Pharmacy POS checklist: batches, expiry dates and FEFO billing

A pharmacy is not a general shop. The same medicine can arrive in several batches with different expiry dates and purchase prices, and selling the wrong one first is a direct loss. A pharmacy point of sale (POS) should be built around that fact.

What FEFO means

FEFO stands for first expired, first out. When a customer buys a medicine, the system should pick from the batch that expires soonest, not simply the oldest delivery. Done by hand this is easy to forget on a busy counter. Done by the software it happens on every sale.

Why batch tracking matters

• Expiry control: you can see what will expire in the next 30, 60 or 90 days and return it to the supplier or discount it in time.
• Correct profit: each batch has its own purchase price, so margin is calculated on the batch that was actually sold.
• Recalls: if a supplier recalls a batch you can find out how much of it is still on the shelf.

What to look for at the counter

Fast barcode checkout is the first test: scan, see the price and the batch, take payment, print the receipt. Then check the daily realities: returns and exchanges, customer credit (udhar) with a ledger, wholesale and retail prices for the same item, and shift opening and closing so that the cashier and the cash drawer always match.

Purchasing and suppliers

Receiving stock should create the batches for you: supplier, invoice, quantity, expiry and cost price in one screen. Reports should show what you owe each supplier and what you should reorder, so that you stop buying medicines you already hold too much of.

Offline first

A counter that freezes when the internet drops is a counter that loses sales. A pharmacy POS should keep selling offline and sync later. Optix Pharmacy POS runs offline-first on the counter for this reason.

Quick audit you can do today

1. Pick ten medicines and compare shelf count with the system count.
2. Check how many items expire within 90 days.
3. Find your three biggest slow-moving items and what they cost you.

If these checks take hours, your system is not helping you enough. See the Pharmacy POS page for what it covers.