Expired medicine is one of the most common ways a medical store in Pakistan loses money. A box that sits behind newer stock for a few months can turn from profit into a loss, and selling an expired item can damage a pharmacy’s reputation overnight. The good news is that most expiry losses are preventable with a simple routine and the right records.
This guide explains practical ways to manage stock and expiry dates in a pharmacy or medical store, whether you keep registers by hand or use billing software.
Why expiry management is harder than it looks
A typical medical store carries thousands of items, many of them in several batches with different expiry dates. The same medicine may arrive from two distributors in the same month. Without a clear system, it is easy to:
- sell the newest batch first while older stock expires on the shelf
- forget which batch a customer was sold when a recall or complaint comes in
- reorder an item that is already in stock in a back room or another rack
- run out of fast-moving medicines because nobody noticed stock was low
1. Record the batch number and expiry date at purchase
Expiry control starts on the day stock arrives. Every time you enter a purchase, record the batch number and expiry date for each item, not just the quantity and price. If this step is skipped, no report later can tell you what is about to expire.
2. Sell the earliest expiry first (FEFO)
Pharmacies follow a rule called First Expiry, First Out (FEFO): the batch with the nearest expiry date should be sold before newer batches. In practice this means placing older batches at the front of the shelf and checking batch details at the counter when you have more than one batch of the same medicine.
3. Check near-expiry stock every month
Set a fixed day each month to review items expiring in the next two to three months. This gives you time to act: move them to the front, return them to the distributor where that is allowed, or plan purchases so you do not add more of the same item. Waiting until the expiry month is usually too late.
4. Set a reorder level for each item
A reorder level is the minimum quantity at which you place a new order. Fast-moving medicines need a higher reorder level; slow-moving items need a lower one, so that you do not overstock them and end up with expired boxes. Reviewing reorder levels every few months, based on what actually sells, keeps both shortages and expiry losses down.
5. Know where every item is kept
Staff waste time, and stores reorder unnecessarily, when nobody knows which rack or drawer an item is in. Recording a location for each product makes counter sales faster and makes stock counts more accurate.
6. Count stock regularly and compare with records
Do a physical count of high-value and fast-moving items more often than the rest of the store. Compare the count with your records. Differences point to billing mistakes, unrecorded returns or missing stock, and should be investigated quickly.
Paper registers vs. pharmacy software
All of the steps above can be done with registers, but they take a lot of time once a store carries thousands of items in multiple batches. Pharmacy software does the tracking automatically each time you purchase or sell.
SoftBiller’s Pharmacy & Medical Store Software is built for this work. Based on its product features, it includes:
- Batch number and near-expiry options, so you can see what is about to expire
- Three types of stock reports: SSR, a simple stock report and a batch-wise stock report
- Reorder level and reorder quantity for each product, with automatic order generation for short items
- Product management by salt, company name and location in the store
- Search by item name, salt, company name or item location, plus smart search
- More than 9,600 medicine items already available in the software
- Invoices on thermal printers and A4 or A5 laser pages, with cash and credit sale screens
- Customer and supplier ledgers, sale and purchase returns, and reports you can print or export to PDF or Excel
- Runs on Microsoft Windows, with a lifetime licence and no monthly or annual fee
A simple monthly routine
- Enter every purchase with batch number and expiry date.
- Arrange shelves so the earliest expiry is in front.
- On a fixed day each month, review the near-expiry list and act on it.
- Check the short-items list before ordering from distributors.
- Count high-value items and compare with your records.
Following this routine every month protects your profit and your customers.
Want to see how the software handles batches and expiry? Visit the Pharmacy Software page for screenshots and the overview video, or message us on WhatsApp at 0333-7454059.
