Supplies are the consumables your lab goes through: pipette tips, tubes, plates, gloves, wipes. They do not need lot tracking or hazard levels, so the form is a single page rather than the three-step reagent flow. They sit in the same inventory as reagents and samples rather than a list of their own, which is the whole point of tracking all three together.
Open the form
- Click Add Inventory in the top bar, or on the Inventory page.
- Choose Add Supply. The dialog "Add Supply to Inventory" opens.
New supply, or more of one you already have
At the top of the form is a Reuse an existing supply toggle.
- Leave it off to create a supply you have never recorded before. You get a Supply name field.
- Turn it on to add stock to something already in your inventory. You get an Existing supply dropdown instead. If you have no supplies yet, the dropdown tells you to turn the toggle off and create your first one.
Reusing matters. It keeps one supply with a running total instead of a dozen near-duplicate entries that each look nearly empty.
The fields
| Field | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Supply name | Yes, for a new supply | Be specific enough to tell variants apart, for example including the size. |
| Supplier | No | Pick an existing supplier or add a new one. |
| Quantity | Yes | Must be greater than 0. |
| Unit | Yes | |
| Storage location | Yes | Where this stock physically lives. |
| Sterile | No | Off by default. |
| RNase-Free | No | Off by default. |
| Ownership | Yes | My Personal Stock, Team/Group, or Shared Lab Stock, subject to the location’s access. |
| Alerts | No | Optional alerts that count stock or one container and specify who is told. |
The reorder threshold
Under Ownership, use Alerts to set stock warnings. Click Add alert, choose what Counts, enter a number greater than 0 in At or below, and choose Who is told. Read the sentence below the alert to check what it will do.
The amount uses the supply’s unit. If you count boxes, enter the alert level in boxes. Ownership determines which stock an alert can count and who can receive it. Leave Alerts empty to create no new alerts with this item.
Low-stock alerts that tell you appear on the Dashboard under Needs attention.
Sterile and RNase-free supplies
Sterile tips and RNase-free tubes are common, so supplies carry the same two flags reagents do. Both are off by default and both describe this specific stock, not the supply in general.
See Sterile and RNase-free flags for what they mean and how they change afterwards.
Finish
Click Add to Inventory. You will get a confirmation and the supply appears on the Inventory page.
Adding more than one
This form adds one item. If you are unpacking a delivery, working from a spreadsheet, or recording a shelf you have never entered, use the bulk import instead: open Add Inventory in the top bar and choose Import inventory. It reads CSVs, supplier PDFs and photos, and you review everything before anything is created. See Import files: CSV, supplier PDFs and shelf photos.
Using a supply up
Supplies get a simpler consumption action than reagents. Instead of pulling a portion, you just record what you used:
- Open the supply from the Inventory page.
- Under Actions, choose Use supply.
- Enter the Amount used. The dialog shows what will remain.
- Click Use.
If the amount you enter would take it to zero, the dialog warns you that this will use up the supply and close the item, and the button becomes Use & close item.
See Update, consume, or adjust an item's quantity for the other ways quantities change.