Formulations

Formulations in Compound Direct are structured templates that help standardise the compounding process. They allow you to track usage, add pricing, assign default devices, attach documentation, and define step-by-step procedures for preparing medicines. Unlike once-off drafts, formulations ensure consistency, accuracy, and efficiency across multiple preparations.

Here’s what you can do with formulations:

• Create and manage formulations with ingredients, devices, labels, and documentation.
• Configure volume-based formulation pricing, view detailed cost breakdowns, and apply price adjustments.
• Implement risk management and quality control through checklists, alerts, timers, and other guided steps.

Now that you understand the purpose and features of formulations, let’s dive into how to set them up and use them in your workflow.

Finding a formulation

1. Go to the ‘Settings’ page.

2. Click on the ‘Formulations’ button.

3. To find your desired formulation, you may either:

   1. Begin typing the formulation name into the search search bar. This can be simplified by adding filters.
   2. Click on the ‘Type keyboard_arrow_down’ button to filter the formulation list by ‘radio_button_checked All / Batch Stock / Ingredient’.
   • Batch stock formulations are used to create stock on hand for multiple patients. While, ingredient formulations are used to create ingredients for other formulations, typically in the form of dilutions.
   • To create an ingredient formulation see How to create an Aliquot/Dilution Ingredient tutorial.

4. Click on the ‘More Filters’ button.

   1. Click on the ‘Archival Status’ drop-down menu and tick ‘check_box Show Archived’ to show archived records only.
   2. Click on the ‘Contents Tagged With’ drop-down menu and select a tag from either contents has tag or contents not tagged with with to apply to the search.
   3. Click on the ‘Dosage Form’ drop-down menu and choose to include or exclude ‘check_box Dosage Forms’.
   4. Click on the ‘Schedule’ drop-down menu and select a schedule.

5. Click on the ‘sort Sort By’ button and select ‘radio_button_checked Formulation Name (A-Z or Z-A) / Date Modified (oldest or newest first) / Dosage Form Order (ascending or descending)’.

   • See settings in Dosage Forms for more information.

6. Click on the ‘Formulation Record’ to view.

Creating a new formulation

1. Go to the ‘Settings’ page.

2. Click on the ‘Formulations’ button.

3. Click on the ‘Create Formulation’ button.

4. Select the dosage form drop-down menu to apply a set of defaults to the formulation.

   • See Dosage Forms tutorial for more information and a list of default settings for each dosage form.
   1. Enter the capsule size, mold size, or portion size, if applicable.
   2. Click on the ‘percent’ button to express strength in percent.
   3. Click on the ‘W/W’ to apply weight over weight calculations.
   4. Click on the ‘QS Base’ to make added base as quantity sufficient.

5. Enter the expiry days, final units, and wastage percent % as desired.

6. Add ingredients to the formulation as necessary.

   • See the Adding ingredients to a formulation tutorial for more information.

7. Add ‘Formulation Steps’ to the formulation as necessary.

   • See the Adding formulation steps tutorial for more information.

8. Enter or select the default directions for use, schedule, labels, collections, reference code, and info url.

9. To create collections, type desired collection name and click ‘Create collection’.

   1. In the ‘Collections’ section, enter the collection name and collection description.
   2. Click on the ‘Add Products’ button to search and add stock & formulation.
   3. Tick the desired ‘check_box Role’ that will have access to the collection.

10. The compound name for the new formulation will automatically be generated as a list of active ingredients and their strengths in the order they have been added.

    1. To prevent changes to the compound name as ingredients are added and removed, click on the lock_open icon to lock or unlock changes or press ‘keyboard_return Enter’.
    2. If unlocked, the compound name can be customised as needed.

11. Add ‘Devices’ to the formulation as necessary. standard Package

    • See the Adding devices tutorial for more information.

12. Add ‘Pricing’ to the formulation as necessary.

    • See the Adding formulation pricing tutorial for more information.

13. Click on the ‘Create’ button.

14. Under ‘Documents’, upload any relevant documents by pan_tool dragging the files in the section or clicking on the file_open space.

    • See Documents and Uploads user guide for more information.

15. Under ‘Activity’, add notes into the text field provided, then press ‘Enter’ directly on your keyboard.

    1. A complete list of current notes will be displayed to everyone.
    2. Changes made to the formulation will also be recorded here.
    • For more information see the Notes & History user guide.

