Tanzania · Pharmacy & duka la dawa
A pharmacy shelf you can account for, batch by batch
In a pharmacy, two boxes of the same product are not the same stock. Different batch, different expiry, different risk — and a single product-level quantity cannot express that.
Tanzanian pharmacy adds a layer. A Part II pharmacy in Dar and an accredited drug dispensing outlet upcountry hold different ranges under different TMDA conditions, and a business running both has to keep them straight while sharing suppliers, staff and money.
Then there is the counter itself: tablets sold by the strip, a fiscal receipt per sale, and four wallets taking the money.
What you get
What a pharmacy in Tanzania actually needs
Batch and expiry on every line
Stock held per batch with its own expiry date, oldest batch dispensed first by default. Short-dated product leaves the shelf in time instead of becoming a write-off and a risk.
Expiry reports at 30, 60 and 90 days
Ranked by value, so a clearance or a supplier return is decided with months of notice rather than on the morning the stock dies.
Dispensing by strip or tablet
Buy by the box, sell by the unit, and keep the stock figure correct in both. The conversion lives on the product.
Separate outlets, shared catalogue
A pharmacy and a dispensing outlet hold their own stock and their own ranges under one account, with permissions and reporting per location.
Four rails at the counter
M-Pesa, Mixx by Yas, Airtel Money, HaloPesa and cash each recorded against the sale, so the day splits by rail rather than by guesswork.
A defensible stock position
Purchases recorded with costs, write-offs recorded as write-offs with a name attached, and adjustments in an audit trail — so a shortfall is a number with a shape.
TMDA conditions, fiscal receipts, and your own records
Pharmacies and accredited dispensing outlets in Tanzania operate under TMDA regulation, and the conditions differ by outlet class — what may be stocked, what may be dispensed and by whom. A business running more than one class of outlet is effectively running two different ranges under one roof of suppliers and staff.
What that asks of a POS is not regulatory certification. It is the ability to answer precisely: which product, from which batch, with which expiry, at which outlet, dispensed by whom. A product-level stock figure pooled across outlets cannot answer any of that.
Alongside it sits the ordinary fiscal obligation — a receipt for every sale from your registered device. sell.ke does not issue that receipt and does not transmit to TRA. It holds the record that makes the receipt explainable and the shelf defensible.
- Stock identified by batch and expiry, per outlet
- Purchase and dispensing units reconciled on the product
- Write-offs and adjustments recorded with a name and a reason
- Fiscal receipt still issued through your registered EFD or VFD
Two outlets, one short-dated delivery
A Dar pharmacy and its upcountry dispensing outlet share a supplier. A delivery of 60 boxes of an antimalarial at TZS 4,800 arrives split across two batches — 22 boxes expiring in four months, 38 in thirteen.
Received by batch, the short-dated 22 are visible immediately. The pharmacy sells faster, so 14 of them transfer to the Dar branch as a recorded movement, leaving the slower outlet with the long-dated stock. By the 90-day mark, three boxes remain on the expiry report at TZS 14,400 — small enough to clear, and known about early enough to clear it.
Without batch tracking, those 60 boxes are one quantity in one place. The newest arrivals go to the front, the short-dated ones work their way to the back, and TZS 105,600 of stock expires on a shelf while an identical, newer box sits in front of it.
The six-tablet sale works the same way: a box of twenty-four is held as twenty-four units, dispensing six leaves eighteen, and the fiscal receipt, the shelf and the stock figure all agree.
Questions
Pharmacy in Tanzania — questions
Can it track batches and expiry dates?
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 coming due at 30, 60 and 90 days ranked by value. Write-offs are recorded as such, with a name and a reason, so the stock position stays defensible.
We run a pharmacy and a dispensing outlet. Can both be on one account?
Yes. They share a catalogue and a supplier list but hold their own stock, their own ranges and their own reporting, with permissions per location. A transfer between them is a recorded movement with two ends, which matters when the stock being moved is dated.
We buy boxes and sell strips. Does that work?
Yes. The conversion is set on the product, so a box of twenty-four is held as twenty-four units. You buy in the unit the supplier invoices and sell in the unit the customer asks for, and the stock figure is right in both.
Does sell.ke issue the fiscal receipt?
No. The receipt is still issued through your registered EFD or VFD. sell.ke is the record behind it — what was dispensed, from which batch, at what cost, paid on which rail — which is the part the device cannot provide and an inspection cares about.
What happens when the network is down?
The counter keeps dispensing. Sales, stock movements and batch selection all work offline and sync when the connection returns, which matters most at the outlets where connectivity is least reliable.
Can I use it for more than one shop?
Yes. Branches share one product catalogue but hold their own stock, so a transfer between them is a recorded movement rather than a re-count. Reports run per branch or across all of them, and staff permissions are set per branch — a Kisumu supervisor does not need to see Nairobi's margins.
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.
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 Tanzania
Supermarket POS (Tanzania)
Four wallets at every till and a fiscal receipt that has to describe real goods.
Restaurant POS (Tanzania)
A fiscal receipt per bill, recipes that deduct real stock, and a table paying on four wallets.
Wholesale POS (Tanzania)
Cartons in, pieces out, retailers on credit, and prices that move with every container.
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.
Selling at the counter
Split payments, held orders, manager-gated discounts and a drawer count that reconciles.
Branches, staff and control
Shared catalogue, separate stock, transfers that are movements, and permissions per branch.
Buying, suppliers and approvals
Purchase orders, goods-received notes, supplier bills and the cost figure every margin depends on.
Pharmacy POS in other markets
Pharmacy POS (Uganda)
Batch and expiry under NDA licensing, dispensing by strip, and EFRIS on the invoice.
Pharmacy POS (Rwanda)
Batch and expiry, insurance-split payments, and a stock position EBM can be reconciled against.
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.
Stock takes that close the shop
Counting everything on a Sunday finds the loss months late. Count less, far more often.
The second shop
The second branch is where most retail businesses discover their systems were held together by the owner.
EFD and VFD receipts (Tanzania)
Stop the fiscal receipt and the shop's own record from describing two different days.
Airtel Money at the till
The second rail is a third of your takings and usually a separate book. It should not be.
Try it in your Tanzania shop
Fourteen days, no card, no hardware to buy. Your prices, stock, costs and reports all run in TZS.