Inventory overview

What Inventory does

Inventory keeps track of the reagents, kits, controls, and consumables your lab uses. For every item it knows how much you have, in which warehouse (store, fridge, freezer), which lot, and when each lot expires. It warns you when something is running low or about to expire, and it records every movement so you can always see who changed what and why.

The five everyday actions

Almost all daily work is one of these:

You want to…	Use
Put a supplier delivery on the shelf	Receive delivery
Record stock used, expired, or damaged	Use stock
Fix the quantity after counting the shelf	Count stock (on the stock line)
Move stock to another warehouse or branch	New transfer, then Send now
Order more from a supplier	Order more, or Reorder low stock for everything that is low

Add stock is for stock that did not come from a supplier delivery: your opening balance when you start using Kashef, items returned to the store, or stock found during a count.

All of these are on the Inventory Dashboard, the Stock on Hand page, and on each item's page.

The Inventory Dashboard

Open Inventory > Dashboard to start the day.

• Cards show stock value, low-stock items, lots expiring in 30 days (and any already expired), and supply requests on order. Click a card to open the matching list.
• To do lists only work that is waiting: transfers to receive or send, receipts to post, requests waiting approval or to be ordered, and expired lots to write off. When nothing is waiting it says All caught up.
• Low Stock Watch shows the items at or below their alert level, with an Order button on each row.
• Use the warehouse picker at the top to see one warehouse only.

Company and branch workspaces

In the company workspace you see every warehouse in the company. In a branch workspace you see only that branch's warehouses. The item catalogue and suppliers are shared by the whole company and are created in the company workspace; branches use them.

Expiry and lots

When you receive stock, enter the lot number and expiry date from the package. Kashef always takes stock from the lot that expires first, both when you Use stock and when you send a transfer, so older stock is used before newer stock. Expired lots are never taken for normal use; write them off with Use / write off and the reason Expired.

Stock used by tests

Record reagents and consumables used for patient tests and QC runs through Use stock. Automatic test consumption is currently unavailable, so releasing results or saving QC results does not deduct inventory, even for tests with previously saved consumption rules.

Who can do what

• Use stock (used in lab work) needs the Stock Levels: Record Usage permission. Technicians and operations staff have it by default.
• Add stock, Count stock, and writing off expired or damaged stock need Stock Levels: Adjust.
• Approving supply requests and transfers, and posting receipts, have their own permissions.

If a button is missing, the most common reasons are the user's role or the document's status.