Ingredients

Before an ingredient can be used in a compounding formula it must first be added to the system. When adding ingredients, you can either add them for quick quoting purposes or you can add the first batch with all the details of that specific lot. To dispense using a formula with your desired ingredient, ingredient batches must be added to accurately compound using the appropriate packing statistics and adjustment factors.

How to create a new Ingredient

1. Go to Ingredients Page.
2. Click on the ‘Create Ingredient’ button.
3. Enter the desired name of the Ingredient and select its preferred role in the formula and its unit of measure.
   1. When typing the ingredient name, if a matching ingredient already exists in the inventory, it will appear on the right to ensure this newly created ingredient does not already exist.
4. Select a supplier that the ingredient will be ordered from:
   1. If a supplier hasn't been chosen for this ingredient, select ‘Skip’ on the bottom of the page then enter the Ingredient Price and click ‘Save’ to create the new ingredient.
   2. If the ingredient is an Aliquot/ Dilution click on the ‘Aliquot/Dilution’ button and follow the ‘How to create an Aliquot/Dilution ingredient’ tutorial.
5. Add an initial batch to begin compounding or choose to setup later.
6. If setting up later:
   1. Enter the Ingredient Price and click ‘Save’ to create the new ingredient.
7. If adding an initial batch:
   1. Select if the ingredient is a liquid.
   2. Add the batch details including the initial quantity, purchase price, cost per gram/mL, supplier, expiry date etc. then click next.
   3. Add an adjustment factor to convert from strength to quantity based on the nature of the ingredient. Select between:

      1. Assay - When adjusting for changes in purity, water content, and ratio of ‘salt-to-base’.

      2. Percentage of elemental - When an elemental compound is prescribed this only adjusts for the ‘salt-to-base’ ratio.

      3. Activity - When converting from IU to grams.

      4. Commercial medicines - When a commercial medicine needs to be compounded into another dosage form.

      • The commercial medicines adjustment factor is useful for creating formulations which use commercial tablets.

      1. Manual - When it is desired to set the adjustment factor manually.

      • When adding subsequent ingredient batches, the adjustment factor will be copied from the last entered batch to be reviewed and used as a guide for the current batch. When a substantial deviation (20%) from the previous adjustment factor is recognised by the system an alert for review will be made. If an edit has been made to the ‘Prescribing unit’ or the nature of the ingredient, a manual adjustment to the adjustment factor calculation method must be made.
   4. Add a liquid density when prompted if the ingredient was selected as a liquid.
   5. Select if the ingredient will be used in a capsule and subsequently record the Packing Statistics if available.
   6. Approve the batch for immediate use if all information has been verified by a qualified user.
8. Click ‘Save Ingredient’ when finalised to create the new ingredient.

How to create an Aliquot/Dilution Ingredient

1. Go to the ‘Ingredients’ page.
2. Click on the ‘Create Ingredient’ button.
3. Enter the desired name of the Aliquot/Dilution Ingredient and select its preferred role in the formula and its unit of measure.
   1. When typing the Aliquot/Dilution ingredients name, if a matching ingredient already exists in the inventory, it will appear on the right to ensure this newly created Aliquot/Dilution does not already exist.
4. Click on the ‘Aliquot/Dilution’ button at the bottom of the page.
5. Enter the required quantity, select a ‘Calculation Method’ from the drop-down menu and add the expiry days.
6. Under ‘ingredient’, search for an ingredient to be added by name.

• Ingredients in a formulation can be either an active, excipient, or base ingredient. The default role is selected when adding an ingredient into the system. See Ingredients tutorial for more information.

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

8. The role of an ingredient can be changed by clicking on the more_vert icon for that ingredient and selecting another role. This will change how it acts within the calculation system.

9. Pharmacists have a professional obligation to ensure the formula is checked thoroughly and meets all regulatory requirements. For each ingredient ensure the required details are added depending on the role.

