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About Samples Transactions

Siebel Samples Management maintains a samples transaction record for every sample transfer, receipt, disbursement, order, and inventory adjustment. The application assigns each samples transaction record an unique identifier for tracking purposes. Depending on the type of transaction, you can display this identifier as a transaction number, an order number, an invoice number, or a transfer number.

Each samples transaction record represents a single transaction consisting of one or more line items. As shown in Figure 2, the application tracks a transfer of multiple samples as a single transaction record with multiple corresponding line item records—one line item for each type of product transferred. These line item records are child records of the parent transaction record.

Figure 2.  Transaction Record and Line Item Relationship

Inventory Reconciliation

In the United States, pharmaceutical companies may request that sales representatives perform an inventory reconciliation from one to twelve times a year to remain compliant with the Prescription Drug Marketing Act (PDMA). (Sampling regulations vary significantly in North America, Europe, Asia, and Latin America.) If sales representatives' physical sample inventories do not match their disbursement and transaction histories, they may perform inventory adjustments to justify the discrepancies. For more information, see Reconciling an Inventory Period (End User).

It is also possible to create sample products by lot numbers and to disburse samples to contacts by lot numbers and yet not reconcile by lot numbers. For more information, see Reconciling an Inventory Period (End User).

PDMA Compliance and Lot Numbers

Companies in the United States may need to perform additional tasks to meet PDMA requirements. According to the Food and Drug Administration's Final Ruling of December 3, 1999 (21 CFR Part 203 and 205), samples must also be tracked by lot number to the level of disbursement. Siebel Samples Management provides additional functionality that allows you to meet this lot number tracking requirement. For more information on using lot numbers, see About Samples Transactions.

Inventory Periods

Because samples inventory reconciliation can happen as often as once a month, Siebel Samples Management allows you to reconcile as often as you like and provides three types of inventory periods for maximum flexibility. These period types are described in Table 17.

The default Siebel Samples Management configuration provides two unreconciled periods: one active period and one inactive period. The Siebel administrator can control the number of unreconciled periods allowed. For more information, see Reconciling an Inventory Period (End User).

How Siebel Samples Management Works with Calls

This section describes how Siebel Samples Management works with the Contact Call Detail and Account Call Detail views. For more information on recording calls, see Recording Calls in Pharma.

When you click the Submit button in either the Contact Call Detail and Account Call Detail views, the application verifies that:

• At least one product has been recorded and detailed.

  This requirement can be changed by the administrator. For more information, see Configuring Siebel Life Sciences.

• The call's date and time is the same as or earlier than the current date and time. A call cannot be submitted with a future date.

If dropped samples are recorded for the call, the application checks that:

• The Ref# field is not empty.
• The samples exist in the inventory for the period indicated by the call's date and time.
• The period into which the samples will be recorded is an unreconciled period. If it is a reconciled period, a warning message appears.
• A valid lot number has been specified for dropped samples tracked by lot number.

NOTE:  When the Lots for Disperse Only system preference is set to TRUE, the lot number is not required. For more information, see Managing Inventory Tracking and Reconciliation Without Lot Numbers.

If the call passes these checks, the application:

• Creates a samples disbursement transaction, with a line item for each dropped sample recorded for the call.
• Submits a disbursement transaction to update the samples inventory. If the submission of the disbursement transaction is successful, the application changes the call's Status field to Submitted.
• Sets the Last Call Date field for the contact or account to the date of the submitted call, and many fields in the call record become read-only.

  As an administrator, you can change the fields that become read-only after a call is submitted (or synchronized with Siebel Pharma Handheld on a PDA). For information, see Configuring Siebel Life Sciences.

  NOTE:  If attendees are recorded in an account call, an attendee call is created for each attendee, and the process described above is performed for each attendee call. Attendee calls are the same as contact calls except that they do not appear in the Activities view and they are submitted automatically when the account call is submitted.