16. Click on the ‘check Sign Off’ button, to finalise the formulation record.

    • For more information see the Signing off a formulation tutorial.

Adding ingredients

1. Use the ingredient search bar to add an ingredient.

   • Ingredients in a formulation can have active, excipient, or base as a role. The default role is selected when adding an ingredient into the system. See Ingredients tutorial.

2. When a new ingredient is added its role badge (active, excipient, or base) is shown next to it.

3. Enter the strength or zero (0) to make the formulation as a template.

   1. The strength and ingredients can be change during that drafts page if not restricted during sign-off.

4. To change an ingredient role, click on the more_vert icon, and select ‘Use as Active / Excipient /Base’ as desired.

   1. This will change how it acts within the calculation system.
   • When adding a new active ingredient, ensure the strength is included in the units specific to each ingredient. See Adding an ingredient batch tutorial.

5. When adding a new excipient, adjust the percentage in the final formulation as desired.

6. When adding a new base, the system will adjust the percentage of the base in the final formula to reach 100%.

   • If a base has already been added to the formulation, adding a new ingredient pre-set as a base will appear as an excipient in the formula.

7. To enter in grams (g), micrograms (microg), milliliter (mL), or units, toggle ‘toggle_on Enter via quantity’ on.

8. To view the ingredients' calculations and stock on hand (open stock / total stock on hand), hover over the info icon.

   • Calculations are performed automatically using adjustment factors, liquid densities, and packing statistics, specific to the batch selected as required for each dosage form.
   1. To see the batch currently selected for the formulation, click on the launch icon.
      • The quantity, supplier, batch number, expiry date and other important batch information can be found on this page. See Editing an ingredient batch tutorial.

9. To see a list of all batches with remaining stock, click on the launch icon then on the ingredients name to go to the ingredient page.

   1. A list of all batches with stock on hand will appear under ‘Recent Batches’.
   2. To change the order of which batch should be primarily allocated during compounding, click on the ‘Allocation’ tab under ‘Stock Management’.
   3. Set the batch allocation function as desired to either:
      1. ‘Use the batch that is first to expire’.
      2. ‘Use the oldest batch first’.
      3. ‘Use the batch with the least quantity first’.

10. Re-order the list of ingredients as desired by dragging the menu icon to move the ingredient to the desired location.

Adding formulation steps

1. To add a new formulation step, click on the ‘+ Add formulation step’ button above the compound name, or the ‘+ Add Step’ button beside the ‘Risk Management’ section.
2. Select the desired formulation step type:

Finding a formulation price

The Find Price option allows you to quickly check and add a price for a formulation using the available compound pricing structures.

1. In the ‘Pricing’ section, click on the ‘search Find Price’ button.
2. On the ‘Find Price modal’, enter the quantity you want to price.
3. Available Compound Pricing options will appear.
   • To learn how to set up compound pricing, see Adding a new pricing option tutorial.
4. Hover over each price option to view the price calculations.
5. Click the add_circle_outline button to add the price as a formulation pricing. Added prices will appear under the ‘Pricing’ section.
6. Click the ‘View Breakdown’ button to see a detailed breakdown of the formulation costs, then click ‘Done’ to hide the modal.
7. Once done with pricing, click ‘Save’ to apply all changes.

Adding formulation pricing

Formulation pricing lets you add and manage quantity-based pricing at scale, with best-fit price recommendations and visual pricing trends. Easily adjust prices using percentages, rounding, and CSV import or export, with clear cost breakdowns to support pricing decisions.

1. In the ‘Pricing’ section, click on the ‘+ Add Price’ button.

2. On the ‘Formulation Pricing’ modal, enter the quantity of the formulation price, then click the ‘add Add’ button.

3. Enter the desired price for the formulation.

   1. When adding the price, available compound pricing will appear as options.
   2. ABest Fit Price
      The Best Fit Price automatically calculates a recommended price for new quantities. When multiple formulation prices exist, a trend visualisation is shown, allowing users to switch between linear and volume-based pricing. If enabled, the volume-based setting is saved and applied to future pricing calculations.
      will be displayed which is calculated if there is an existing formulation price.
      1. Hover over theBest Fit Price
         The Best Fit Price automatically calculates a recommended price for new quantities. When multiple formulation prices exist, a trend visualisation is shown, allowing users to switch between linear and volume-based pricing. If enabled, the volume-based setting is saved and applied to future pricing calculations.
         button to open the ‘Trend Visualisation’ modal, then toggle_on toggle between views to apply linear or volume-based pricing.