   • When adding a new active ingredient, ensure the strength is included in the prescribing units specific to each ingredient. See Ingredients tutorial.
   1. When adding a new excipient, adjust the percentage of the excipient in the final formulation as desired.
   2. When adding a new base, the system will adjust the percentage of the base in the final formula to reach 100%.
      1. 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. To alter the role of an ingredient, change the role by clicking on the more_vert icon.

10. Click on the info icon to display the calculations being used and to see the stock on hand displayed as (open stock / total stock on hand).

    1. Calculations are performed automatically using adjustment factors, liquid densities, and packing statistics, specific to the batch selected as required for each dosage form.
    2. 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 ingredient batch tutorial.

11. Reorder the list of ingredients as desired by dragging the menu icon to move the ingredient to the desired location.

12. Add an adjustment factor based on the nature of the ingredient. Select between:

    1. Assay - When adjusting for changes in purity, water content, and ratio of ‘salt-to-base’.

    2. Percentage of elemental - When an elemental compound is prescribed this only adjusts for the ‘salt-to-base’ ratio.

    3. Activity - When converting from IU to grams.

    4. Commercial medicines - When a commercial medicine needs to be compounded into another dosage form.

    5. Manual - When it is desired to set the adjustment factor manually.

    • When adding subsequent ingredient batches, the adjustment factor will be copied from the last entered batch to be reviewed and used as a guide for the current batch. When a substantial deviation (20%) from the previous adjustment factor is recognised by the system an alert for review will be made. If an edit has been made to the ‘Prescribing unit’ or the nature of the ingredient, a manual adjustment to the adjustment factor calculation method must be made.

13. Click on ‘Save Ingredient’ when finalised to create the new Aliquot/Dilution.

Finding an ingredient

1. Go to the ‘Settings’ page.
2. Click on the ‘Ingredients’ button.
3. A list of ingredients is shown, including their stock on hand and days until expiry.
   1. Stock on hand is displayed as (available stock on hand) / (total stock on hand). A single value is shown when there is no difference between the two values. A ‘Low Stock’ alert will also appear here when relevant.
   2. Days until expiry is displayed under ‘Days Til Expiry’. An ‘Expiring Soon’ alert will also appear here when relevant.
4. To find your desired ingredient, you may either:
   1. Begin typing the name of the ingredient into the search bar.
   2. Click on the ‘More Filters’ tab near the search bar to apply filters to the list.
      1. Click on the ‘Tagged With’ drop-down menu and include either ingredients with specific Tags or ingredients without a specific Tag to the search.
      2. Click on the ‘Stock on hand’ drop-down menu and click ‘Low Stock’ to display ingredients that have a low stock alert.
      3. Click on the ‘Supplier’ drop-down menu and search for a supplier under ‘Previously Supplied by/ Preferred’ and select the preferred supplier status.
      4. Click on the ‘Formulation’ drop-down menu and click a formulation status to apply to the search. Formulations are typically used when creating aliquots and dilutions.
      5. Click on the ‘Status’ drop-down menu and click ‘Show Archived’ to display archived ingredients in the list.
   3. Click on the sell icon near the search bar to display a list of tags to apply to the search.
5. Hovering over the name of the ingredient will display a summary of the ingredients history of use which can be displayed at different time intervals.

Editing an ingredient

1. Go to the ‘Settings’ page.

2. Click on the ‘Ingredients’ button.

3. Find the desired ingredient and click on it to view it.

4. Under ‘Recent Batches’ a list of batches with stock are displayed including their ‘Batch Code’, ‘Date Created’, ‘Quantity’ and ‘Expiry Date’. Open batches are marked with an ‘Open’ label near the batch code. Available stock on hand and total stock on hand are also shown.

   1. To view all batches, click on the ‘Batch History’ button to display a list of all previous batches including those with no quantity.

5. Click on the ‘Add Batch’ button to add a new batch to the system.

   • See Add an ingredient batch tutorial.
   • When editing ingredients that are aliquots or dilutions the button will say ‘Manufacture Batch’.

