Selling medicine by the box, strip and tablet at the right price

In most Ghanaian pharmacies and chemical shops, the same product leaves the counter in different sizes. One customer buys a whole box. The next wants two strips. Someone else asks for a few loose tablets of a vitamin. If your records only know the box, by evening the count is wrong and nobody can say where the money went.

The fix is simple: tell your system what the smallest unit is, and build every bigger pack on top of it.

What is the right way to set up box, strip and tablet sales?

Set the product up in the smallest unit you actually sell, then add each bigger size as a pack of that unit. If you never sell below a strip, the strip is your base unit and the box is a pack of, say, 10 strips. If you do sell loose tablets of a line, the tablet is the base unit and the strip and box are packs on top of it.

The prices above are examples. The point is that each unit has a price you chose, and each sale takes the right amount out of stock.

Should a box cost less than its strips sold one by one?

Usually yes, and you should decide that on purpose. A box sold whole saves you time and opening, so many owners give a small saving on the box. What matters is that the box price is a number you set, not ten times the strip price by accident.

• Single stripGH₵7.00
• Half box (5 strips)GH₵6.50
• Box of 10 stripsGH₵6.50

Source: Example figures

Work it out from your cost. If a box costs you GH₵48 from the wholesaler, each strip costs you GH₵4.80. At GH₵7 a strip your margin is GH₵2.20 a strip. At GH₵65 a box it is GH₵1.70 a strip. Both may be fine, but you should know the numbers before you set them.

Why count stock in the smallest unit?

Count in the smallest unit because that is the only number that stays true once a box is opened. If your records say "12 boxes" and you have sold three strips, the true figure is 11 boxes and 7 strips, which most box-only systems cannot show.

When stock is held as strips, 12 boxes are 120 strips. Sell three strips and you have 117. Sell a box and you have 107. Your count sheet asks for one number per product, and the difference between the shelf and the system means something.

How do you scan strips that have no barcode?

Boxes usually carry the manufacturer's barcode, but cut strips and loose units do not. Print your own price labels with a barcode for the strip, and stick them on the shelf edge or on a small bag. Then the cashier scans the strip label for strips and the box barcode for boxes, and the till picks the right price each time.

Two rules keep this clean:

• One barcode, one product. Never reuse a box barcode for the strip. Each unit gets its own code.
• Scan, don't type prices. A cashier typing a price is where most wrong charges come from.

What does the till do when you scan?

On a good pharmacy till, scanning is the whole job. You scan the item, type how many, press Enter, and move on. Because the box and the strip have different barcodes, the cashier never has to choose a unit or a price from a list. If the shelf price and the till price ever disagree, fix the product once, not at every sale.

Before the till can work like that, each product needs setting up once:

1. 1Create the product in its smallest unit, for example the strip
2. 2Enter your cost and selling price per strip
3. 3Add the box as a pack of 10 strips
4. 4Give the box its own price and barcode
5. 5Print barcode labels for strips
6. 6Count the stock in strips

Can you sell wholesale and retail from the same product?

Yes, if your licence allows wholesale. Keep a retail price and a wholesale price on the same product, and choose the price list for the customer or the sale. Be careful here: the Pharmacy Council's guidelines say the over-the-counter medicine seller's licence permits the sale of class C or OTC medicines "by retail only". If you run a licensed chemical shop, selling on to other shops is outside that licence.

What about labels and instructions on split packs?

This is a regulatory and professional question, not a till question. The Pharmacy Council's guidelines for over-the-counter medicine practitioners say medicines dispensed must be "appropriately labelled and instructions clearly given". What that means for a strip cut from a box, and which medicines may be sold loose, is for the Council and your pharmacist to answer. Check current requirements with the Pharmacy Council before you change how you split packs.

This article gives no advice on doses or on which medicine suits a customer. That conversation belongs with a pharmacist or a prescriber.

How MPOS handles packs and part quantities

MPOS was built for this. A product is created in its smallest unit, and packs such as a box of 10 strips get their own price and barcode. Part quantities work too: half a box is sold as 0.5 of the box. Retail and wholesale prices sit on the same product.

The till is scan-first. After each item it asks how many: type the number, press Enter and scan the next item. If you just scan the next item, the quantity stays at 1. The same barcode cannot be put on two products, so a strip and a box can never get mixed up. For units that have no barcode, you give them a code of your own and MPOS prints price tags with it, and cash rounding keeps change easy when prices land on odd pesewas.

Already have your products in Excel or in Aronium? MPOS imports from Excel or CSV, including Aronium's export. Our comparison with Aronium covers the move in more detail.

What to do next

Pick your ten best-selling lines and write down, for each, the smallest unit you sell, the pack sizes, and the price you want for each. Check the margin on each unit against your cost. Then set those ten up properly before anything else.

For the bigger picture, read the complete guide to running a pharmacy in Ghana, or see how to track expiry dates and batches for the same products. You can start a free trial and set up your own strips and boxes to see how it works.