Prepare and Submit Your Product List for Onboarding

During onboarding with Instinct EMR or Instinct Treatment Plan (ITP), your Onboarding Manager will need a copy of your current product list from your current practice information management system (PIMS). This article walks through what to export, which fields to include, and how to prepare your file before submitting, so your products can be configured as quickly and accurately as possible.

If your practice will be using the Instinct Standard Product List, you do not need to complete these steps. Check with your Onboarding Manager if you're unsure which applies to you.

Submit your file as a CSV file, Excel file (.xlsx), or Google Sheet. PDF files are not accepted.

PDFs cause data integrity issues. When converted to Excel, columns become distorted, and alignment is scrambled, which can introduce errors in your pricing and product setup that are difficult to catch after the fact. Nearly all PIMS support exporting directly to CSV or Excel.

To make this process easier, Instinct has created a working template you can use to organize and review your product list before submitting it to our team.

Product List Template — Customer Template

Export your product list from your PIMS as a CSV or Excel file, then copy and paste your columns into this template. The template is structured to help you review your data against the fields Instinct requires, making it easier to spot gaps before you submit. Your Onboarding Manager can also share this template with you directly at any point before or after your kick-off call.

Your export must include six fields: Product/Item Code, Product Name, Pricing information, Active or inactive status, Product category, and Non-billable products.

Your export should be comprehensive; include every item that appears on a client invoice, across all categories:

When in doubt, include it. It is easier to remove items that don't apply than to add missing ones later.

This is the unique code your PIMS assigns to each product. The label varies by system—you may see it called PIMS ID, Product Code, Invoice Item ID, or something similar.

This field is especially critical if your practice will be connected to ITP via an integration. The following PIMS use this integration: Cornerstone, Avimark, Impromed, and ezyVet. The code must match exactly for the integration to work correctly.

Include the display name of each product exactly as you want it to appear in Instinct EMR and on the client invoice. This is what your team will search for and see day to day.

The pricing fields required depend on your Instinct product type.

ITP (Instinct Treatment Plan) — minimum required:

EMR / IPC — required, especially if using Stockroom:

If your current PIMS uses minimum and maximum pricing on any products, include those fields in your export—Instinct supports min/max pricing and your Onboarding Manager can configure it during setup.

Indicate whether each product is currently active or inactive in your PIMS.

Before submitting, confirm with your team whether you want inactive products included in your Instinct setup. Most practices do not, but some temporarily mark items inactive (for example, during a backorder) and plan to reactivate them. Remove any inactive products you don't want uploaded, or clearly flag them in the file.

Include the category assigned to each product in your PIMS, if available. Categories help the Instinct team identify what type of product something is, especially for items with generic names. They can also carry over as invoice tags in Instinct EMR. Let your Onboarding Manager know if you'd like to discuss this.

Some products in your PIMS may be tracked internally but never billed directly to a client—things like cotton swabs, equipment, or orthopedic hardware. Include a clear indicator in your export for any products that fall into this category. Your Onboarding Manager will work with you to determine whether these should be set as billable or non-billable in Instinct.

These fields are not required at submission, but including them upfront avoids extra manual work after your product list is uploaded.

If your PIMS export doesn't include these fields, you can add a column to your Excel file and mark the relevant products with a simple indicator (eg, "Yes" or "X").

Reviewing your export before sending prevents back-and-forth and keeps your onboarding on track. Before submitting, check and clean up the following: active/inactive status, medications, diagnoses, duplicates, product groups, estimate-only products, and tax/commission/discount flags.

If your export doesn't include an active/inactive column, manually delete rows for products you're certain you won't use in Instinct. Keep anything you're unsure about—it's better to discuss than to remove something needed.

Medications are the most complex products to configure. For each medication, include as much detail as possible:

Instinct EMR handles dispensing fees differently than some PIMS. In Instinct, dispensing fees are applied directly to the product—they are not separate, standalone fee items. The formula is:

Quantity given × Unit Price + Dispensing Fee = Total price to client

If your current PIMS (such as Avimark) uses internal codes rather than labeled fee fields, add a column indicating the dispensing or prescription fee for each applicable medication.

Instinct recommends using the dispensing fee field for:

To simplify setup, consolidate where possible—for example, use a single injection fee rather than separate fees for inpatient vs. outpatient administration.

If your PIMS exports a diagnosis or problem list alongside products, remove those rows before submitting. Instinct EMR maintains its own standard diagnosis list, and these behave differently from products in the system. If you're unsure which items are diagnoses, flag them so the Instinct team can identify them.

Remove any duplicate rows where the product ID, name, and pricing are identical. Duplicates slow down the review process and can cause confusion during setup.

Remove any product group names or picklist names rows from your export. Groups are configured separately in Instinct by your admins after products are uploaded—they are not part of the initial import.

If any products are used exclusively for estimates and are not standard billable items, add a clear indicator so the Instinct team knows how to handle them.

If your export doesn't include tax, commission, or discount exclusion fields, add columns and flag any relevant products. See “Optional fields that save time later” above for details on each field.

Contact your Onboarding Manager directly, or reach out via live chat or email [email protected].