A product is a catalogue entry for anything you sell or stock — medications, vaccines, consumables, food, retail. Each product holds its supplier link, dispensing units, stock control settings, and pricing, all in one form. A well-configured product means stock deducts correctly when you dispense, the right margin lands on every invoice, and the dispensary team can scan or search for it without thinking.
💡 In short: From the Stock tab in Inventory, click Add to create a product, click a product name to edit one, or tick checkboxes on multiple rows and use the bulk action bar at the bottom of the page to update many products at once.
📍 Permission required: Your role must include the Inventory permission to view and edit products. To create or edit stock batches — including switching on Enable Batch Tracking — your role also needs the Manage product batches permission. If either permission is missing, ask your Practice Manager to grant it under Settings → Roles & Permissions.
For the inventory module overall — tabs, table columns, three-dot menu — see .
Adding a Product
From the Stock tab, click Add. The product form opens with five sections, all on one scrollable page. Fill what you know, save, and you can come back to fill the rest later.
Supplier
Link the product to your wholesaler so you can order it later, and to track procurement cost.
Field | What to enter |
Supplier | Pick from your connected suppliers, or type a custom supplier name. To set up a new supplier first, see . |
Supplier Product | Search the supplier's catalogue. Selecting a result auto-fills the Item Code and Procurement Cost, and links the product so you can add it to a wholesale basket later. If you have a custom supplier selected and the product isn't in the list yet, click Add Custom Supplier Product to create it on the spot — enter the Item Code, Description, Pack Size, and Cost, then click Add. The new entry fills the form exactly as if you had picked it from the catalogue. |
Product Description
Everything that helps the team find and identify the product.
Field | What to enter |
Category (required) | Anti-Parasitic, Consumables, General Medication, Grooming & Care, Injectables, Nutrition, Other, Pet Accessories, or Vaccination. Drives where the product appears in reports and filters. |
Tag | Optional tags for filtering — e.g. Controlled Drug, Retail, Promotion. Manage the tag list in Settings → Tags. |
Medical Category | Appears only when Category is General Medication. Choose the legal classification — POM-V, POM-VPS, NFA-VPS, AVM-GSL — used for the dispensing label and prescription rules. Options match your country. |
Name (required) | The name shown in the inventory table, search results, and on invoices. |
Item Code | The supplier's product code. Auto-fills when a Supplier Product is selected, otherwise enter manually. |
Barcode | Type the barcode, or click Scan to read it from a connected scanner or device camera. On phones and tablets the rear camera is used automatically. Once a barcode and name are saved, the Print button generates a sheet of barcode labels as a PDF. |
QR Code Link | Optional URL — typically a manufacturer data sheet. A live QR preview appears next to the field when filled. |
Description, Analysis Category, Analysis Code | Optional internal reference fields. Analysis Category and Analysis Code are for accounting exports. |
Species | Restrict the product to specific species. If set, it only appears when invoicing for a matching patient — useful for stopping a dog-only product being added to a cat consultation. |
Active Ingredients | Tag pharmaceutical ingredients (multi-select). Powers ingredient-based search and clinical safety checks. |
Is Sellable | On by default. Switch off for items you stock but never charge for separately, e.g. internal-use anaesthetic. |
Dispensing
Defines how the product is counted and dispensed. Set this carefully — it shapes both stock tracking and how the price is interpreted.
Field | What to enter |
Unit (required) | The unit you buy the stock in — Bottle, Box, Bag, Packet. Suggested options come from the category, but you can type your own. |
Has Subunit? | Switch on when one stock unit holds many dispensable units. A 50 ml bottle is one unit but 50 subunits in the form of ml. Switching this on reveals Unit contains (e.g. 50) and Subunit (e.g. ml). Lupa shows a confirmation banner — "1 Bottle contains 50 ml" — so you can sanity-check the maths. |
Auto Prompt for Prescription/Label | When on, adding the product to an invoice prompts the vet to generate a prescription and dispensing label. |
Default Dosing Instructions | Standard dosing text that pre-fills on the dispensing label (e.g. "Give one tablet every 24 hours with food"). Saves the vet from typing the same instructions on every prescription. |
Stock Control
Where you set the alert thresholds that drive the colour-coded Stock column and Suggested Orders.
