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Dispensing labels

The medication label for the box or bottle: printing one, what goes on it, choosing label stock, and setting the size and wording for your practice.

When you dispense medication, FastVet prints a label for the box or bottle with your practice details, the drug, the quantity, the directions and the patient.

The one setting to get right is the size of the label, which must match the labels you buy.

Where	What it covers
On a dispensed line	The Print Label button, and a preview of what will print.
Printing one again	Recent Labels: finding a label and printing it a second time.
Writing one yourself	A label for something that was not dispensed on a visit.
What is on it	The details FastVet fills in.
Choosing label stock	Which labels to buy.
Setting the size and wording	Label size, margin, font size, the label’s text, and a test print.
When it does not fit	What the preview’s warnings mean.
Setting up the printer	The print settings to use.

Printing a label#

Who can do this

Anyone who can charge the medication.

Labels are printed from a Treatment line on a consultation, or on a hospital or boarding day. Once the line has directions, the label appears beneath them.

Charge the medication as usual, or tap the line to open it.
Fill in Instructions, by hand, or with the Instruction Maker.
A preview of the label appears, at the size it will print.
Press Print Label and choose your label printer.

The label preview on a dispensed line. Check the quantity matches the course: here ten tablets for "1 tablet twice a day for 5 days".

Note

No Print Label button? The line has no directions yet. Write them and the button appears.

Note

Print labels from a computer with the label printer connected. Phones and tablets usually cannot print to it.

Printing a label again#

Who can do this

Anyone, reception included.

A label that came out wrong, ran out of roll, or went in the bin with the box can be printed again from Recent Labels on the Home screen. It lists everything dispensed with directions, newest first, so you do not have to find the visit it was on.

Home›Recent Labels

Open Recent Labels on the Home screen.
Pick the window: 7 days, 30 days or 90 days.
Search by patient, client, item or wording if the list is long.
Tap the line. The label opens underneath it, at the size it will print.
Check it, then press Print label.

Recent Labels with one line opened. The label underneath is the one that will print, at the size it will print, with the button beside it.

It covers all five places a line can be dispensed: consultations, hospital and boarding days, grooming, and sales. A sale line and a counter hand-over have no label button of their own, so this is the only place to print those.

Note

The label is built when you open it, from the line and your current label wording. If the item, the client or your label template has changed since, the new version is what prints.

Note

A line only appears once it has directions. If the list is empty, look further back, or check that the line you want carries instructions. You can still write one yourself.

Writing a label yourself#

Who can do this

Anyone, reception included.

Not everything that needs a label was dispensed on a visit. A decanted bottle, a dose sent home in a tub, a box that needs the practice name and a date on it: press Write a label on Recent Labels and type what it should say.

Home›Recent Labels›Write a label

Press Write a label.
Fill in the parts you want. The label updates as you type.
Check it, then press Print label.

Writing a label. The fields are on the left and the label they make is beside them, at the size it will print.

It prints on your own label template, the same one a dispensed line uses, so a hand-written label looks like every other label you hand out. The date and your name are filled in for you; everything else starts blank.

Note

Leave a field blank and it prints blank. Only the parts your template asks for are used, so filling in a batch number does nothing unless you added the batch codes to your template. Any wording your template puts in front of a code still prints: leave the quantity out and a template reading QTY #QTY# prints QTY with nothing after it. Fill the field in, or take that wording off the template.

Note

Nothing is saved. This prints a label and keeps no record, so it does not charge the client, move stock, or appear on the list afterwards.

What is on the label#

FastVet fills in:

Your practice name, address and telephone number, from Practice Details.
Today’s date, and the name of whoever dispensed it.
The item, and the quantity and unit dispensed.
The directions from the line.
The patient, its details, and the owner’s name.
The line “FOR ANIMAL USE ONLY!”

Two more things can go on the label, and neither is there to begin with. Add the code in the label editor and it prints from then on:

Add this code	and the label prints	Why it is not there already
#LOTNUMBER# #LOTEXPIRY#	The batch dispensed from and its expiry date, where a batch was chosen on the line.	Most lines have no batch, so on most labels it would print nothing. Put the two codes on a line of their own with no wording in front and a label with no batch loses nothing at all: the line collapses and takes up no room.
#OWNERADDRESS#	The owner’s postal address, or their street address where there is no postal one, and nothing where the client has neither.	An address takes two or three lines, and on small label stock that is often the difference between one label and two.

Note

The batch is the lot you pick when you charge the line. Where an item has batches on the shelf, the line shows a Please select lot table when you charge it; pick the box you dispensed from and its number and expiry are what the two codes print. Where you pick nothing, or the item has no batches recorded, they print nothing. Batches come from the lot number and expiry you type in when you add stock or receive it.

Tip

Words such as “Lot:” and “Exp:” in front of the codes make the label easier to read, but they print on every label, including the ones with no batch, where they have nothing after them and still take up a line.

You can change the wording and the size; see Setting the size and wording.

Choosing label stock#

If you are buying labels or a label printer, choose stock with room for a full set of directions. With a long practice name, a long drug name and long directions:

Label stock	Size	Result
DYMO 99014 / 30256 shipping	54 × 101 mm	Fits on one label at about 7pt. The one to buy for a DYMO LabelWriter.
DYMO 99012 large address	36 × 89 mm	Long directions run onto a second label.
DYMO 99010 address	28 × 89 mm	Most directions run onto a second label.
Standard sheet label on an office printer	120 × 75 mm	Plenty of room.

