Dispensing

CISPro Global uses the term dispensing to mean changes in the net quantity of a container. Dispensing always occurs to only one container at a time, although a dispensing session (from a requisition) might include a number of different source containers.

•	First, a dispensing record is created to keep track of what user did the dispense, how much was dispensed, from what container, and when.

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Second, the source container's net quantity is decremented by the amount dispensed. For chemicals, the container net quantity does not have to be in the same units as the dispense operation, CISPro Global converts units of measure as needed. The material being dispensed must have a Specific Gravity value if the dispense action requires conversion from a weight to a volume (or vice versa).

Although the dispense transactions that are visible to the user are those that the user would consider normal dispenses (e.g., remove a quantity of some material from one container, and possibly create another container in the process), the dispense transaction log actually records all positive and negative quantity changes to every container.

For example, when a 300 mL container is received, the dispense log records a positive 300mL (+300) transaction as the first entry for that container. If that same container were disposed immediately, the log would record a negative 300mL (-300) transaction for the container.

The benefits of this detailed tracking include having a precise account of all material quantity changes, as well as the ability to generate sophisticated reports based on the dispense log.

The information that is recorded (and displays on the dispense history page) is dispensed_on (date), operation (e.g., Dispense), dispensed_by (User), quantity, units (UOM), childid (Child Container ID, if any were created), and comments.

There are four dispense codes, each for a different transaction type, that are used in the dispense log. These have their values set to the defaults shown below at the time of installation, but can be changed by an administrator: