Rwanda · Pharmacy
A pharmacy shelf that reconciles, batch by batch
Two boxes of the same medicine with different batches and different expiry dates are different stock. A single product-level quantity cannot say that, which is how expired product ends up at the front of a shelf.
Rwandan pharmacy adds two things on top. A large share of dispensing is covered in part by a health insurance scheme, so a single sale is routinely split between what the patient pays and what is claimed — two amounts, one transaction, both of which have to be tracked.
And the EBM regime cares what you bought and what you still hold, so a pharmacy's stock position is not just an operational matter.
What you get
What a pharmacy in Rwanda actually needs
Batch numbers and expiry dates
Stock held per batch, oldest dispensed first, with expiry reports at 30, 60 and 90 days ranked by value. Short-dated product is a decision, not an accident.
Split payments on one sale
A patient portion and a covered portion recorded against the same dispensing event, so what was collected at the counter and what is outstanding elsewhere are separate, visible numbers.
Dispensing by unit
Buy by the box, dispense by the strip or the tablet, with the conversion on the product so the stock figure holds.
Purchases with costs
Deliveries recorded against suppliers in francs, giving your input side substance and your closing stock something to reconcile against.
Customer and dispensing history
What a returning patient was given and when — for repeats, and for the conversations that follow them.
An audit trail on adjustments
Write-offs, returns and corrections recorded with a name, a time and a reason, so a stock variance has a shape rather than a shrug.
Rwanda FDA, insurance splits, and EBM's interest in your stock
Pharmacies in Rwanda operate under Rwanda FDA regulation, and the practical demand on a POS is precision: which product, which batch, which expiry, dispensed when and by whom. A pooled product-level quantity cannot answer those questions.
The insurance layer is the operational difference from the markets next door. When a large share of dispensing is partly covered, every sale has two sides — collected now and claimed later — and a till that records only the cash taken systematically understates what was dispensed. The stock went out either way.
Then EBM, which is interested in purchases and holdings as well as sales. A pharmacy with accurate batch-level stock and recorded purchases can reconcile all three; one working from a product-level guess cannot. sell.ke is not an EBM, does not transmit to RRA and is not an insurance claims system — it is the record that makes all three positions consistent.
- Stock identified by batch and expiry, not just by product
- Patient and covered portions recorded against the same dispensing event
- Purchases recorded with costs, so closing stock reconciles
- Named, timestamped trail on write-offs and corrections
One dispensing event, two payers
A patient is dispensed a course costing RWF 12,400. RWF 2,480 is collected at the counter and RWF 9,920 is covered. One dispensing event, one stock movement, two amounts — recorded as such, so the day's cash and the day's dispensing stop being the same figure by accident.
The stock side runs from the batch. The course comes from the batch expiring in seven months, because that is the one the till selects. The newer batch behind it is untouched and will not quietly outlive it.
Across the month the pharmacy dispensed RWF 9.8m of product while collecting RWF 3.1m at the counter. A till that only knows the collected figure would show a business a third of its real size, with a stock position that makes no sense against its purchases — which is exactly the inconsistency the EBM regime is designed to notice.
The expiry report flags RWF 184,000 of product due within 90 days. Early enough to raise a supplier return; late enough to be worth doing this week.
Questions
Pharmacy in Rwanda — questions
Can it record a sale that is partly covered by insurance?
Yes. The patient portion and the covered portion are recorded against the same dispensing event, so stock moves once and the two amounts stay separate. sell.ke is not a claims system and does not submit to any scheme — it keeps your side of the record straight, which is what makes the claim and the stock agree.
Does it track batch numbers and expiry?
Yes, and it is the core of the pharmacy case. Stock is held per batch with its own expiry, the oldest batch dispenses first, and expiry reports show what is due at 30, 60 and 90 days ranked by value.
How does this help with EBM?
EBM is interested in purchases and holdings as well as sales, and a pharmacy's stock is the figure most likely to be unprovable. Recording deliveries with costs and letting stock follow from purchases and dispensing gives you a position that reconciles. The invoice itself is still issued through EBM — sell.ke does not transmit to RRA.
We buy boxes and dispense strips. Does the stock stay right?
Yes. The conversion sits on the product, so a box of twenty-four is held as twenty-four units and dispensing six leaves eighteen.
Does everything run in francs?
Yes — prices, costs, stock values and reports are all in RWF. Subscription billing is quoted in KES; talk to the team about settlement in francs.
Do I need internet?
Not to keep selling. Offline mode lets the till take sales, print receipts and reserve stock while the connection is down, then syncs everything when it returns. You do need connectivity for the parts that are inherently online: an M-Pesa STK push, an eTIMS submission and the online shop all need a live link.
How long does setup take?
A single-counter duka is usually selling the same day. The work is the product list, not the software: import a CSV or let Amina create products from a supplier invoice or a photo of your price list. A multi-branch business with thousands of SKUs, opening stock counts and an eTIMS enrolment should plan a week and run the old system in parallel for a fortnight.
Can I stop staff from giving discounts or deleting sales?
Yes. Discounts, voids and refunds sit behind a manager PIN, and every one of them records who authorised it and when. Staff accounts carry role permissions, so a cashier can sell without seeing cost prices, editing products or opening reports. A void that reverses stock is a movement in the audit trail, not a gap in it.
Other trades in Rwanda
Supermarket POS (Rwanda)
MoMo-first checkout under a regime that cross-checks your stock against your sales.
Restaurant POS (Rwanda)
MoMo-settled bills, recipes that move stock, and an EBM invoice for the table that needs one.
Hardware shop POS (Rwanda)
Contractors on credit, units that convert, and a purchase record EBM can be reconciled against.
The features this leans on
Each one goes deeper than this page does.
Stock you can trust
Batch and expiry, serial numbers, reorder levels, stock takes and the formulas behind them.
Customers and loyalty
Credit accounts that do not go missing, loyalty that returns, and a debtor list you can actually chase.
Selling at the counter
Split payments, held orders, manager-gated discounts and a drawer count that reconciles.
Reports and real accounting
Double-entry books — trial balance, P&L, balance sheet — not a CSV export to somebody else's software.
Pharmacy POS in other markets
Pharmacy POS (Uganda)
Batch and expiry under NDA licensing, dispensing by strip, and EFRIS on the invoice.
Pharmacy POS (Tanzania)
Batch and expiry for a TMDA-regulated shelf, dispensing by unit, fiscal receipt at the counter.
Pharmacy
Batch numbers and expiry dates, the expiry report, dispensing by strip or tablet.
What this actually fixes
The problems underneath, and the rails and revenue authority you deal with.
Dead stock and expiry
The shelves are full and the bank is empty. That is not a coincidence.
Customers who buy on credit
The debtors book is where a profitable shop runs out of cash. How to lend without bleeding.
Stock takes that close the shop
Counting everything on a Sunday finds the loss months late. Count less, far more often.
EBM and your stock (Rwanda)
EBM asks what you bought, sold and still hold. Most shops can only answer one of the three.
MTN MoMo at the till
Every MoMo payment attached to the sale that earned it, instead of a statement you read at night.
Try it in your Rwanda shop
Fourteen days, no card, no hardware to buy. Your prices, stock, costs and reports all run in RWF.