4. Enter the number of containers and the name of the formulation pricing.

   1. You can use the unfold_more icon to adjust the Quantity, Price, and Containers.

   2. To view thecost breakdown

      The cost breakdown displays a complete breakdown of ingredients and device quantities, unit costs, and totals. It also displays the combined cost, patient price, gross profit, and gross profit margin.
      of each pricing structure, click on the info icon or any values under unit, ingredients, or device cost.

   • The unit price, unit cost, ingredient cost, device cost, and gross profit are automatically calculated.

5. To apply price adjustments on the formulation prices:

   1. Click on the ‘+5%’ or ‘-5%’ button to increase or decrease the formulation by 5%.

   2. Click on the ‘Custom %’` button to apply a custom price adjustment.

      1. On the ‘Set Percentage’ modal, enter the desired percentage increase %, then click the ‘Adjust Prices’ button to save changes.
         1. You can use the unfold_more icon to adjust the Percentage Increase.

   3. Click on the ‘Round’ button, to apply rounding adjustments on the prices.

   4. On the ‘Set Rounding’ modal, select the preferred ‘Rounding Method’:To decimal places,

      To round prices to a specific number of decimal places, select the rounding ‘Direction’ (radio_button_checked Nearest, Up, or Down) and enter the number of decimal places to apply. A preview of the applied rounding will be displayed at the bottom of the modal.
      To increment (step),
      To round prices to a specific increment, select the rounding ‘Direction’ (radio_button_checked Nearest, Up, or Down) and enter the increment value to apply or select between ‘0.05 | 0.10’. A preview of the applied rounding will be displayed at the bottom of the modal.
      To price ending,
      To round prices to specific endings, select the rounding ‘Direction’ (radio_button_checked Nearest, Up, or Down) and select the allowed endings to apply (‘.99’, ‘.49’, ‘.95’, ‘.00’), or add a custom ending by clicking the add button. A preview of the applied rounding will be displayed at the bottom of the modal.
      or none.

   5. Click the ‘Apply rounding’ button to save changes.

6. To set a barcode for a formulation pricing, click on the qr_code icon and enter the barcode you wish to apply.

7. Click on the ‘More Actions arrow_drop_down’ drop-down menu:

   1. To import pricing data, click ‘Import CSV’, then cloud_upload upload the file (in .csv) format, then click ‘Upload’.
   2. To export formulation pricing data, click ‘Export CSV’ then a .csv copy of the formulation data will be downloaded.
   3. To view the RAW data of the formulation pricing, click ‘View RAW Data (.json)’ then click ‘Done’ to close modal.
      1. To copy the pricing to another formulation, the text on the ‘RAW Formulation Pricing Data (.json)’ modal can be selected, copied, and pasted.

8. The Trend Visualisation graph will be displayed at the bottom of the ‘Formulation Pricing’ modal.

   1. Click on ‘Cost ($)’, ‘Current Price ($)’, or ‘Recommended Price ($)’ to show or hide each Quantity and Price data set.
   2. Click the ‘Linear’ or ‘Volume-Based’ button to view pricing trends based on a linear model or volume-based pricing.
      1. Drag the linear_scale price points on the graph to adjust the formulation prices.

9. To remove a price, click on the close icon.

10. Click on the ‘Done’ button.

Adding devicesstandard Package

1. In the ‘Devices’ section, a list of devices linked to the dosage form selected are displayed.
2. Click on the ‘Inherit keyboard_arrow_down’ drop-down menu to select between ‘Inherit from dosage form’ or ‘Customise for formulation’.
3. If customise for formulation is chosen, you may:
   1. Click on the ‘Add Device’ button.
   2. Add devices using the search search bar.
   3. Click on the check_circle icon to add multiple devices.
   4. Click on the ‘Done’ button.
   • See Consumables tutorial for more information on how to add a new device.
4. To remove a device, click on the more_vert icon and select ‘Remove Device’.
5. To modify the calculation of a device, click on the more_vert icon and select ‘Modify Calculation’.
   1. Select a ‘radio_button_checked Quantity Calculation’.
   2. Enter a x multiplier. You can use the unfold_more icon to adjust.
   3. Click on the ‘Done’ button.

