The Inventory Items Sale/Usage Report — labeled Inventory Items Sales & Usage Report inside Shepherd — shows how your inventory items performed in terms of sales, costs, and profit for a date range you choose. Use it when you need to know how many units of an item were sold, what it cost, or how much profit it made.
Navigate to: Reporting > Inventory & Products
What This Report Is For
Reviewing how many units of an inventory item were sold or returned.
Units Sold and Units Returned show actual quantities — not simply how many times a product was given to a patient. Use this report when you need to know how many tablets, doses, or units moved during a period.
Tracking what inventory items cost and how those costs have changed.
The report shows Today's Cost per Unit, average cost over time, the last date the cost changed, and the most recent purchase order cost.
Seeing which inventory items are making money and which aren't.
Review cost of goods sold, total sales, and profit for each item in the selected period.
Checking markup and pricing for each product linked to an inventory item.
Expand a row to see the product category, markup, current sales price, and total product sales.
Exporting inventory data to a spreadsheet.
The downloaded report includes a Category column you can sort and filter in Excel or Google Sheets.
What This Report Is NOT For
Finding out which client or patient received a specific item.
Use the Invoice Line Items Report when you need patient name, client name, or invoice details for a product.
Counting how many times a product or service was given to a patient.
Use the Product Usage Report for that. Product Usage counts each time a product was used — if you gave a patient 3 units of a medication in one visit, that's still 1 use in Product Usage. This report tracks physical units, not visits.
Reviewing every individual inventory transaction for one item.
Use the Inventory Single Item Report for a transaction-by-transaction history.
Checking whether a product is linked to an inventory item.
Use the Product Report to review how your products are set up and which inventory items they're connected to.
Searching or narrowing the report to one item or category before it runs. \
This report doesn't support that before it loads. See Finding a Specific Item below.
What You Need to Know
A product must be connected to an inventory item for it to show up in this report.
If a product is sold without that connection, Shepherd won't track it as inventory used — so it won't appear here, even if it shows up on an invoice. Use the Product Report to check.
Units Sold shows how many units were dispensed, not how many times a product was given.
If you dispensed 3 units of a medication in one visit, this report shows 3 Units Sold. The Product Usage Report would show 1 use.
Items only appear when they had sales, orders, or restocked returns during the selected period.
Returns show up in the period they were processed — not when the original sale happened. If an item was sold in January and returned in March, it will appear in both period reports. A later return will not change past report data.
Only returns processed with Restock are included.
A return processed without Restock won't show up in Units Returned and won't affect any of the financial columns. If an expected return isn't appearing, check whether it was processed with Restock.
The cost figures in this report won't match the Revenue & Cost Overview Report.
This report breaks costs down by individual inventory item. The Revenue & Cost Overview adds them up across your whole practice. They're built for different purposes and their totals won't match.
Filters
Time Period is required. Select a preset date range from the dropdown or choose Custom to set your own. Available presets are This Month, This Quarter, This Year, Last Month, Last Quarter, and Last Year.
After selecting a time period, click View Report to load the results. Use Clear to start over.
Finding a specific item in the report
This report doesn't let you filter to a specific item or category before it runs. Once it's loaded, you can:
Sort the Inventory Item Name column alphabetically.
Use Ctrl + F / Cmd + F in your browser to search for an item by name.
Download the report and filter by any column — including Category — in Excel or Google Sheets.
Report Columns
Inventory Item Details
Inventory Item Name: The name or SKU of the item as it appears in Shepherd.
Expandable Rows: Click the arrow (▸) next to an item to see a breakdown by linked product, including markup and pricing details.
Cost Tracking
Today's Cost per Unit: What it currently costs your clinic to purchase or produce one unit of this item.
Avg Cost per Unit: The average cost per unit over time, based on past purchases and cost updates. This number will always be zero or higher — returns affect how cost of goods sold is calculated, but they don't make the average unit cost go negative.
Last Cost Change: The last date the unit cost was updated.
Received PO Cost: The cost from the most recent purchase order for this item, when available.
Inventory & Sales Activity
Qty Ordered: Total units ordered during the selected period.
Units Sold: Total units sold to clients during the period. This number reflects sales only and does not include returns.
Units Returned: Total units returned by clients during the period. Only returns processed with Restock are counted. Returns without Restock are not included.
Last Sold: The most recent date this item was sold.
Financial Performance
Cost of Goods Sold (COGS): What it cost your clinic to provide the items sold and returned during the period. Restocked returns reduce this number. If there were only returns and no sales in the period, COGS may be negative.
Total Item Sales: The revenue from selling this item during the period. Restocked returns reduce this number. If there were only returns and no sales in the period, Total Item Sales may be negative.
Inventory Item Profit: The profit for this item, calculated as Total Item Sales minus COGS. If there were only returns and no sales in the period, this number may be negative.
Negative values in COGS, Total Item Sales, or Inventory Item Profit are normal when a period has returns but no new sales for that item. A value of $0 in any of these columns may mean the item was free, the item's cost wasn't set up in Shepherd, or there's a pricing mismatch worth investigating.
Linked Product Markup & Pricing (when expanded)
Click the arrow (▸) on an inventory item row to see pricing and markup details for each product linked to that item.
Category: The product category for the linked product.
Current Markup: The current markup from cost to sales price, shown as both a percentage and a dollar amount.
Current/Avg Markup: The average markup over time, shown as both a percentage and a dollar amount.
Last Markup Change: The last date the markup was changed.
Current Sales Price: The price this product is currently being sold at.
Last Sold: The last date this product was sold.
Total Product Sales: Total sales for this product within the selected period.
Downloading the Report
Two options are available at the top right of the report:
Download — saves a full copy of the report.
CSV — a separate link at the top right of the table, available after the report loads. Use this to open the data in Excel or Google Sheets.
The CSV file includes all columns, including Category, and reflects the same numbers shown in the report — including any negative values from returns-only periods. If the file doesn't open as a spreadsheet automatically, right-click it and choose to open with Excel or Google Sheets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is an inventory item missing from this report?
First, check whether the product is linked to an inventory item. If it isn't, Shepherd won't track it as inventory used — so it won't appear here, even if it shows up on invoices. Open the Product Report to verify.
If the product is linked, check that your date range covers when the activity happened. The report only shows items with sales, orders, or restocked returns during the selected period.
If both look right, contact Shepherd Support.
Why does an inventory item appear with no sales?
An item with a restocked return but no sales in the selected period will still show up. Returns appear in the period they were processed, not when the original sale happened. Check the Units Returned column to confirm, and verify the return was processed with Restock.