Recording a medication puts the prescribed instructions on a client's chart where the team can see them. It is not authorisation to administer anything, and it is not a substitute for your organisation's checking process.

Work from the current prescription or another authorised source, not from memory, and only enter medications you are authorised to enter.

Six things are required: the name, the form it comes in, the route, the dose, the unit, and a schedule. Schedules run from once through four times daily, As Needed, or a custom weekly pattern. As Needed asks for two more things — a maximum per day and a minimum gap between doses — because "as needed" without limits is not an instruction.

The supply figure is a number of DAYS, and nothing counts stock. Nobody counts pills. It sets how far ahead a carer is asked, while administering, whether there is at least that much left — so a medication that is filled weekly and one that arrives monthly want different numbers. There are two numbers. The warning threshold is how many days' supply the carer is asked about. Escalate to Critical after is how many days a low-supply alert can stay open before it shows as critical — 4 unless you or your organisation set otherwise.

A supply alert opens when a carer answers that supply is running low. Left open, it turns critical once it is older than that second number. A carer who gives the dose and answers that there is enough closes it — so an alert disappearing means someone reported the supply was fine, not that anyone reordered.

Step 1
Confirm the client
Start on the client and check you have the right person before anything else. This is the step the rest of it depends on.
Step 2
Look at the chart first
Medications lists what is already recorded. Always read it before adding — a duplicate entry on a chart is a dosing risk, not an admin tidiness problem.
Step 3
Open the entry panel
Add Medication.
Step 4
The six required details
Name, form, route, dose, unit and schedule. Match every one of them to the source you are working from.
Step 5
Match the source, not your memory
Including the unit and the form. "5ml" and "5mg" are one keystroke apart and mean entirely different things.
Step 6
Choose the schedule
Once through four times daily, As Needed, or a custom weekly pattern. As Needed then asks for a maximum per day and a minimum gap between doses.
Step 7
Set the supply thresholds
Both are in days, not quantities. The warning threshold decides how far ahead a carer is prompted to check there is enough — set it against how this medication is actually resupplied. Escalate to Critical after is how long a low-supply alert can sit unresolved before it is shown as critical.
Step 8
Check it against the source, then save
One more read against the prescription before saving. Correcting a chart afterwards is a different and more visible job.
Step 9
Nothing here counts stock
There is no inventory behind a medication. The supply threshold turns into a yes/no question asked of the person administering — they look at the bottle and answer. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why the number is days rather than a count.
Step 10
How a supply alert behaves
An alert opens when a carer answers that supply is running low. If nobody resolves it, it is shown as critical once it has been open longer than the medication's critical threshold. A carer who gives the dose and answers that there is enough closes the alert automatically — an answer on a dose that was not given does not, because running out is often why a dose was missed.
Step 11
Recording is not administering
A medication on the chart is an instruction the team can see. Whether a given person may give it, and the checks they do first, are governed by your organisation's process and their role — not by the fact that the entry exists.