to be available for selection.
Purchase Vendor: Set a default vendor to be used when creating purchase orders for this product. Like the drop ship provider, the vendor must first be set up in the system.
Maintenance
The Maintenance section allows you to define service tracking requirements for the product, particularly useful for equipment that requires routine servicing or preventive maintenance.
Service Required: Check this box if the item requires scheduled maintenance or service tracking.
From: Choose when the system should begin tracking the service interval:
Inventory Entry: Start tracking from the time the item is received into inventory.
Patient Delivery: Start tracking from the time the item is dispensed to a patient.
Service Interval: Enter the interval at which the item should be serviced (e.g., every 6 months).
Once configured, the system will use these settings to help prompt and report on service tasks at the appropriate time based on the selected start point and interval.
Product Tax Code
The Product Tax Code field is optional but can be used to assign a product grouping for tax classification purposes. This is useful if you need to manage and automate sales tax calculations based on the taxability of the product.
Tax Code Assignment: If you want to determine the taxability of an item, you can select a Product Tax Code. This code helps categorize the product for tax purposes and supports the automated sales tax functionality.
No Tax Code Needed: If you do not need to assign a tax classification for the item, you can still use the automated sales tax feature without selecting a Product Tax Code.
UOM Set
The UOM Set (Unit of Measure Set) field allows you to define how the item is quantified for purchasing, inventory, and dispensing workflows.
Value: This represents the multiplier used when purchasing the product. For example, if the Value is set to 2, it means that ordering 1 unit of the product will actually result in 2 physical units being purchased or fulfilled.
This value is especially important for drop ship workflows, as it will be communicated directly to the drop ship vendor.
In most cases, the Value should be set to 1, unless a higher multiple is intentionally required.
UOM: Select the appropriate Unit of Measure for the product. The available options are managed through your system's Unit of Measure settings. The selected UOM determines how stock is displayed and how the item can be dispensed or tracked during inventory and order workflows.
Setting the correct UOM and Value helps maintain consistency and accuracy across purchasing, inventory management, and order fulfillment.
Billing UOM
The Billing UOM (Unit of Measure) field defines how quantities and charges are calculated for invoices and claims. It acts as a multiplier that automatically adjusts the charge amount based on the number of items delivered and the billing configuration.
Value: This number is used to multiply the delivered quantity to determine the final charge amount using your configured price option.
Example Scenarios:
If the Value is set to 1:
Delivering 1 item will result in a charge of 1 × price option selected.
Example: 1 widget delivered × $10 = $10 charge.
If the Value is set to 2:
Delivering 1 item will result in a charge of 2 × unit price.
Example: 1 widget delivered × $10 × 2 = $20 charge.
Units: This is a visual label or representation only. It does not influence any system logic, calculations, or workflows.
This setting is particularly important for products that are billed in units different from how they are dispensed or delivered. Proper configuration ensures accurate claims and prevents under- or overbilling.
Billable Units (Quantity) on Invoice/Claim:
The system also uses the Value to calculate the Quantity (billable units) applied from the selected price option:
If Value = 1 and 1 item is delivered:
1 × 1 = 1 billable unit
If the price option is set to bill per unit, the invoice/claim will show Quantity: 1
If Value = 2 and 1 item is delivered:
1 × 2 = 2 billable units
With the same price option, the invoice/claim will show Quantity: 2
This structure ensures that the billing quantity aligns with how the product is actually priced, allowing you to configure precise billing behaviors based on the nature of the item.