Expiring stock: redistribute, return or write off, and how to decide in time

Every store that holds medicines or test kits ends up with some stock that will not be used before its expiry date. What decides how much is lost is when you notice. Seen three months out, a surplus can go to another site or back to the supplier. Seen the week it expires, the only option left is the write-off. This article covers how to tell early whether a lot will be used in time, the three things you can do when it will not, and where OpenBoxes and OpenBoxes Lift show you what is coming.

The product and quantities below are invented examples.

The one question: will we use it in time?#

For each lot approaching its expiry date, compare what you hold with what you will use before that date:

usable before expiry = average monthly consumption × months until expiry
surplus = quantity on hand − usable before expiry

If the surplus is zero or less, keep issuing the lot first and it will go. If it is more than zero, that many units will expire on your shelf unless you do something about them.

An example#

A health centre holds 400 tablets of one lot, expiring in 2 months. It uses 120 a month.

• Usable before expiry: 120 × 2 = 240.
• Surplus: 400 − 240 = 160 tablets that will expire unless they leave the store.

Two things make the estimate more reliable. Use an average monthly consumption from recent complete months, adjusted for any days the product was out of stock (see Months of stock). And count only this lot's months: if a later lot of the same product is also on the shelf, it is the earliest-expiring lot that should be issued first.

First, make sure it is issued first#

Before looking outside the store, check that the short-dated lot really is the one being issued. Picking by first-expiry, first-out (FEFO) means the lot with the earliest date goes first, whenever it arrived. OpenBoxes suggests lots in FEFO order when you pick stock for a movement. FEFO explained shows how much waste the picking order alone can save. FEFO cannot fix a true surplus, though: in the example, even if every tablet issued came from this lot, 160 would still be left.

Option 1: redistribute#

Send the surplus to a site that will use it before the date. This keeps the product in use and is usually the best outcome.

• Pick the right site. The receiving site needs to consume the quantity before the expiry date, after the time it takes to get there. Sending short-dated stock to a site that uses little of it only moves the waste.
• Tell them it is short-dated. The receiving site should issue it ahead of its own longer-dated stock.
• Allow for transit. Stock in a vehicle is not being used. Subtract the travel time from the months you counted on.

In OpenBoxes, stock sent to another location goes out as an outbound movement (Outbound, Create Outbound Movement). See Stock movements.

Option 2: return to the supplier#

Some supply agreements let you return stock that is still in date. Whether yours does, and how much notice a supplier needs, depends on the agreement, so check it before you count on this option.

In OpenBoxes, goods going back to a supplier are recorded as an outbound return (Outbound, Create Outbound Return). OpenBoxes has no return-reason field, so put the reason and any order reference in the description, and track the credit you expect in your finance system. See Returns.

Option 3: write it off#

When a lot has expired, or cannot be used or moved in time, record it as a loss so it stops counting as available stock. In OpenBoxes you do that from the product's stock card with Adjust stock: pick the lot and bin, enter the new quantity, and choose a reason code. Every adjustment keeps who made it, when and why. See Inventory.

How expired medicines must be stored, reported and destroyed is set by national regulation and by your organisation's own policy, not by your inventory system. Follow those rules for the physical disposal; the adjustment only records it.

Look far enough ahead#

Each option takes time to arrange: finding a site and moving the stock, agreeing a return, planning a disposal. The window you watch should be longer than your slowest option. A store that can only move stock once a month, for example, needs to see a surplus well before its last month.

It also pays to look at the same list on a schedule, not only when a lot is about to expire. A weekly look at the next few months turns most expiries into a redistribution rather than a write-off.

Where to see what is expiring#

In OpenBoxes, under Reporting, Inventory Reports:

• Expiring Stock lists items expiring within the timeframe you choose: 30, 90, 180 or 365 days.
• Expired Stock Report lists items already past their date that need a decision.

The Expiration Summary indicator on the Dashboard groups stock by how close it is to expiry. See OpenBoxes reports and Dashboard.

On OpenBoxes Lift:

• The optional daily stock alert email has an expiring section: lots whose expiry date falls inside the window you choose (30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days, 30 by default), grouped by location, soonest first, with the lot number, the date and the quantity. It does not depend on minimum levels, so it works even if you have set none. It lists lots still ahead of their date, never ones already expired: use the Expired Stock Report for those.
• The Expiring stock card on the portal's Reports page groups lots by how soon they expire, and shows the value at risk for lots that have a price. The value is shown to the account owner and admins, unless the account owner shows values to all teammates.

Expiring lots are never sent to Slack, Microsoft Teams or PagerDuty as alerts. Those destinations carry stock-outs only, so the email is the place to watch for expiry.

Summary#

• For each lot nearing its date, compare the quantity on hand with average monthly consumption times the months left.
• Issue the earliest-expiring lot first; then, for any surplus, redistribute, return or write off, in that order of preference.
• Redistribute only to a site that will use the stock in time, allowing for transit.
• Record returns and write-offs in OpenBoxes, and follow your national rules for disposal.
• Watch a window longer than your slowest option, and look at it every week.

The short video Expiry, Lots and Reports shows lot numbers, expiry dates and the reports that track them.