Inventory is the silent killer of clinic margins. Most vets don't track it properly, then wonder why profit is lower than they expect. Here's the playbook.

The real cost of bad inventory

Two things hurt you:

  1. Expired stock. Every bottle you throw out is money burned. A mid-sized clinic writes off ₹30,000–₹80,000/year in expired meds — without knowing it.
  2. Stockouts. Running out mid-consultation is embarrassing and costs you follow-up revenue.

The FEFO rule

First Expiring, First Out. Not first-in-first-out — first expiring. The medicine with the nearest expiry date is always dispensed first, regardless of when you bought it.

This one rule alone can cut expired stock by 60%+.

Batch tracking > bottle tracking

Track stock by batch, not by bottle count. Every batch has:

  • Batch number
  • Expiry date
  • Quantity remaining
  • Purchase price

This gives you traceability (required by law in most countries) AND visibility on what's expiring.

Auto-deduction on billing

If you track inventory manually (updating stock in a register every time you dispense), you'll stop within 2 weeks. It's too much work.

The only sustainable system is auto-deduction — when you bill a client for a medicine, the stock drops automatically. ClinicDesq does this natively.

Reorder alerts

Set reorder points per item. When stock drops below the threshold, get an alert. Don't wait until you're out to order.

The weekly inventory review

Every Friday, spend 10 minutes looking at:

  • Items expiring in the next 30 days (push them)
  • Items below reorder point (order)
  • Dead stock (meds not moved in 90 days — stop ordering them)

That's it. 10 minutes a week keeps your pharmacy profitable.

How ClinicDesq handles this

  • FEFO auto-deduction
  • Batch-level tracking with expiry dates
  • Low-stock alerts dashboard
  • Expiry alerts (30, 15, 7 days out)
  • Weekly email summary of items needing attention

Try the inventory module →