The catalogue & prices

Your catalogue is the master list of everything you charge for: consultations, procedures, medicines, vaccines, lab tests and supplies. Every line you add to an invoice or estimate comes from here, so getting it right once saves typing it out every time.

Think of the catalogue as your menu. You set up each item once — its name, its price, whether GST applies — and from then on staff just pick it off the list when they bill.

Where to find it

There are two doors to the same room:

• ⭐ Settings → Catalogue — the usual way. Open Settings from the sidebar, then choose Catalogue.
• The direct address /catalog if someone sends you a link.

Inside, you'll see three tabs across the top: Catalogue Items, Packages and Categories. Most of your time is spent on Catalogue Items.

Nothing you add goes out to a client by itself, and items you no longer want can be hidden rather than destroyed (more on that below).

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Add a single catalogue item

Usually: practice manager or admin.

This is the bread-and-butter task: putting one new product or service onto your price list by hand.

Step by step

1. Go to Settings → Catalogue and stay on the Catalogue Items tab.
2. Click Add Item (top right of the list). The New Catalogue Item window opens.
3. Fill in the details, top to bottom:

   • Item Name (required) — what staff and clients will see, e.g. "Wellness Examination". (For medicines, this box can also search the drug reference as you type — see Add an item by searching the drug reference below. For ordinary items and services, just type the name and carry on.)

   • Category (required) — pick which group it belongs to. This keeps the list tidy and helps with reporting. You must choose one before you can create the item — there's no silent default. The available categories are:

     Category	Examples
     Consultation	Initial exam, follow-up visit
     Procedure	Desexing, dental, wound repair
     Medication	Antibiotics, pain relief
     Vaccine	C5, kennel cough, rabies
     Diagnostics	Blood panel, urinalysis
     Imaging	X-ray, ultrasound
     Hospitalisation	Overnight stay, day hospital
     Supplies	Bandages, syringes
     Discount	Percentage or flat discount
     Miscellaneous	Anything that doesn't fit elsewhere

   • Item Code (required) — a short code you'll recognise, like EXAM-001. It must be unique. You usually don't need to type this — as soon as you pick a category, Wattle suggests the next free code for it (like MED-004). You can overtype the suggestion with your own code any time; a code you typed yourself is never overwritten.

   • Description — optional, a longer note about what's included.

4. Set the price under Pricing & Units:
   • The first row is the item's normal price. Enter a Cost ($) (what it costs you — optional, but useful for tracking margins) and a Sale ($) (what you charge).
   • Markup (%) is calculated automatically from your cost and sale price. You can also type a markup percentage and the sale price updates to match.
   • If you sell the same product in more than one size (say, a single tablet and a pack of 30), click Add unit to add another row with its own price. See Units and multiple pack sizes below.
5. Check the switches below the price — they're grouped by topic, and every one of them is a simple on/off switch:
   • GST applies (under Pricing) — leave on if you charge GST on this item. It defaults to your clinic's GST setting.
   • Dispensing fee (optional) — turn on if this item should add a small handling fee when dispensed. A Fee ($) box appears pre-filled with your clinic's default fee — edit it if you want a different amount for this item.
   • Injection fee (optional) — turn on if this item is administered by injection (a vaccine, for instance) and should add a fee when given. Works just like the dispensing fee. Leave it off for anything that isn't injected.
   • Stock tracking (under Inventory & stock) — see Inventory if you track stock levels.
   • Active (under Availability) — leave on so the item shows up when staff are billing. (Switch off to hide it — see Hide vs. delete below.)
   • Controlled drug (Schedule 8) (under Regulatory, at the very bottom) — only for controlled medicines; see the Schedule 8 section below.
6. Click Create. The item appears in the list straight away and is ready to use.

The Controlled drug (Schedule 8) section

If your clinic uses the Schedule 8 register, an extra section called Regulatory appears at the very bottom of the item window, containing the Controlled drug (Schedule 8) switch. This is how you tell Wattle that an item is a controlled medicine that needs its own tracked running balance.