6. Under ‘History’ the history of use for the ingredient is shown including an interactive graph which can be set at different time frames. The total use of the ingredient at the selected time frame is also seen under ‘Use over the last year’.

7. When editing ingredients that are aliquots or dilutions, the ingredients formulation will be displayed under ‘Formulations’ and can be viewed by clicking on the launch icon.

8. Add documents to the ingredient as required when editing ingredients that are aliquots or dilutions.

   • See General features of all documents for more information.

9. If found references will be shown under ‘References’, including a summary of the ingredients name, ‘CAS’ number, dose ‘Range’ are reported along with the sources of the information.

10. Click on the edit icon near the ingredient name or hover over the overview information and click on the edit icon to begin editing the ingredient details.

    1. Edit the ‘Name’, ‘Short Name’, ‘Description’ of the ingredient as desired.
    2. Under ‘Compounding’ edit the ‘Prescribing Unit’, ‘Preferred Ingredient Role’ and ‘CAS Number’ as desired. Select ‘Is this ingredient a liquid?’ if true.
       • if the ‘Prescribing Unit’ is changed to IU, the adjustment factors must be manually changed to be calculated as ‘Activity’.
    3. Under ‘Alerts’ edit the ‘Minimum stock on hand’ and ‘Minimum days till expiry’ for the ingredient as desired.
       1. When the total stock on hand is below this value a ‘Low stock’ alert will be given to the user when searching for the ingredient.
       2. When the stock passes the days til expiry a expiring alert will be given to the user when searching for the ingredient.
       • The ingredient will also appear under the ‘Low Stock’ tab when creating a purchase order – See Purchase Orders tutorial.
    4. Under ‘Preferred Supplier’ edit the preferred supplier from the drop-down menu.
       • See Adding a Supplier tutorial for more information.
       1. Edit the preferred quantity, purchase price and supplier SKU which will appear when creating a purchase order.
    5. Under ‘Pricing’ select the desired ‘Pricing Function’ for the ingredient.
       1. Set the ‘List Cost’ as desired for the ingredient. The list cost is a user defined preferred cost which is used to determine the cost of a product no matter which ingredient batch is used.
       2. The ‘ideal batch’ is the batch that the system will attempt to use to make the product. It is based on the allocation setting selected in the ‘Allocation’ tab under ‘Stock Management’. When the ‘ideal batch’ is used the cost of that batch will be used when determining the price of the product.
       3. The ‘average cost’ is the average cost set for all batches and will be used when determining the price of the product.
       • See General Pricing tutorial to learn more about pricing.
       • The currency for the purchase price is determined by the location of the supplier as entered in the system.
       1. Edit the batch allocation function as desired.

11. Under ‘Tags’ current ingredient tags can be seen, added, or removed.

    • Tags are used to aid in searching for ingredients or formulas including the ingredient. They can also be used as a form of communication to other users such as indicating an ingredient is hazardous or in the fridge.
    1. Click on the drop-down menu to add a tag that has already been created in the system to the ingredient.
    2. To create a new tag, begin typing the desired tag under ‘Tags’ and press the Enter / Return key to add it.
    3. To remove a tag click on the close near its name.

12. After all edits are made click on the ‘Save’ button to save all changes to the ingredient.

Adding an ingredient batch

1. Go to the ‘Settings’ page.

2. Click on the ‘Ingredients’ button.

3. Find the desired ingredient and click on the name of the ingredient to begin editing.

4. Click on the ‘Add Batch’ button to add a new ingredient batch.

   • When editing ingredients that are aliquots or dilutions click on the ‘Manufacture Batch’ button and select the quantity to be made. This will create a new dispensed script with the formulation for this stock.

5. Add the details of the batch including the ‘Quantity’, ‘Supplier’, 'Brand', ‘Supplier Lot/ Batch No.’, ‘Date Packaged (by supplier)’ and ‘Expiry date’.

   • The quantity reflects the current quantity of the batch and will change as the ingredient is used.