Note

A DYMO LabelWriter cannot print wider than 56 mm. A label set wider than that is shrunk to fit.

Setting the size and wording#

Who can do this

Administrators only.

Home›Settings›Manage Templates›Dispensing Label

The label is one of your practice's templates.

The dispensing label editor: label size and wording on the left, a real-size preview on the right.

Choose your label stock from the Size list. DYMO sizes are named by the part number on the box.
Not listed? Type the Width and Height in millimetres. The list changes to Custom size….
Adjust the Margin and Font size until the preview looks right.
Edit the wording under Label content. The substitution codes, such as #DIRECTIONS#, are listed above it.
Press Print test to print the label as it stands, so you can check it on the labels you actually use.
Press Save.

Note

Width is the edge that feeds through the printer. A DYMO shipping label sold as “101 × 54” is 54 wide by 101 tall. The sizes in the list are already the right way round; this only matters for a custom size.

The preview shows the label at its actual size, with sample details.

Print test, at the bottom of the screen, prints that same sample label on your printer. It prints what is on the screen now, so you can try a size, look at the paper and change it again before you save. Nothing is saved until you press Save, and no patient details are used.

Tip

A screen cannot tell you whether the label is loaded straight or the printer is scaling. Print a test label whenever you change the size, and measure it.

Tip

Changing the size does not change the font size. If you switch from sheet labels to a DYMO and the preview warns, bring the font down to about 7pt.

When it does not fit#

The preview tells you if the label does not fit:

The preview says	What it means	What to do
Too wide for this label by n mm	Text runs past the right edge, and anything past the edge is not printed.	Reduce the font size, or choose wider stock. Fix this before printing.
This runs onto 2 labels	The text is longer than one label, and the rest prints on the next one. Nothing is cut off. A long template can say 3 labels, or more.	Fine if two labels are acceptable. Otherwise shorten the wording or reduce the font.
Fits on one … label	The label fits.	Nothing.
#SOMETHING# is not a token the label fills in	What you typed is not one of the tokens on the left of the screen, so it is printed on the label exactly as you typed it. Usually a spelling slip: #OWNERADRESS# for #OWNERADDRESS#.	Correct the spelling. Case does not matter: #ownername# and #OwnerName# work just as well as #OWNERNAME#.

Note

If you added the batch codes to your template, the message reads “runs onto 2 labels with a batch number printed; a line without one is shorter”. The preview always fills the batch in, so it measures the tallest a label gets. Size against that rather than the shorter case, so a batch never surprises you.

A label that runs on simply continues onto the next one. FastVet prints your template and nothing else, so the second label carries whatever falls there and no more. If you want the patient or the owner to appear on every label in a run, put them near the end of your template.

Tip

Reducing the Font size box often does nothing, and this catches people out. It only sets the size for text you have not sized yourself, and formatting text in the editor writes a size onto it. If the box makes no difference to the preview, select the text you want smaller and change its size in the editor toolbar instead.

Before you cut anything a client needs to read, look at the empty space. Pressing Enter for a blank line, and the tables the editor inserts, both carry their own height, and that is usually where a label’s last few millimetres have gone. Deleting a blank line between two rows can be worth more than a whole font size, and it costs you nothing on the label.

Note

Your dispensing rules may require the practice address, the client address, or a facility number on every label. Those are not candidates for shortening. Take the space out of the layout, or move to taller stock, and keep the directions at a size a client can read.

Setting up the printer#

Install the label printer’s driver on the computer as you would any printer.

Press Print Label on a dispensed line, or Print test in the label editor.
Choose your label printer in the print window.
Set Scale to 100%, not “Fit to page”.
Check the paper size matches the labels loaded.
Print. Your browser usually remembers these settings; check the first couple of labels.

Note

You do not need a patient to test the printer. Print test in the label editor prints a sample label at any time.

Note

If the browser scales the page, the label comes out too small, often in a corner. Setting Scale to 100% fixes this.

Tip

Print one label onto plain paper and measure it. If a label set to 54 mm wide measures 54 mm, the scaling is right.

If something looks wrong#

What you see	What to do
The label prints tiny, in a corner	Set Scale to 100% in the print window, not “Fit to page”. Use Print test in the label editor to try again without dispensing anything.
The right-hand side is missing	The text is wider than the label. Open the label editor; the preview shows Too wide and by how much. Reduce the font or use wider stock.
It takes two labels every time	Common on address-size labels. See Choosing label stock, or reduce the font.
No Print Label button	Add directions to the line.
The batch and expiry are missing	The batch is not on the label until you add it. Put #LOTNUMBER# and #LOTEXPIRY# into your template in the label editor; see What is on the label. Where the codes are already in the template and still nothing prints, no batch was chosen on the line, or the item has none on the shelf: batches come from the lot number and expiry entered when the stock was added or received.
You want the label to say “Lot:” and “Exp:”	Add the words in front of #LOTNUMBER# and #LOTEXPIRY# in the label editor. Be aware they then print on every label, including the ones with no batch, where they will have nothing after them and will take up a line.
“Your browser blocked the print window”	Allow pop-ups for FastVet, then print again.
The practice name or address is wrong	Correct it in Practice Details.
Cannot print from a phone or tablet	Print from the computer the label printer is connected to.