Labs Product Setup

Products in VetView are the actual line items that will be billed to clients.  While Catalogs and Catalog Items refer to the documentation associated with work to be performed, the Products are stored separately in the database to allow you to reuse them across many catalog items.  Products also can be used for services that are not necessarily associated with documentation, such as accession fees, shipping costs, and other expenses and charges that will be added during the course of any given accession.

For specific tests, you can build a product that has the same name and a one to one association with a given catalog item.   Thus, the catalog item is the link between the Product (charge) and the actual test to be performed (as well as other attributes, such as questions to be asked by the submitting client, and specimen restrictions.  See Labs Catalog Setup for more information.)  

There are five tabs on the Labs Product Setup Screen.  The first tab, Product Setup, is the main tab for creating, viewing, and modifying the attributes of each product in the system.  Each of the four other tabs allows you to define the values of the attributes.

Click on a tab name to the right (under the Table of Contents) to jump directly to that section.

Product Setup Tab

The Product Setup Tab has two parts - a Product Search box at the top, and the resulting Product List at the bottom.

Clicking on the blue link in the Product Name will then load a separate Product Details screen.

Search Products

At the top of this tab is the Search Products window.  You can search by product key word, or narrow down results by limiting it to a specific line of products.  If you know the line and sequence together, you can load only that product.  You can also limit items to only those associated with a specific lab in the system.

Product List

Any products that match your selected search results will appear in the window below. 

Create a New Product

To create a new product, click on the New Product button.  This will load a blank Product Details window.  (Note:  CTRL+click does not work for new products. It must be opening in the same window as your Search results.  However, it will save the search results from the previous page, so after you create your new product and save changes, you can go Back to Search and reload the same list you had before.)

To create the new product, start by selecting the Line, and then entering a sequence number to give it a unique identifier.  You can also enter a product category and associate it to a specific lab.  

Enter in the billing description, a full description if different, and select the pricing information.  Product caps that were defined on the Product Cap setup tab are available from the drop down menu.  The actual unit cost (and the unit selection for items that have a unit of measurement) as well as the unit price that will be charged to clients can be selected.  Multiple unit levels and prices can be assigned for volume discounts (and you can disable client multipliers if this option is used.)

Pending Review is an option available for products that have been entered by one user but may need to be reviewed by a supervisor, or for products that may need to have pricing discussed.  This option is only available for local reports and does not impact the product's availability in the system; that is controlled by the Active flag at the top.)

Product Details

In addition to the produce identifiers and product pricing entered on the top portion, the Product Details screen displays any associated alternate price sets, tests that contain the product, and catalog items that used the product in the bottom half of the screen.

Alternate Price Sets

To add a new alternate price set for the product, click on the Add Price Set button.  (These are the Price Sets that are defined under the Price Set Setup tab.)

Select the price set from the drop down menu, and enter in the adjusted pricing for these clients.

Click on the Save button to apply the changes.

Product Cap Setup

This screen allows you to define product pricing caps categories for individual items that may have high volume testing.

Product Caps are created by categories, and can be named based on their units or departments (or other categories as desired.)

Once created, product pricing caps can be assigned to a Product, either from this screen or during Product Setup.

Click on the Add button to define a new Product Cap category.  The Product Cap name and Description are simple text fields with no additional attributes.

To add a new product to a Product Cap, have the product cap line selected on the left, and then click on the Add Product button.

A simple Smart Search box will open.  Search for the product you want to add by key word, then select it from the matches and click on Save.

Product Line Setup

Product Lines are how you define the narrow categories that products will be assigned.  The line is the first part of each product code in VetView, and is followed by the product's sequence number.  Together the Line and Sequence will form a unique identifier for each product in the system.

Product lines can be created based on units, on the types of products or services, or however you want to define them based on your lab's policies.

A line must be unique, but it does not have to be sequential.  So you can reserve a chunk of 10 or 100 product line numbers for a specific department if desired.

Product Category Setup

Product Categories are broad groups for sorting your products.  VetView comes with certain categories pre-built, such as Inventory and Services, but you can created custom product categories to help sort the items for reporting, or differentiate them by units if desired. 

Click on the Add button to create a new Product Category.  Both the Category Name and the Description are simple text fields.  There are no other attributes for custom product categories.

Price Set Setup

Price Sets allow you to define a custom multiplier for specific groups of clients.  These are created by multiples of the base price.  For example, employees who qualify for a 20% employee discount would have a multiplier of 0.80 defined.  This discount will be calculated in real time as charges are added, or can be applied via a re-calculation if the values change. 

Click on the Add button to create a new price set.  A small window will open up to allow you to name the price set, and to add in the multiplier.

Another example:  Overflow testing of COVID for human labs could be set to incur a 50% mark up over base price, in addition to any regular STAT fees added to the accession. 

All custom price sets need to be discussed with accounting and other relevant governing bodies and set in accordance with the policies for your lab.