Pharmacy

Pharmacy runs the same fast, dispense-oriented register as retail, but with patients, prescriptions, and controlled-substance approvals built into the sale itself instead of handled separately. It always runs on its own branch — solo, never mixed with retail or restaurant — so a controlled item is never one accidental click away from a regular retail line.

This guide follows a pharmacy from a fresh branch to a normal dispensing day: get the drug catalog and stock right, get patients on file, then dispense with the right approvals in place.

1. Set up your branch

Create the branch as pharmacy. It gets a default terminal automatically, the same as any other vertical.

→ Setup, registers & shifts

2. Build your drug catalog

Use the item wizard’s drug type so the product fields match what a pharmacy needs to record. Pricing works the same as any other vertical — Inclusive/Exclusive entry and profit % markup, kept in sync automatically.

→ Products & item types · Item pricing modes

3. Bring in stock

Suppliers and purchases work the same as any other vertical — stock only lands on the shelf once a purchase is marked received. Batch and lot handling is available at dispense time for when the default lot isn’t the one being handed over.

→ Suppliers · Purchases & receiving

4. Register patients

Patients are a separate record from retail customers and live in their own area of the POS sidebar. Where prescriptions are in use, the Rx is linked or validated against the patient before or during the sale — some items are configured to refuse to sell without a patient on the line.

5. Dispense at the register

Opening a session and shift works the same as any terminal. At the till, apply a batch/lot override whenever the default lot isn’t the one actually being dispensed.

Controlled substances need a supervisor or pharmacist PIN at the register — the same approval pattern retail uses for a department-sale override, required here because the law needs someone accountable, not just a manager’s sign-off. If the pharmacist isn’t at the till, an ERP-side approval queue can clear the item remotely; a sale already tied to a validated prescription can skip the register PIN entirely.

Payment works the same as retail — cash or M-Pesa — though insurance billing and some pharmacy M-Pesa paths may not be wired up yet, so go with whatever your till actually offers.

→ Payments

6. Close out and review

Closing the shift and reading the reports works the same as retail.

→ Reports

Permissions

Technicians and cashiers need explicit permission to open the register and complete sales. If a button is missing, ask an administrator before assuming the workflow doesn’t exist.

Running more than one vertical

• Retail — pharmacy never shares its branch with this
• Restaurant — also never shares a branch with pharmacy