What small clinics need to track
- ✓ What medicines are in stock (with quantities)
- ✓ What was dispensed to which patient
- ✓ Expiry dates
- ✓ Reorder points
- ✓ Total value of inventory (for accounting)
The simple inventory system
- 1 Master list — Every medicine you stock, with quantity on hand, unit price, expiry date
- 2 Dispense log — Each dispense recorded with patient name, date, quantity
- 3 Purchase log — Each new stock addition with vendor, quantity, date, expiry
- 4 Weekly reconciliation — Physical count matches system count
- 5 Monthly reorder — Anything at 30% of usual stock triggers reorder decision
Expiry monitoring
- ✓ Every medicine in system has expiry date
- ✓ Weekly alert: medicines expiring in next 60 days
- ✓ Return or use policy: expiring in 30 days → prioritize dispense or return
- ✓ Zero-tolerance for dispensing expired medicines
When to graduate to pharmacy software
- ✓ Dispensing 100+ items per day → dedicated pharmacy software needed
- ✓ Multiple dispensing locations → pharmacy chain software
- ✓ B2B pharma sales → wholesale-capable software
For most small clinics dispensing 10-30 items daily, basic inventory tracking (spreadsheet or clinic software module) is sufficient.