Navigate to: Admin > Products
What You Need to Know
Every item on an invoice in Shepherd is a product. Products are organized by type and category. These two things are different and both matter:
Product Type - Defines how the product behaves in Shepherd.
How it's dosed, priced, recorded, and administered.
Product Category - Used for reporting, such as the AAHA Chart of Accounts.
Categories group products together and control rules like discountability and production tracking.
Every product must belong to a category.
Lab and diagnostic imaging integration products will be visible under Lab Integration Products and Imaging Integration Products if applicable.
Important: Once a product is created, you cannot edit the product type.
You would create a new product with the correct product type and deactivate the mislabeled one.
Quick Start Guide
Navigate to Admin > Products
Click + Add New on the right side of the screen
In the General section, select a Product Type
This determines which fields appear next.
Select a Product Category
Enter the Invoice Line Name
This is what clients see on their invoice.
Complete the type-specific Details fields
Concentration, routes, vaccine info, etc.
Link with Inventory Item (If applicable)
Track Product Lots (If applicable)
Set your Product Price
Selling price, minimum price, and any dispensing fee.
Configure Product Price Settings
Taxable, discountable, included on invoice, etc.
Optionally add an Automatic Task, Discharge Instructions or a Medical Record Note
Click Save
Products & Services
Product Types
Product types simply define what fields are available in the product settings. For example, the item may have concentration information for medications, but not for services. The five product types are:
Type | Use it for |
Injection | Non-vaccine injectables, charged per mL |
Oral or other-route drugs, charged per tablet, capsule, mL, etc. | |
Physical goods (food, treats, merchandise) or medications sold by full unit, bottle, or tube | |
Service | Procedures (exams, surgeries, nail trims, laser therapy) |
Injectable vaccines with unique reporting fields |
How dose calculation works in SOAP: If you enter a dose in mg/kg, Shepherd calculates the dose in mL automatically in the field below. If you enter the dose in mL instead, Shepherd confirms the mg/kg equivalent in the same field.
Note: Not all medications need to be set up as a "medication" product type, as it depends on how you are dispensing the item. If you dispense per whole bottle/box, it may be a product.
Medication vs Products
Note that some medications may be set up as products or injections depending on how you want to dispense; tab vs bottle vs syringe.
Use the Medication type when dispensing/charging per tablet, capsule, mL, etc.
Use the Product type for physical goods such as food, treats, or merchandise — and for medications sold by the full unit, bottle, or tube rather than by dose. The Product type supports the Controlled substance flag and Rx Label Settings.
Medication Setup Example:
Amoxicillin tabs, 100mg tablets set as a medication and dispensed per tablet.
Product Setup Example:
Amoxicillin and Clavulanate Potassium Oral Suspension dispensed per bottle.
Vaccination Details
Vaccinations have unique fields for reporting and certificate generation that other product types do not have.
Vaccination-specific fields:
Combo Vaccination – Use this type for combination vaccines (e.g., DHPPL) that contain multiple individual components, each with its own due date. Combo vaccines also include a Multiple Vial Administration setting that controls how lot numbers and inventory are tracked.
Enabled – Each vaccine component uses its own lot number and deducts inventory separately. Use this when each component comes in its own vial.
Disabled – A single lot number applies to all components, and only one unit of inventory is deducted. Use this for single-vial combination vaccines.
Multiple Vial Administration - When enabled, each vaccine component in a combo uses its own lot number and deducts inventory separately. When disabled, one lot applies to all rows and only one quantity is deducted (for single-vial combination vaccines)
Rabies Vaccine Toggle - Mark any combo vaccine that includes Rabies to ensure accurate rabies reporting
Label Name - Appears on vaccination reports
Vaccination Name - Displays on vaccination history and certificates
Due In / Time Unit - Sets when the patient is next due for this vaccine
Custom Product ID
Optionally, A custom product ID can be assigned to the product, like a nickname or a shortcut. This makes it easier to locate when adding to a patient's Tx plan.
Inventory and Lot Tracking
Linked Inventory Item
If a product is tracked in inventory, link it to an existing inventory item in the Linked Inventory Item section. This keeps your inventory counts accurate as products are administered and invoiced.
Track Product Lots
Available for Vaccination and Controlled substance products.
Product lot tracking allows your practice to record and trace the specific lot administered to each patient. Fields include:
Manufacturer
Serial Number
Lot Number
Expiration Date
Bottle Number
You can add new lots or archive old lots at any time from the product record. You cannot archive a lot until a new active lot has been entered.
Price & Pricing Settings
The Product Price section defines how a product is charged when added to an invoice.
