Chiropractic Office Profitability - Top Two Features for Your Point of Sales System

The main benefit of sales at the point of service, commonly called "point of sale" (POS), is improved patient relationship. By offering your patients quality products that enrich their lives outside of your office, you demonstrate your care. Your patients are reminded of you - and of your care about them - every time they use the products you sell them. Better patient loyalty means lower attrition, frequent referrals and, eventually, improved profits.

On the other hand, as soon as POS make up a significant portion of your revenue, you need to prepare to control your inventory. Have you spoken recently with an upset patient who was unable to pick up an item at your clinic because you ran out of it? Are you relying on your own or your office manager's memory to keep your inventory current? Or perhaps you manually review your inventory every month? If your POS makes up a significant source of added revenue, you need to control the flow of items into and out of your practice inventory.

To increase your practice profitability, you need to have the right supplies on hand and eliminate products that don't sell:

• Track the average income of a specific product


• View total product sales by name or SKU

The most important aspect of your implementation is that you do not need to remember to look periodically at any inventory reports. Instead, integrated inventory control needs to be a part of your standard work-flow control. For instance, you need automatic alerts about reaching predetermined inventory levels. A list of features continues:

• Adjust your inventory automatically with invoice creation


• Create patient invoices directly from your scheduler or POS screen


• Set automated reminders to reorder stock when needed


• Use touch-screen monitors to select inventory


• Track the average income of a specific product


• View total product sales by name or SKU


• Scan barcodes easily with a scanner


• Enable discounting campaigns on select products for predefined time periods

Inventory Management

Disciplined inventory management requires keeping accurate records of POS items, which means posting the newly arrived items as well as subtracting the items you sold to patients. Typically, your goal is to prevent the inventory from growing too high, or shrinking to levels below your defined minimums. Competent inventory management also seeks to control the costs associated with the inventory. Inventory management for a medical practice is a balancing act between two key aspects: time and buffer stock.

Time control helps you decide when to replenish your inventory and by how many units. It requires understanding of how long it takes for a supplier to process an order and deliver a product to your clinic. You also need to know how long it will take you to sell those items.

Buffer stock means extra units above and beyond the minimum number required to maintain smooth Point of Sale process. A buffer helps to minimize the chance for production interruption and patient complaints due to a lack of inventory.

At a minimum, you must automate two key inventory control functions:

1. Inventory tracking. Track point of sale inventory by adding the number of items available for each point of sale item. This number will be automatically updated every time when you sell a POS item.


2. Low stock alerts. Automatic system generated workflow tickets remind key members of your staff when stock runs low, i.e., each time you reach a minimum inventory threshold for a any given point of sale item.