Field | What it does |
Stock Control Enabled | On by default. When on, Lupa tracks quantity and deducts stock automatically when the product is dispensed on a finalised invoice. Switch off for products you don't physically stock (e.g. a service-like consumable). |
Minimum Stock Level (required) | The reorder threshold — stock below this turns the Stock bar red and lists the product in Suggested Orders. |
Optimal Stock Level (required) | Your target quantity. Suggested Orders calculates how much to order to top up to this number. |
Enable Batch Tracking | Switch on for products with expiry dates so each delivery is tracked as a separate batch with its own expiry — supports first-expiry-first-out dispensing. Your role must include the Manage product batches permission to toggle this switch or edit batch details; without it the control is greyed out. |
Location & Quantity | The starting stock for the product, by location. Click Add Stock to track stock in more than one place (e.g. Main Store • Dispensary). |
For more on minimum/optimal levels and the Suggested Orders flow, see . For day-to-day stock movements, see .
Pricing
Five fields drive the full pricing chain. Edit any one of Procurement Cost, Mark Up, or Price and the rest recalculate automatically.
Field | What it means |
Procurement Cost (excl. VAT) (required) | What you pay the supplier per stock unit. Auto-fills from the supplier product if linked. |
Mark Up | Your margin as a percentage. Drives the calculated Net Price. Leave at 0% for items you sell at cost. |
Net Price (excl. VAT) | Read-only. Calculated from procurement cost + discounts + markup. |
VAT | Tax rate. Picks from your country's standard rates by default. |
Price (incl. VAT) | The final amount on the invoice. Edit this directly to back-calculate the markup, or let it recalculate from Procurement Cost + Mark Up + VAT. |
Has Advanced Discounts? | Switch on for products where the supplier applies layered discounts (Discount 1, 2, 3) — for example, list price minus settlement discount minus volume discount. The Mark Up Basis radio chooses whether your markup is calculated on the NNN Price (after discounts) or the Procurement Cost (before discounts). A waterfall chart shows where each discount lands. |
💡 If you stock in vials and dispense in ml (or any other subunit), the Price is the price per stock unit. The form shows the per-subunit equivalent below the field — e.g. "£42.00 per ml" — so you can sanity check the per-dose cost.
Linked Services
Services that auto-attach when this product is dispensed — typically Dispensing Fee for take-home medications or Injection Administration Fee for in-clinic injectables. Click Add Service to link an existing service, or Create Service to make a new one without leaving the form. When you finish filling the form, click Create at the bottom. The product appears in the inventory table immediately and is searchable from invoices.
Editing a Product
From the Stock tab, click the product name (or use the three-dot menu → Edit Product). The same five-section form opens with the saved values. Make your changes and click Save.
🔒 Reference list products show some fields locked. Practice groups can manage a shared product catalogue centrally — see for context. When a field comes from a reference list it appears greyed out. Ask your group administrator if you need to change a locked value.
⚠️ Archiving a product is reversible. To remove a product from active use, open it and use the archive action (or use the bulk Archive action below). Past invoices and stock movements remain intact, and you can unarchive any time.
Bulk Editing Several Products at Once
For annual price reviews, category clean-ups, or applying a tag to a whole range, edit many products in one go instead of opening each. Tick the checkbox on the left of any product row to start a selection — Shift-click another row to select a range. Once at least one row is ticked, the bulk action bar appears at the bottom of the page.
What you can change in bulk
Action | What it does |
Category | Replace the Category on every selected product with one new value. |
Pricing | Opens a sub-menu with three independent options: Edit Mark Up, Edit VAT %, and Edit Price. Each one updates the chosen field on every selected product and recalculates the others (e.g. changing markup recalculates price; changing price recalculates markup). |
Tags | Add or remove tags across the selection. Each tag shows a count of how many of the selected products already carry it; tick to add to all, untick to remove from all. |
Linked Services | Attach or detach services across the selection. Same checkbox model as tags — tick to link the service to every selected product, untick to remove it. |
Archive / Unarchive | Dropdown with both options. Use Archive to retire a range from active use; use Unarchive to restore. |
Add to Basket | Queues every selected product (with a default quantity of 1) into your wholesale basket so you can review and submit the order. Only products linked to a connected supplier are eligible — anything else is skipped with a notice. |
Bulk pricing changes — Replace vs Modify
The Pricing icon opens a small dropdown — pick the field you want to change.
Edit Mark Up and Edit VAT % only let you replace the value with one number — every selected product is set to that exact percentage. Edit Price is more flexible because raising prices uniformly often means percentage uplifts. The dialog has two tabs.
