FAQ: Retail Pharmacy Manager (RPM)

How do I merge products? #

Head Office has the ability to perform merges of products via RPM that will apply the equivalent stock card merge automatically to stores.

If both Stock Cards involved in this merge have real cost values, the LOTS users will be prompted to finalise this merge via a ‘Manual Merge’:

To access the manual merge list, use the LOTS Master PC at the store level, find the RPM client logo in the system tray and right-click on the icon.

If there are no manual merges, the ‘Manual Merges’ option will not be visible. If there are merges the option will display the number of merges pending.

Selecting this option will open the ‘Merge Duplicate Stock’ window in LOTS, however this will be automatically populated by the RPM specific merges:

For the “Stock on Hand”, MTD (Month to Date) and expected sales there will be an additional option of ‘Combine’ if required – it is recommended to select this.

Select the ‘Merge’ button to merge and proceed onto the next card.
If required a merge can be skipped or exited prematurely, but note that any merges processed already will be retained. (I.e. there is no ‘undo’.)

Once all merges have been attended to, a merge summary report may be printed if the LOTS user requires.

It is important to frequently check and perform merges from Head Office – we recommend that this be performed at least weekly.

The stock card Head Office controls will receive product updates / promotion changes. The other Stock Card will no longer be RPM managed. If this non-RPM managed item is scanned in the POS module it may not contain the correct pricing information, in turn impacting your customers

If merges have been neglected even processing a handful a day can help greatly in the long-run.

I have adjusted a product description in RPM, why is this not applying in the LOTS stock card? #

If product (overnight) transfers are otherwise occurring normally between RPM and LOTS then check that the LOTS card you are attempting to update is *not* a drug card.

RPM product transfers cannot update the description of drug items.

LOTS users will need to determine if it is appropriate to update the product description manually.

It is important to note that if this is an item managed by Corum drug updates this description will change back on the next drug update.

This can be a common cause for products that are not scanning with correct prices in LOTS as the barcode for the item might exist on a non-RPM managed stock card.

I moved a barcode from one product to another in RPM, why is this change not appearing in LOTS? #

RPM data transfers can only add new barcodes. It cannot move or delete barcodes from the LOTS system.

If an RPM user needs to manually correct a barcode listed on a product, the change will also need to be manually made in LOTS as well.

LOTS users who manually create cards and add barcodes or ‘correct’ barcodes themselves can also create similar issues. RPM cannot correct incorrectly assigned barcodes.

My RPM / LOTS users are having the NBN installed or their ISP (Internet Service Provider) changed, is there anything I need to do to prevent an interruption to my transfers? #

For RPM, Corum Health support will need to be contacted. Our team will check your current connection details and what will be impacted.

It is important as an RPM Head Office user that your ISP is notified that a “static public IP” is required for business use. If this is not provided some functions of RPM in LOTS / RPM transfers will not work.

In most cases after the NBN / ISP changeover the Corum Health support team will need to adjust the new router (if any) to allow RPM functions to continue.

The support team will also need to organise an update to the settings of the LOTS applications for RPM client locations to use the new NBN / ISP details.

While there are important network considerations for NBN changes for the LOTS application, RPM connection and transfers from head office should be preserved without additional action being required.

Why am I missing shelf labels from my overnight price change? #

Upon processing the overnight RPM product transfer, items with retail price changes will be automatically added to the shelf label queue if:

The item is active (meaning it was Stock on Hand greater than zero, Month To Date Sales or Expected Sales)

AND

The item has shelf label ticked in the stock card

New stock items do not have shelf labels automatically posted to the queue.

At this stage items with price changes cannot be ‘re-posted’ to the shelf label queue. They will need to be manually printed.

If there is a significant number of shelf labels missing due to the shelf label setting being un-ticked, please call the Corum Health support team to discuss options.

If the items are missing due to the items being ‘inactive’ it is recommended to use the LOTS Labelling Program to bulk print labels. Talk to us today on 1300 669 865 to discover more.