6. Add the pricing details including the ‘Quantity purchased’, ‘Purchase Price’ and ‘Cost Per Gram’.

   • A faint prefilled text will appear under ‘Quantity Purchased’ when blank with the current quantity as a recommended value. Type in a different ‘Quantity Purchased’ or leave blank to default to the placeholder. Similarly a placeholder for the ‘Cost Per Gram’ will appear once.

7. When reviewed by a pharmacist, check the box for ‘Approved for use’ to allow the ingredient batch to be used in formulations. This may be done later after the batch has been created.

   • This allows for non-pharmacist users to enter batch details into the system to be approved by a pharmacist before use.

8. Add an adjustment factor based on the nature of the ingredient. Select between:

   1. Assay - When adjusting for changes in purity, water content and ratio of ‘salt-to-base’.

   2. Percentage of elemental - When an elemental compound is prescribed this only adjusts for the ‘salt-to-base’ ratio.

   3. Activity - When converting from UI to grams.

   4. Commercial medicines - When a commercial medicine exists as a tablet and is used as part of a compound.

   5. Manual - When it is desired to set the adjustment factor manually.

   • When adding subsequent ingredient batches, the adjustment factor will be copied from the last entered batch to be reviewed and used as a guide for the current batch. When a substantial deviation (20%) from the previous adjustment factor is recognised by the system an alert for review will be made. If an edit has been made to the ‘Prescribing unit’ or the nature of the ingredient, a manual adjustment to the adjustment factor calculation method must be made.

9. For ingredients that have not been marked as a liquid, check the box ‘this ingredient is used in capsules’ if true.

   1. Add ‘Packing Statistics’ under ‘Capsule Packing Statistics’ by clicking on the ‘Generate’ button. This will generate a set of Packing Statistics based on a single capsule size.
   2. Select a capsule size and enter the Pack Stat in milligrams. Click on the ‘Generate Pack Stats’.
   3. Pack Stats can also be edited under ‘Packing Statistics’.

10. For ingredients that have been marked as a liquid, add the liquid density. For subsequent ingredient batches the liquid density will be carried over from the last entered batch to be verified before reuse.

11. After all edits are made click on the ‘Create’ button to create the new ingredient batch.

Editing an ingredient batch

1. Go to the ‘Settings’ page.
2. Click on the ‘Ingredients’ button.
3. Find the desired ingredient and click on the name of the ingredient to begin editing.
4. Click on the desired batch to be edited under ‘Recent Batches’ or have a look for all batches under ‘View All’.
5. When editing ingredients that have not been approved for use, any edits can be made to the ingredient batch.
6. When editing ingredients that have been approved for use the following edits can be made.
   1. Edit the Quantity of the ingredient batch as appropriate by clicking on the edit icon under ‘Quantity’ and adding a reason for the adjustment.
   2. Click on the ‘Show History’ for a summary of the ‘Total Quantity Used’, ‘Average Compounding Error’. A list of all the times the ingredient has been used in a script or reason for changing the quantity are also shown including the quantity used and the date of use.
7. To make further edits to the ingredient batch, un-approve the batch for use by unchecking the ‘Approved for use’ box
8. To make a duplicate ingredient batch click on the content_copy button.
9. To print a batch label click on the ‘More actions’ button then click on ‘Print Label (Preview)’ to select the printer and look at the label. Click ‘Print’ to print a label. To directly print a label without a preview click on the ‘Print Label’ button instead.
10. When editing ingredients that are aliquots or dilutions, the ingredients formulation will be displayed under ‘Formulation’ and the list of batches used to create the ingredient will be displayed under ‘Batches Used’.
11. Add documents to the ingredient batch once created.
    • See General features of all documents for more information.
12. Once all edits have been made and the batch has been approved, check the ‘Approved for use’ box or click on the takeout_dining ‘Approve’ button.
13. Once the batch is ready for use, click on the takeout_dining ‘Open’ button to open the batch.
14. To close a batch click on the close button.
    1. Only closed batches can be marked as un-approved for use.
15. After all edits are made click on the ‘Save’ button to save all changes to the ingredient batch.