Never run out mid-treatment: a simpler way to manage clinic stock
The patient is numb, the cavity is prepared, and the assistant opens the drawer to find one composite capsule where there should have been a box. Someone used the last ones yesterday and meant to tell somebody.
Running out mid-treatment is rarely about money. It is about nobody knowing what is on the shelf until they need it. The good news is that a few plain habits fix most of it, with or without software.
Why clinics run out
The same few patterns show up in almost every clinic:
- Nobody owns it. Everyone takes from the shelf, and everyone assumes someone else is watching it.
- Orders happen when someone notices. That usually means when the box is already empty, with a patient in the chair.
- Counts are in the wrong unit. "Two boxes left" sounds safe, until you realize one of them is open and nearly empty.
- Waste is invisible. Expired anesthetic, a dropped capsule, an impression that had to be retaken. None of it is written down, so the numbers never add up.
A spreadsheet can help for a while, but it only knows what someone types into it, and the person who uses the last capsule is rarely the person who updates the sheet.
Set a minimum for anything that can stop a treatment
Walk through your stock once and ask a simple question about each item: if this ran out today, would we have to cancel or postpone something? Anesthetic, gloves, composite, impression material, and sterilization pouches usually make the list.
For each of those, set a minimum: the quantity at which you reorder, not the quantity at which you panic. A practical way to choose it is to think about how much you use in the time it takes your supplier to deliver, then add a little margin for a busy week. Write the number down where the person who restocks will see it.
Items that don't stop treatment can wait for the regular order. Keeping the critical list short is what makes it easy to watch.
Count in the unit you actually use
You buy composite by the box, but you use it by the capsule. You buy gloves by the carton, but you use them by the box. Count in the unit that leaves the shelf, not the unit that arrives on the invoice.
It sounds like a detail, but it changes everything about your minimums. "Reorder at 20 capsules" is a rule anyone can follow. "Reorder when we're low on composite" is a feeling.
Give restocking one owner, and track the waste
Pick one person, often the senior assistant, who owns the shelf. Others can tell them when something is low, but the order goes through them. One owner means one list, no double orders, and someone who notices when a supplier quietly raises a price.
That person should also keep a few simple records:
- What came in, from which supplier, and at what price.
- What you owe each supplier, and what you have paid.
- What was thrown away, and why.
The last one matters more than it looks. When you separate what was used on patients from what was wasted, you can tell the difference between "we are busier this month" and "something is expiring on the shelf". It is also worth keeping a second supplier for the critical items, so one late delivery doesn't empty the drawer.
How Naab handles stock
In Naab, stock and suppliers are part of the same system as your patients and treatments, on Starter and above. Each item has a category, a unit, a price, and as many suppliers as you buy it from. If you run more than one branch (on Growth and above), each branch keeps its own quantities.
You set a low-stock threshold on each item, and Naab alerts you when it drops below it. The dashboard shows what is available, what is running low, and what is out, with a shortcut to restock.
The counting happens where the work happens. Materials used on a treatment plan or a visit come off the shelf there, so the assistant doesn't have to remember to update a sheet later. Each month you can see usage and waste side by side.
Restocking is recorded against the supplier, along with what you paid and what you still owe, so supplier debt sits next to the rest of the clinic's money in money and operations.
There is also a marketplace for supplies. Every plan, including Free, can browse and buy. Starter and above get better supply pricing, and Professional and above add automatic reordering and an order history.
What to do this week
You can start without changing any tools:
- List the items that would stop a treatment if they ran out.
- Set a minimum for each one, counted in the unit you use.
- Name the person who owns the shelf.
- Start writing down waste, even roughly.
Once those habits are in place, putting them into a system is mostly data entry. If you want to see which plan includes stock and suppliers, the pricing page has the full list.