Price fields
Selling Price - The standard charge per unit
Min. Price - The lowest allowable price per unit
Dispensing Fee / Amount - An automatic fee added on top of the selling price. The client sees only the total; the fee is not broken out separately
Calculate By - Determines whether price is based on markup percentage or unit cost (used with linked inventory items)
Markup % - Adjusts selling price relative to inventory cost
Product Price Settings
These checkboxes control how the product behaves during invoicing:
Included on Invoice - Automatically adds to the invoice when administered
Taxable - Applies your clinic's tax rate at invoicing
Hide from Treatment Search - Prevents the product from being manually added as a treatment
Client Discount Eligible - Applies client-level discounts
Pet Assure Discount Eligible - Automatically applies the 25% Pet Assure discount
Default Product Discount - Adds a preset discount every time the product is invoiced
Automatic Task
An automatic task is a follow-up task that generates in the Tasks section of Shepherd whenever the product is administered.
To add an automatic task, configure:
Title - The name of the task
Due In / Time Unit - How many days, weeks, or months after administration the task is due
Assign Task To - Supervising Doctor, Assigned User, or None
Update Patient Status
Available for Services only.
Services have one unique feature: they can automatically update a patient's status when administered. To enable this, toggle on Update Patient Status in the service setup and select:
Female Spayed / Male Neutered
Deceased
This is useful for spay/neuter and euthanasia services.
Discharge Instructions
Discharge instructions linked to a product will automatically populate when that product is administered in the SOAP or when a prescription is created in the Rx tab.
To set up discharge instructions:
Toggle on Discharge Instructions in the product setup
Enter your custom instructions in the text field
Use the available variables to personalize the message (patient name, client name, doctor, clinic contact info, etc.)
Attach any documents to include with the discharge
If you use the LifeLearn ClientEd integration, you can also import a ClientEd article here
Included in Medical Record
You can add a default medical record note that pre-populates in Tx History whenever the product is administered in the SOAP. The note will appear under the treatment item and can be edited before being applied. It does not apply automatically — a team member must confirm it.
Rx Label Settings
Available for Product and Medication types only.
Rx Label Settings let you add default directions for printed prescription labels. To enable this, toggle on Rx Label Settings and enter your default directions in the text field.
These directions will pre-fill whenever a prescription is created for this product - both inside and outside of a SOAP - but can be edited on a case-by-case basis.
Product Categories
Product categories keep your catalog organized and ensure accurate charge and production tracking. Every product must be assigned to a category.
Adding a new product category
When creating a category, you will need to:
Give the category a Name
Optionally assign a Parent Category (for example, a category called "MRI" might have a parent category of "Imaging")
Toggle Client Discount Eligible on if items in this category should be discountable
Enable Track Prescription Refill Production if you want refills in this category to count toward production.
Note: The doctor will be paid for the post-discount production amount, not the pre-discount. So if a doctor issues a discount, it will impact their production total for that line item.
Bundles
Bundles are groups of products and services that are commonly administered together. They help ensure consistent care and accurate charging for multi-step treatments or procedures.
There are two bundle types:
Regular bundle - The total price is the sum of the individual item prices. Each item retains its own price and contributes to the total based on quantity.
Static bundle - The bundle has a single fixed price that overrides all individual item prices. Line items show as $0 on the invoice. Sales tax is not calculated on static bundles. A single product category must be assigned to the entire bundle for revenue tracking.
Important: Once a bundle is saved as regular or static, the type cannot be changed. The toggle is locked after the first save.
For full setup instructions, discount configuration, nesting, and duplication, see the Bundles article.
Dispensing Fees
Dispensing fees are charges automatically added on top of a product's selling price when it is invoiced. The client sees only the combined total — the fee is not broken out as a separate line item.
Dispensing fee groups are configured from the Dispensing Fees tab and then applied to individual products. You can also add a one-off dispensing fee directly on a single product if it doesn't fit an existing group.
Common dispensing fee types used by practices include:
Rx - For prescription medications
Box/Bottle - For dispensed products sold by container
Injection - For injectable administration
Controlled Drug - For controlled substances
Frequently Asked Questions
Which product type should I use for a medication dispensed as a full bottle?
Use the Product type for medications sold by the full unit, bottle, or tube. Use the Medication type when the item is dispensed by dose (tablet, capsule, mL, etc.).
Can I use the Injection type for vaccines?
No. Vaccines must use the Vaccination product type. The Vaccination type includes unique fields for label names, certificate generation, due-date tracking, and rabies reporting that the Injection type does not support.
Also, the Vaccine Report depends on the product type being "Vaccine". If it is labeled as anything else (injection/part of a service) it will not be included in the report.
How do combo vaccines work?
When setting up a combo vaccine (such as DHPPL), enable the Combo Vaccination toggle. This allows you to define each individual vaccine within the combo, each with its own due date. If the vaccines in the combo are packaged in separate vials, enable Multiple Vial Administration so each component uses its own lot number and deducts inventory separately.