Setting Up the System for Pharmacies: Lot Number, Expiry Date, and Medical Insurance

This guide explains setting up the system for a pharmacy step by step: from enabling the apps and settings, to defining medicines with a lot number and an expiry date, then buying and selling from the invoice and the point of sale, dealing with insurance companies, and following the medicines that are close to expiry.

What Will You Need to Enable?

Feature	Where to Enable It	Mandatory?
Inventory	Apps Manager	Mandatory
Track Products by Serial Number, Lot Number, or Expiry Date	Inventory & Products Settings (not from the Apps Manager)	Mandatory
Use Multiple Units per Item (box / strip)	Inventory & Products Settings	Recommended
Selling Expired Products (turning it off)	Invoice Settings	Recommended
Point of sale	Apps Manager	Optional (for quick selling at the cashier)
Insurances	Apps Manager	Optional (for dealing with insurance companies)

Brief Workflow

1. Enable the apps → 2. Tracking and inventory settings → 3. Set up the units and warehouses → 4. Define the medicines → 5. Enter the opening balance with lots → 6. Sell and choose the lot → 7. Follow the expiry with reports

Step 1: Enable the Apps

1. Go to the “Apps Manager”.
2. Enable the “Inventory app” (requires enabling sales).
3. If you will sell at the cashier, enable “Point of Sale”.
4. If you deal with medical insurance companies, enable “Insurances” (requires sales and clients).

Step 2: Inventory and Tracking Settings

Go to “Product Settings” from “Inventory & Product Settings” and set the following:

Setting	Options (Default)	What It Does
Track Products by Serial Number, Lot Number, or Expiry Date	On / Off (Off)	Enables the tracking type field in products. Enable it.
Negative Inventory	Stop operations when the quantity runs out for all products / Allow only products trackable by quantity / Allow all products	For a pharmacy, it is recommended to choose Stop operations when the quantity runs out for all products so that a lot that doesn’t exist isn’t sold.
Use Multiple Units per Item	On / Off (Off)	To sell the medicine by the box or by the strip. After enabling it, click Manage Units to create a template such as: box = 3 strips.
Requisitions for Sales Invoices / Requisitions for Purchase Invoices	On / Off	If you enable them, the lot number and expiry date are entered in the stock requisition and not in the invoice. For small pharmacies, it is preferable to leave them off to enter the data directly in the invoice and the point of sale.

Step 3: Preventing the Sale of Expired Medicines

Go to “Invoice Settings” from the “Sales Settings”, and in the Stock Availability and Validity Restrictions section you will find Selling Expired Products:

• If the option is on Allowed (the default): only a warning appears when choosing an expired lot, and the sale can be completed.
• If you turn it off: the system prevents saving an invoice that contains an expired lot.

Step 4: Setting Up Warehouses and Units

1. Create the warehouses (such as: the main pharmacy, the back store).
2. Create the unit templates from Manage Units, such as: the base unit “strip,” and the larger unit “box” with a factor of 3.

Step 5: Defining the Medicines

From Add Product:

1. Enter the medicine name, the box barcode, the selling price, and the purchase price.
2. Choose the category (important if you will use insurance because the insurance percentages are set by category).
3. In the Inventory Management section, enable Track Stock then choose the tracking type.
4. Choose the unit template if it exists, then save.

Tracking Type	When to Use It in the Pharmacy
Lot number and expiry date	The most suitable option for most medicines: you know the lot and its expiry date together.
Expiry date	Products for which only the expiry date matters (preparations, supplements).
Lot number	Products that need the lot number to withdraw them in a recall, without an expiry date.
Serial number	Medical devices (blood pressure monitor, glucose meter) where each piece has an independent number.
Quantity only	Products with no shelf life (tools, accessories).

Step 6: Entering the Opening Balance and Purchases by Lots

Enter the quantities you have in one of two ways:

• A purchase invoice from the supplier: in each line, enter the lot number and choose the expiry date.
• A manual addition requisition for the opening balance: enter the lines and quantities with the lot data and the expiry date for each line.

Example

You received 50 boxes of one medicine in two lots: 30 boxes of lot LT-101 expiring 03/2027, and 20 boxes of lot LT-102 expiring 09/2027. Add them in two separate lines for the same medicine, each line with its lot and its date.

Step 7: Selling from the Sales Invoice

1. Create a sales invoice and choose the client and the medicine.
2. In the tracking field, search and choose the required lot.
3. If you sell from two different lots, add the medicine in two lines: each line with its lot and its quantity.

Step 8: Selling from the Point of Sale (the Cashier)

To be able to choose the lot in the point of sale, go to the POS settings and enable, in order:

1. Journal Entry per Invoice.
2. Enter Product Tracking Data (appears only after enabling the previous setting).

• These two settings cannot be changed while a point of sale session is open; close the sessions first.
• Entering tracking data in the point of sale works only when stock requisitions for sales invoices are turned off.

Step 9: Dealing with Insurance Companies (Optional)

1. From Insurance Agents, add the insurance company (the name, phone, and email).
2. Add the insurance class for the company (such as: gold, silver), and specify for each product category: the discount percentage, the company’s coverage percentage, the client’s coverage percentage, and the maximum co-payment.
3. Open the client’s data and choose an insurance company and an insurance class and enter the insurance number.
4. When an invoice is created for this client, the percentages are applied automatically: the client pays their share, and a separate insurance invoice is created with the company’s share to be collected later.

Example

A medicine priced at 200 in the “Chronic Medicines” category, and the class covers 80% for the company and 20% for the client: the client pays 40, and an insurance invoice of 160 is recorded against the insurance company.

Step 10: Following Lots and Expiry Dates

• The Product Tracking screen from the inventory menu to display all lots and the remaining quantities.
• From Reports you will find the Tracking Reports section: Track Products by Lot Number and Expiry Date; Track Products by Expiry Date; Track Products by Lot Number.

How do I know which medicines will expire soon?

Open the report Track Products by Lot Number and Expiry Date (or the expiry date report) and set the Expiry Date From to today and the Expiry Date To to a date 3 months from now, for example, and the medicines that will expire within this period appear.

What Is Available and Not Available for Pharmacies

Feature	Status
Tracking the lot number and expiry date	Available
Selling by the box and the strip	Available (multiple units)
Preventing the sale of expired items	Available (a setting in invoices)
Automatically choosing the lot nearest to expiry	Not available — the choice is manual
An automatic alert before the expiry	Not available — use the expiry date report with a future period
Medical insurance and splitting the invoice	Available (the Insurances app)
Linking the prescription to the invoice and dispensing the medicine	Not available — the prescriptions app is for clinics and isn’t linked to inventory

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why can’t I enter the initial quantity of the medicine? Tracked products don’t accept an initial quantity; enter it with a purchase invoice or a manual addition requisition with the lot data.
• Why doesn’t the lot number field appear in the invoice? Either the product’s tracking type is quantity only, or stock requisitions for sales invoices are enabled, so the lot number is entered in the stock requisition.
• Can two lots be sold in one line? No, each line accepts one lot; add the medicine in a second line for the other lot.