Dear Team,

I am using Adagio inventory and Adagio Invoices (Charge Sheets) for a small hospital...

Problem I need to track the expiry dates of the drugs and other supplies that are date sensitive.

Kindly advise my options.

The I.M.S Solution have already been considered but not a good fit for this client.

Regards

Optional fields? These are available to Adagio Invoices documents whether the item source is an Inventory item or one from Adagio Invoices. Either can be entered on the item at the time of creating or editing an invoice (prior to posting) and printed on invoice documents.

Hi Edward,

Due to the fact that I believe you are referring to instances where an individual item could (and probably would) have multiple expiry dates due to the separate "lots" or batches held in inventory at any one time, I seriously doubt that the Adagio IC and IN modules on their own would give you an acceptable solution. I believe that you are looking for a "Lot Tracking" solution and in their current form, IC and IN cannot accomplish this. At one time Softrak was considering doing Lot Tracking but to my knowledge this would be way at the back of the queue (if still there at all).

I assume your reference to an IMS solution not being a good fit, included their recently released Lot Tracker module ? To my knowledge there is no integration of IMS-LT and Adagio-IN - is that the issue ? if so, maybe it would be good for IMS and Softrak to explore such integration.

Anyways, you could also have a look at the Warehouse Management System by Lenmax (www.lenmax.com). I seem to remember something about that system doing some form of Lot tracking, however, again the issue might be that it integrates with OE rather than IN. Talk to Vlad at Lenmax (contact info should be on the web site) and see if he can help.

Regards, Pete

Hi Edward,

I think that we need a better understanding of what you are trying to accomplish.

"Track the expiry dates" - to what end? To discard the drugs past their due date? My guess is that you just want to make sure that the earliest to expire are used first - but that's a racking and picking issue, not an accounting issue. It makes no difference to the accounting system which drugs are dispensed in what order.

At the AOC it was pointed out that there is no way that the accounting department is going to tell the warehouse what item to ship. Also, to get any kind of accuracy, bar coding of the inventory is mandatory. That's why Peter is pointing you at a Warehouse management solution and I said at the AOC that the likelihood of us developing any form of Lot tracking as part of Adagio is slim to none.

One approach is to make a segment of the item number the Year/Month it expires, but this means a separate item number for each lot. Another is to track the earliest expiry date in an optional field and update the information when drug counts are done. Finally, you could track the quantities and lot number by entering it in each line of an invoice, and then have a GridView View that totaled sales by lot number (see where bar coding would be useful?).

Feel free to call me if you'd like to chat - or I can set up a web meeting with Pete joining us.

This is a major deficiency. While on the surface it may appear that this request does not affect the accounting functionality of the software, Softrak is missing the big picture. Serial numbers, expiry dates and lot-batch tracking is key to "traceability" which is demanded as a "must have" for local and international trade and further assist companies to enforce QMS or Quality Management Systems.

This medical-pharmaceutical client is just one segment of the market, but we have agro processors and food traders as well as other very "wealthy" companies seeking a solution which ADAGIO is a perfect fit but due the absence of this feature I as a "marketer-dealer-consultant" is limited and continue to loose out to our predecessor (SAGE) winning major accounts that should be using ADAGIO.

Now I am forced to tell my client we will have to switch to another suite of products to achieve expiry date tracking, undoing all the work I have done over the past 3 years to get them using ADAGIO core modules to now invest in a Warehouse Management System when they do not have a warehouse, but a small medicine storage at most tracking and inventory of say JA$20 million or US$230K.

This request will have serious implications. Already this is only about the small hospital, my other client the soap manufacturer is now preparing to start exporting and in a meeting they have mentioned the need to track the items used in the BOM - Build Of Materials to make the finished goods. I knew the source of the request "International Trade Agreement" which countries will use as a non tariff but our "Information Systems" must be able to accommodate.

Accounting Software today in 2012 and beyond is not only about Debit and Credit but Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems.

I am not encouraged by the responses above. (( This as I am preparing to use these two clients as case studies to launch product in Jamaica.))

Respectfully

Hello Edward,

While it may be a major deficiency (for some prospects) it's not a new deficiency. Adagio has not had integral lot tracking in all the years we've been shipping it.

You haven't described what you are trying to accomplish with the term "Expiry Date Tracking". You can track things in many ways, including systems not managed by the accounting department. If it's a small cupboard of pharmaceuticals, perhaps a simple card system in the closet is more cost effective (and likely more accurate) than anything they'd be likely to afford on the computer side.

Do you care what the expiry date was after the item has been sold (or likely consumed in your case)? Is the accounting department going to be telling the dispensary what box to offer over the counter? Will the dispensary be recording the expiry date on the box of every item that goes over the counter? Is there a bar coding system in place to accurately capture what is being dispensed? What procedure do you envision?

It's also true that Adagio is not the perfect fit in all businesses. There are many manufacturing processes where I wouldn't recommend Adagio. Adding features adds sales and implementation complexity - and the pricing needs to rise exponentially (not linearly) in this case.

Edward:
I'd like to put in a word for LotTracker from IMS. Terry and his staff are willing to consider enhancements to their product based on feedback. You said earlier that you didn't feel LotTracker would address your client's needs. Could you specify your concerns? Is it that you are using the Invoices module as Peter suggested?

Client - "Hospital"

Inventory
Purchase order
Invoice
Accounts Payable
Accounts Receivable
General Ledger
Bank Rec
Multi Currency



Key thing here is to track medication that will soon or has expired - (2500 items).

Why ?
In most cases we can return before expire so they are replaced.

Concern
Lot Tracker does not interface with the Invoice and Purchase Order modules. Would have to purchase other suite of products.

Other solutions do not support Invoice Module only Order Entry.

Question can I trade in a module say Invoice for OE ?

Regards

If you enter the lot number on every line of the invoice, then you can use GridView to generate a spreadsheet every night with quantity sales by item / lot. ExcelDirect this spreadsheet and load it against another Excel sheet with the quantities on hand for each lot. Highlight those where the quantity is way more than the run rate and return them.

Alternatively, have a separate item number for every lot. Why does that not work?

Wow think you may have thrown me the life raft I have been looking for.


Thanks work around seems like a good one.....


Stand by for clients reaction..