Signing off a formulation

1. Click on the ‘check Sign Off’ button.
2. On the ‘Sign Off Formulation’ modal, change restrictions before the final sign off.
3. Toggle on the ‘Disable Edits toggle_on’ switch, to completely restrict editing access before dispensing and lock down the use of the ‘Advanced Options’.
4. The ‘Advanced Options’ will give the user the option to enter in a min strength and max strength restriction to the formulation.
   1. Click on the edit icon to disable editing access to ingredients.
   2. Click on the remove_circle icon to disable removing access to ingredients.
   3. Tick the desired check_box icon to enable or disable editing or removing access.
   4. Tick the ‘check_box Allow New Ingredients’ to allow ingredients to be added to the formulation prior to dispensing.
5. Click on the ‘Sign Off’ button.
   • The ability to edit the formulation's dosage form, final units, expiry days, wastage percent and ingredients list become restricted after signing off.
   • When a new draft is created using the formula any changes to the ingredient list are highlighted to the user as a deviation from the standard formula.

Creating a master formulation stepstandard Package

Master formulation steps let you create reusable steps that can be applied across multiple formulations.

1. To add ‘Master formulation steps’, you may either:
   1. Click on the ‘add Add formulation step’ button.
   2. Click on the ‘add Add Step’ button.
2. Click on the ‘Re-usable Master Steps’ button.
   1. Search master steps or click on the ‘Add a new step’ button.
   • To learn more, see the Adding formulation steps tutorial.
   1. To add an existing step to the current formulation, click on the add_circle_outline icon.
3. Click on the ‘Done’ button.

Viewing master formulation steps report standard Package

Master formulation step reporting allows you to run reports across your formulations. A master formulation step will only be automatically added if it’s saved at a dosage form level.

1. Go to your ‘Settings’ page.
2. Click on the ‘Master Formulation Steps’ button.
3. A list of existing ‘Master Formulation Steps’ is shown.
4. Find the desired ‘Master Formulation Step’.
5. Click the ‘View Report’ button to view the reports of a specific step.
6. Click on the ‘Last 30 days’ to select a date range.
   1. Select the desired ‘Date Range’ from the left hand-side.
   2. Enter the desired date range date.
7. Click on the ‘Apply’ button.
   1. You will now have the master formulation steps uploaded for that timeframe with the ID Name, Dosage Form and any Tasks.
8. Click on the ‘Export’ button or arrow_drop_down icon to ‘Export as Excel (.xlsx)’ or ‘Export as CSV (.csv)’.

Converting a formulation to batch stock

A formulation be converted to stock if the formulation is used to generate a product with stock on hand for multiple patients.

1. Click on the ‘More actions keyboard_arrow_down’ drop-down menu and select ‘Convert to batch stock’.
2. Confirm you wish to ‘Sign off’ and convert this formulation to a batch stock.
3. On the following prompt, enter the desired quantity of stock to be created initially, or ‘Cancel’ if you do not wish to create an initial batch right away.
   1. The stock page for the formulation will automatically come up to provide a summary of the stock.
   • See Editing a Batch Stock lot tutorial for more information.

Setting capsule overfill

Numerous elements impact the final volume of your packing, including, powder particle size, powder interactions, mixing method (such as mortar and pestle grinding), and static charges. Setting an overfill percentage will add extra base ingredient to the formulation at the amount specified.

This setting may be useful for capsule formulations where capsules are not completely full when tampered due to unmeasured errors in the formulation. Hence, the overfill can be used to make up the final volume.

To set the capsule overfill function:

1. Find the base ingredient within the formulation and click on the more_vert icon.
   1. Within the menu, select thr ‘Set Overflow Percentage’.
2. Specify the desired overfill percentage if known or select the ‘Calculate’ button.
3. Fill in the available sections using the ‘Actual weight of base’.
   1. Thi is the measured weight after adding excess base to your preparation when compounding until the capsule are full and using this weight to determine the future overfill percentage.