How do I start selling in my pharmacy without typing in thousands of medicines?
| Intagya ERP
Don't type them in. In Intagya ERP you switch on the Egyptian drug guide from the apps screen and your system gets a guide of more than 27,000 medicines with the trade name in Arabic and English, the active ingredient, the manufacturer and the price, about 10,000 of them with their barcode. When the cashier scans a box that is not in your products, the system adds it from the guide and sells it at once. If you prefer, you add them all in one go.
A pharmacist opens a second branch. The shelves are full, the till is ready and the system is new. The first box goes under the scanner and the screen says: no product with this barcode.
So the name and the price get typed in by hand while the customer waits. Then the second box. Then the third.
A mid-sized pharmacy carries two to four thousand items. One employee typing them in takes weeks, and a single wrong price shows up a month later in the stock count.
Why do pharmacies take so long to start on a new system?
Because they carry more items than almost any other shop, and the names look alike. One headache tablet alone comes as tablets, extended-release tablets, a children's syrup and packs of different sizes. Each one is its own item with its own price and barcode.
My view: don't make data entry a condition for selling. The pharmacy that waits until every item is in never starts, or starts with half the data.
I want a pharmacy system with the medicines ready, priced and with barcodes. Is there one?
Yes. That is what the Egyptian drug guide does in Intagya ERP: switch it on from the apps screen and the medicines are in your system with their names and prices, about 10,000 of them with their barcode, without typing a single item. It works with the point of sale, stock and accounting in the same system, so every box you sell comes off stock and goes into the books.
What comes ready in the drug guide?
A guide of more than 27,000 medicines sold in Egypt. For each one you get:
- the trade name in English as printed on the box, and in Arabic for searching
- the active ingredient, so you can look for an alternative
- the manufacturer and the class
- the retail price
- the barcode, for about 10,000 of them
The guide shows under Point of Sale, then Products, and in Inventory too. Search it by name, active ingredient, manufacturer or barcode.
Do I have to add every medicine before I sell?
No. You pick one of two ways, and each has its place.
On demand
The cashier scans the box. If it is not in your products, the system finds it in the guide, adds it as a product with its price, and it goes on the receipt straight away. The same happens when part of the name is typed in Arabic or English in the search and Search more is pressed. Your products stay the medicines you actually sell, not 27,000 items you will never touch.
Everything at once
The Add all medicines button in the guide list turns all of them into products. It runs in the background, batch after batch, while you keep working. It suits you if you want to see everything in stock from day one, or to prepare purchase lists before opening.
Start on demand for the first week. A month later your products are what you really sell, and the stock count is shorter and clearer.
What if I already have products with the same barcode?
Nothing gets doubled. If one of your products has the same barcode, the guide links the medicine to it instead of making a second product. Items you moved over from an old system keep their stock and history.
Can I rely on the guide prices alone?
Rely on them to start, and check the price printed on the box. Prices change, and we refresh the guide when they do or when new medicines are registered.
A new price moves onto your product only if you never changed that price by hand. If you did, your price stays. Your pharmacy decides, not the guide.
Medicines are added with no tax, because most are exempt. If one of them is taxed, add the tax on its product page.
And the medicines that have no barcode in the guide?
Find them by name. Type three letters or more in the point of sale search, press Search more and they show up. Once one is a product, open its page and scan the box into the barcode field once. From then on it is found by scanning like the rest.
Tomorrow, try one thing: switch the guide on, scan the first ten boxes of the morning and look at the receipt. That is enough to tell whether this way suits your pharmacy.
Read the drug guide step by step
FAQ
Is the guide only for pharmacies in Egypt?
Yes. The medicines and prices are from the Egyptian market, and the app works in any pharmacy that uses the point of sale in Intagya ERP.
Will my system fill up with thousands of items I don't sell?
Not unless you choose it. On demand, a medicine becomes a product only when it is scanned or searched, and Add all medicines is optional.
Where does the drug data come from?
From the open eg-drugs project under the CC BY 4.0 licence, and the source is written on the page of every medicine. We refresh the guide when prices change.
Can the cashier add all the medicines?
No. Add to my products and Add all medicines are for the point of sale manager and the inventory manager only. The cashier only adds the medicine being sold, by scanning it.
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