How a chemist’s counter works
A pharmacy sells only a few items to each customer, but each item carries more weight than a packet of sugar: it has a batch, an expiry date and a high value for its size. Stock that expires on the shelf is money lost, and a miscount on a box of tablets is hard to spot.
Common problems at a chemist in Nairobi or Machakos:
- Expired stock found on the shelf, or written off without anyone signing for it.
- Selling by the tablet, the strip and the box, so the stock count is never quite right.
- A mix of medicines, supplements, cosmetics and baby products that may not all carry the same VAT.
- Small, valuable items that leave the shop without a sale.
- An owner who is not always there and needs to know what happened.
Wave POS covers the shop side of a pharmacy: what you sell, what you hold and what it is worth. Prescription records and a poisons register are not part of it; keep those the way you do now.
Batch numbers and expiry dates
Turn on batches for the products that need them, and each delivery line takes a batch number and an expiry date. The batch and its date stay on record with the purchase they arrived on, so you know what came in, when, and when it expires.
When stock does expire, take it off with an adjustment marked as expired. Adjustments wait for a manager’s approval before stock moves, and each one records who asked for it and who approved it, so no write-off happens without a manager and a record.
A monthly shelf check for short-dated stock, done category by category, catches most problems early. The product performance report lists slow movers, the items selling slowly or not at all, which are the likeliest to reach their date on the shelf.
Selling by the tablet, the strip and the box
Packs sell from the single units in stock. Keep paracetamol in tablets, then add a strip of 10 and a box of 100 as packs, each with its own price and barcode. Selling a strip takes 10 tablets off stock; selling a box takes 100. Loose tablets, strips and boxes all come from one count, so the stock take compares like with like.
A morning sale, worked through
A customer in Machakos buys:
| Item | Qty | Price | Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paracetamol 500 mg, strip of 10 | 2 | KSh 30 | KSh 60 |
| Oral rehydration salts, sachet | 3 | KSh 25 | KSh 75 |
| Cough syrup, 100 ml | 1 | KSh 380 | KSh 380 |
| Body lotion, 400 ml | 1 | KSh 560 | KSh 560 |
| Multivitamin, 30 tablets | 1 | KSh 950 | KSh 950 |
The total is KSh 2,025, paid by M-Pesa prompt. Stock falls by 20 paracetamol tablets, three sachets and one of each of the rest. Each line is taxed at the rate set on its own product, and the receipt carries your KRA PIN and your own header and footer.
VAT with several rates
Wave POS holds several tax rates and applies the one set on each product. Prices can include VAT or have it added, and cash rounding keeps totals to amounts you can give change for. Your accountant can tell you which rate applies to each line you stock; Wave POS applies what you set. The VAT report shows VAT charged on sales and paid on purchases, by rate, and exports to Excel, CSV or PDF. More in sales reports.
Staff permissions and control
Wave POS uses roles to decide who can do what. Owner, Manager, Cashier and Stock Clerk come ready, and you can make your own, such as a senior counter role that can sell and receive stock but not approve adjustments. A cashier who wants to give a big discount or change a price needs a manager’s PIN at the till, cashiers switch in with their own PIN, and every sale shows who made it. The audit log shows who changed a price, and when. See staff and shifts.
Stock takes and reports
A stock take can cover a single category, so count cold and flu products on Monday and skin care on Wednesday. Wave POS compares every count with the stock on record at the moment you enter it, and nothing changes until a manager completes the take. Our stock take guide has more on planning the counts.
Reports show stock value at cost and at selling price, low stock against reorder levels, and gross profit by product. The inventory page covers the rest.