Step by step

1. While adding or editing the item, scroll to Controlled drug (Schedule 8) and flip the switch on.
2. A short note confirms the drug will be "tracked in the Schedule 8 register with its own running balance," and two fields appear:
   • Schedule — a dropdown with two choices:
     • S8 — Controlled drug (the strict legal register)
     • S4D — Monitored (convenience) (a lighter, convenience-only tracking)
   • Balance unit (required) — the unit you count this drug in, such as mL, mg or tablets. You can't save a controlled drug without this.
3. (Optional) Add Form (e.g. "ampoule") and Strength (e.g. "100mg/mL") to make the record clearer.
4. Click Create (or Update). The drug is now linked to the Schedule 8 register.

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Add an item by searching the drug reference

Usually: practice manager or admin.

Wattle includes a built-in drug reference — a big list of registered products. There's no separate search box to find: the Item Name box itself searches the reference as you type. Pick a match and Wattle fills in nearly everything; ignore the suggestions and it's just a normal name box.

Step by step

1. Click Add Item to open the New Catalogue Item window.
2. Start typing the medicine's name in Item Name — at least two letters. Pause briefly; suggestions appear under the box a moment after you stop typing, headed "From drug reference".
3. Browse the matches. Each shows the product name, the active ingredient and sponsor underneath, and a small schedule badge (e.g. S8) where the product is scheduled. It's one combined list — there's no separate vet vs. human split to worry about.
4. If there are lots of matches, the first 50 show; click Show 50 more at the bottom to see the next batch.
5. Click the product you want. Wattle will fill in:
   • the full Item Name (product, strength and pack size composed for you),
   • the Description (the active ingredient),
   • the Category — medication or vaccine, picked automatically (only if you hadn't already chosen one),
   • the next free Item Code for that category (e.g. MED-004),
   • and for S8 products: the Controlled drug switch turns on with the schedule, balance unit, strength and form pre-filled where the reference knows them.
6. You still set the price yourself. The reference never fills in prices — enter your Sale price, check the rest, then click Create.

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Add several items at once — "Add from common products"

Usually: practice manager or admin, often during first setup.

When you're stocking a brand-new catalogue, adding medicines one at a time is slow. Add common products lets you tick a whole batch of commonly stocked drugs and add them all in one go. Prices come in at $0 — you fill in real prices afterwards.

Two ways to reach it

• ⭐ First-time setup (empty catalogue): When your Catalogue Items list is completely empty, you'll see a friendly "Build your catalogue" panel inviting you to "Start with common products from the drug reference, or add your own items and services." Click Add common products there.
• Any time: Once you already have items, use the Add common products button in the toolbar above the list.

Step by step

1. Click Add common products. A window opens with the search on the left and a basket on the right.
2. Use the Search common drugs box to find what you stock. Each result reads brand-first — e.g. "ACP 10 (acepromazine) 10 mg/mL" — and this is a shorter, curated list of common drugs, not the entire reference. Tip: you can search by brand and drug together, e.g. "ceva ketamine".
3. Tick the checkbox next to each drug you want. Ticked drugs collect in the basket on the right, where you can remove any with the ×. Keep searching and ticking; your basket is kept even as you click Show 50 more.
4. The footer shows how many are ready, e.g. "7 ready to add".
5. When you're happy, click Add 7 products. They're saved (at $0) and you move to a pricing step.
6. On the pricing step, set each price (and tweak name, code or category if you like) — changes save as you go. Click Add more to go back and add another batch, or Done to close. Your items are already in the catalogue.

What you get — and what's left to do

Each item is created with:

• the name from the reference,
• the active ingredient as its description,
• category Medication,
• price $0 — you set the real prices afterwards,
• unit "item", Active ticked, GST following your clinic's setting, and the dispensing fee switched on (since these are medicines).

