It takes a little time to learn how to effectively use any new computer software, and this system is no exception. Be prepared to spend that time productively, and you will quickly gain the experience you need to maximize the efficiency of this system.

First, it is very important to understand that Microsoft Access stores everything in one file - the VetSysDB.mdb file. All of the objects, code and your patient data that comprise the system are stored in that file. If your computer suffers a failure, and you cannot recover that file, your data will be lost! Obviously, this means that you should make regular backup copies. We recommend that you store your backups on an external device - such as an external hard drive, CD, or flash drive. You can find more information here.

There are several things to explore, and to think carefully about, before you start using any new system for day to day operations. Fortunately, the list of items to consider here is relatively short. The areas of this system that will be most important for the efficient usage of the system are:

• Setting up your Clinic Information data
• Determine where to store your photos
• Setting up the lists of drugs and miscellaneous items that you will sell over the counter
• The cost (to you) of those items
• Marking any drugs that will be administered by the doctor
• Assigning retail price, or selecting a Markup Category for each item
• Setting up starting inventory quantities, if you intend to use this feature
• Understanding and setting up "Markup Categories" for items that you sell to your patients
• The list of Services you provide, and the price for each service
• Entering appropriate data for the list of doctors that will use the system
• Creating the list of vaccines that you will use for rabies vaccinations
• Ensuring that the rabies tag series numbers are set correctly

It should be noted that any of the above items can be changed or added to at any time. The decisions you make now will not in any way keep you from changing prices, adding to your list of items you sell, etc, however, as a general rule, you will not want to delete or re-name items once you have been using them for a while. The reason for this is at once technical and simple, but for practical purposes, if, for instance you delete (or re-name) a drug or item that you have sold or administered many times, viewing past records that included that drug or item will show the newly re-named item, or nothing at all. Pre-existing records will still have the correct dollar amounts for the sale, but the name of the item will change or dissappear.

Probably the first and most important thing you need to do is to set up your lists of items for several important things. These things include your list of drugs and miscellaneous items, the list of diagnosis types, and your list of services. Once you have those things done, you are ready to begin using the system. As you enter patient visit records, if you need to add to one of these lists, you can easily do so.

You can enter a purchase code for any of your drugs or miscellaneous items. For drugs, you can also enter an expiration date, and select whether or not the drug will be administered by the doctor.

It is important to note serveral things about marking a drug as being an administered drug. First, administered drugs do not appear in the list of drugs when entering drug sales of over the counter items. Conversely, over the counter drugs do not appear on the list of administered drugs. If you sell a particular drug both ways, no problem, simply create one that is marked "Administered", and another that is not. You will not need to worry that they both have the same name, even if they have different prices.

Markup categories are simply an easy way to quickly and automatically adjust retail prices. You can create as many categories as you like, and assign different markup values to each of them. The categories you create are not directly tied to either the drugs or miscellaneous items - you can assign the same category to either, or you can decide to use separate categories for drugs and miscellaneous items.

When you are reviewing and updating your list of drugs and miscellaneous items that you will sell to your clients, if you have set up markup categories, you need only enter the name of the item, your cost, and optionally the quantity on hand (for inventory purposes). If you have created markup categories, selecting the category you want to assign to this item will automatically calculate and update the retail price. This functionality goes hand in hand with purchase orders - when you enter a purchase order for a drug or sales item, the retail price will be calculated for you if a markup category has been assigned to that item.

If you later determine that you want to adjust the markup value of one or more categories, you would simply adjust the value for those categories, and ALL items that are assigned to those categories will have their retail prices adjusted automatically. As you can see, it will make things easier if you set up your markup categories before you create your lists of items that you will sell to your clients.

Keep in mind that there is no requirement to use the markup categories. You can manually input the retail price for any (or all) of your items that you sell. Changing the retail prices for your items will NOT affect existing records - only new sales will be affected by the updated prices.