Replace sets every selected product to the exact price you enter. Use this when you want them all at the same number — e.g. setting a flat £15.00 across a range of own-label retail items.
Modify changes each product's existing price by a fixed amount or a percentage — pick % or £ using the toggle on the right. Enter a positive number to increase, a negative number to decrease. Use this for an "all medications up by 5%" style review, where each product keeps its own relative price but moves by the same amount. After you save, Lupa shows a confirmation summary listing every product, its old value, and its new value. Click Update to apply, or Cancel to back out.
Locked products are skipped, not blocked
If your selection includes products from a centrally managed reference list, those products are filtered out of bulk updates for whichever fields the list locks. The dialog tells you up front — "5 of 12 products will be updated, 7 are locked" — and lists the names so you know what was skipped. The other products still update normally.
✅ Best practices from practices that run Lupa:
Filter the table first, then Select all in the toolbar — much faster than scrolling and ticking row by row
For an annual price review, use Edit Price → Modify → % rather than touching each product
Tag controlled drugs and retail items so you can bulk-edit just one category at a time
Set minimum and optimal stock levels on every new product — without them the Stock column has no colour bar and Suggested Orders can't generate a list
Use the Description field for internal notes (e.g. "Order via NVS, fridge storage, 2-week lead time") — vets and reception don't see it but the dispensary team does
Link a dispensing fee or injection fee as a Linked Service instead of relying on staff to remember to add it
Troubleshooting
Problem | Solution |
Product doesn't appear when adding to an invoice | Check Is Sellable is on, and that Species isn't restricting it from this patient. If the product is archived, unarchive it from the bulk action bar (filter the list to Archived: True to find it). |
Stock didn't decrease after dispensing | Stock Control Enabled must be on, and the invoice must be finalised — drafts don't move stock. Check Stock Movements on the product's three-dot menu to see what happened. |
Price won't change in the form | If Mark Up Type is set to a country-fixed formula (e.g. German AMPreisV), the Price field is calculated and locked. Change Mark Up Type to User Defined if you need to override. |
Can't edit a field on a single product | The product is from a shared reference list and that field is locked centrally. The lock is per-field, not per-product, so other fields are still editable. |
Bulk action bar shows but the icon I want is greyed out | Every product in the selection has that field locked from a reference list. Either change your selection, or ask the group administrator to update the reference list. |
Bulk Add to Basket says "X products are not eligible" | Those products aren't linked to a connected wholesaler. Edit each one and pick a supplier under the Supplier field. See . |
Enable Batch Tracking toggle is greyed out | Your role doesn't include the Manage product batches permission. Ask your Practice Manager to grant it under Settings → Roles & Permissions. The Inventory permission alone lets you view and edit stock quantities, but not create or change batch records. |
Barcode scan does nothing | Click into the Barcode field (or the search box) before scanning. Most scanners need an active text field to write into. On a phone or tablet, the scanner uses the rear camera by default — if prompted, allow camera access in your browser settings. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to fill every field?
Do I have to fill every field?
Only the fields marked with a red asterisk are required — Name, Category, Unit, Procurement Cost, Mark Up, VAT, Price, and (when Stock Control is on) Minimum and Optimal Stock Levels. You can save a partly-filled product and come back later.
What happens to the price if my supplier raises their cost?
What happens to the price if my supplier raises their cost?
Each product has a Supplier Price Update Mode that controls this. If set to Pass on increases, your selling price recalculates upward to keep the same markup percentage. If set to Do not pass on increases, your price stays fixed and your margin shrinks. The default is Increase only — costs that go up flow through, costs that go down don't.
Can I delete a product?
Can I delete a product?
No — deletion would orphan past invoices and stock history. Use Archive instead, which removes the product from active use but keeps all historical data. Archived products can be unarchived at any time.
How do I bulk-add stock for many products at once?
How do I bulk-add stock for many products at once?
Bulk editing doesn't change quantities — it changes catalogue settings like price and category. To increase stock across many products, either process a wholesale order delivery (see ) or run a stock take.
Can I import products from a spreadsheet?
Can I import products from a spreadsheet?
Bulk import isn't self-serve — contact your Lupa onboarding contact and they can ingest a product list for you. For ongoing additions, the Add form is the standard route.
Why is the Mark Up field locked on some products?
Why is the Mark Up field locked on some products?
It's locked when Mark Up Type is set to a fixed regulatory formula (currently used for some German AMPreisV products). Switch the Mark Up Type back to User Defined in the Pricing section to set a manual percentage, if your role permits.