Your follow-up jobs after a bulk add:

• Set prices. Every bulk-added item starts at $0. Easiest is to price them on the pricing step right after adding; otherwise open each one later and enter its Sale price (and Cost if you track it). Until you do, billing it will charge nothing.
• Flag any controlled drugs. Bulk-add does not switch on the Controlled drug (Schedule 8) setting, even for S8 medicines. If you added a controlled drug this way, open it, turn on Controlled drug, set the schedule and balance unit, and save. (This is a known quirk — see the note below.)

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Categories, packages, units and prices

Organise with categories

Usually: admin.

Categories are the groups that keep your catalogue tidy — Medication, Consultation, Lab test and so on.

Step by step

1. Open the Categories tab.
2. Click New Category.
3. Enter a Name, choose a Type, and optionally set a Colour (a hex code like #3b82f6) to make it easy to spot.
4. Save.

Bundle items into packages

Usually: admin.

A package groups several items that are usually sold together — for example a dental package made of an exam, the cleaning and an x-ray. Adding the package to an invoice brings in all its parts at once.

Step by step

1. Open the Packages tab.
2. Click Add Package.
3. Give it a Package code and Package name (and an optional description), then add the items that make up the package, each with a Qty.
4. Optionally apply a whole-package discount — choose Discount type (Percentage (%) or Fixed amount ($)) and a Discount value. The subtotal, discount and Package total update as you go.
5. Save.

Units and multiple pack sizes

Some products are sold in more than one size — for example, a medication that comes in single tablets, boxes of 10, or boxes of 100. Inside a product's Pricing, units & stock section, the units table lists every unit you handle and how they relate:

• Every item has at least one unit row — and you can't remove the last one (the remove icon disappears when only one is left).
• Click Add unit to add another size (e.g. "tablet" and "box of 30"), each with its own Cost and Sale price.
• One row is marked as the base — the unit stock is counted in, usually the smallest (mL, tablet). Its conversion is locked at 1.
• Every other row states how many base units one of these equals — a 50 mL bottle is 50 when the base is mL; a box of 100 tablets is 100. That single number is what lets billing, receiving and stock counting all use different units and still agree.
• The unit picker offers common built-in units — tablet, capsule, vial, bottle, box, dose, pack, syringe, ampoule and so on, plus the measures mL, g and kg for liquids and things sold by weight.
• Need a unit that isn't listed? Just type it into the unit box — an "Add ‘…’ as a custom unit" option appears at the bottom of the list. Click it and the unit is saved for your clinic, ready to reuse on any item.

When this item is added to an invoice, the person billing can choose which unit applies — and if the item tracks stock, the right amount comes off the count automatically (see Inventory & stock tracking).

Edit an item

Usually: admin.

Step by step

1. On the Catalogue Items tab, click the row of the item you want to change.
2. The same window you used to create it opens, pre-filled with its current details.
3. Change whatever you need — name, price, GST, category, units.
4. Click Update.

Hide an item vs. delete it

Usually: admin.

Both are safe — the difference is whether the item might come back.

• Deactivate: Open the item and switch Active off, then save. The item disappears from billing pickers but stays in the system, and you can re-activate it any time by switching Active back on. Choose this for seasonal items or anything you might stock again.
• Delete: The row menu's delete option removes the item for good (it asks you to confirm — it can't be undone). Your history is untouched either way: past invoices, estimates and the controlled-drug register each keep their own copy of the item's name and price at the time, so deleting an item never changes an old invoice or register entry.

Bulk tidy-up: You can also select several items using the checkboxes on each row and deactivate or delete them together.

Searching the catalogue

Use the search bar at the top of the Catalogue Items tab to find items by name or code.

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Related sections

• Charges vs invoices (the money model) — how catalogue items become charges and then invoices.
• Invoices and Estimates (quotes) — where you actually use catalogue items.
• The Schedule 8 register — controlled drugs and setting their opening balances.
• Settings — a guided tour — GST, dispensing and injection fees, and other clinic-wide billing defaults.
• Glossary — plain definitions of catalogue, GST, dispensing fee and more.