Setting up dispensary items before the first sale

What a dispensing practice must get right when it creates medicines and consumables in the Item Master, since price, cost and VAT cannot be edited later.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 5 min read · For Healthcare businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

A dispensing practice sells more than consultations. There are chronic medicines handed over at the end of a visit, wound dressings, nebuliser masks, pregnancy tests, a shelf of over-the-counter items at reception. Before any of that can be rung up on Achekam's till, each one has to exist as an item in the Item Master.

That set-up deserves more care than it usually gets, for one reason: at the time of writing, no screen lets a business change a product's price, cost or VAT treatment after creating it, or deactivate it. A mistake made on the day you load the dispensary stays with that item. This article goes through what each item record holds and what to decide before you press save.

What each item record holds

The Item Master, in the Accounting menu, lists and creates products on the server with:

• SKU, the code the till uses to find the item.
• Name, which staff search by and patients see on receipts.
• Category, for grouping (chronic medicines, acute medicines, consumables, over-the-counter).
• Selling price and cost price.
• Opening quantity.
• VAT treatment.

The Item Master needs the Point of Sale, Warehousing or Wholesale add-on.

Decide the selling unit first

Medicines come in boxes, strips, bottles and single units, and the practice may sell some by the box and others by the strip. Because an item cannot be changed after it is created, each way you sell something needs its own item.

Put the strength and the pack size in the name, so the person at the till cannot pick the wrong one: a name that gives the medicine, its strength and "box of" a stated quantity is far safer than the medicine's name alone. If you sell the same medicine in two pack sizes, create two items with two SKUs.

Price, cost and VAT: right the first time

Price and cost

Check each selling price against your current price list and each cost price against the latest supplier invoice before saving. The cost price matters more than it looks: every till sale posts cost of sales against inventory at the product's cost price, and cost of sales uses that single typed figure, with no FIFO or weighted-average costing. A wrong cost misstates your dispensary margin for as long as the item is sold.

VAT treatment by country

• South Africa. Each till line is taxed at its product's own VAT rate, so a product set at 0% stays at 0%, and otherwise the line is taxed at the approved standard rate.
• Nigeria. Nigeria zero-rates medical and pharmaceutical products and medical services, among other items. Set each item's treatment with that in mind, and with your adviser for anything that may not count as medical, such as cosmetic products.
• Kenya. Agree each item's treatment with your accountant before creating it.

In Nigeria and Kenya, invoice lines carry a tax code (standard, zero-rated, exempt, out of scope or reverse charge) once the country pack is active; make the items you sell at the till consistent with the codes you use on invoices.

Why exempt items need care at the till

This is the trap specific to healthcare. At the time of writing, a product marked Exempt in the Item Master is recorded at the till, and on the VAT return, as zero-rated. The exempt or zero-rated choice is never saved on the product.

Zero-rated and exempt sales are not the same thing on a VAT return, and your accountant will want each reported as what it is. So if any item you sell is exempt in your country rather than zero-rated, do not assume the till will report it correctly. Agree with your accountant how those sales will be identified and corrected on the return, for example by keeping them in a category of their own that is easy to list.

Barcodes: make the SKU the number on the pack

No screen lets a business record a separate barcode, so a scanner at the till finds a product only when the scanned code matches its SKU. Many medicine packs carry a GS1 barcode. Typing the number under that barcode as the item's SKU gives the scanner something to match, and saves staff searching by name with a patient waiting. GS1 explains what a Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) is, which trade items need one, and the rules behind the product numbers on retail barcodes.

Opening quantities and the negative-stock setting

A till sale takes the sold quantity off stock in the same step, at the till's location, and refuses to take stock into negative quantities unless the business allows negative stock. For a dispensary, refusing negative stock is usually the safer choice: a sale that the till refuses is a prompt to check the shelf and the count, not something to override.

Enter accurate opening quantities, counted on the day. Note that opening quantities, stock counts, wastage and transfers do not post to the general ledger; only till sales and till returns move the inventory account. Ask your accountant to bring the opening value of the dispensary into the books with a journal.

A checklist before you create each item

• The selling unit and pack size are in the name.
• The SKU is the barcode number on the pack, where there is one.
• Selling price matches the price list; cost price matches the latest invoice.
• The VAT treatment is agreed with your accountant, with exempt items flagged.
• The opening quantity was counted, not estimated.
• A second person has checked the line before it is saved.

A worked example in words: a practice loads its chronic medicines on a quiet afternoon. The nurse reads each pack's barcode number, strength and pack size aloud; the practice manager types them in; the bookkeeper checks the cost against the supplier invoice and the VAT treatment against the list agreed with the accountant. Only then is each item saved.

Other industries face the same set-up decisions; stock codes, SKUs and barcodes for parts shows a workshop's version. What the patient receives at the end of the sale is covered in giving patients a proper receipt at reception.

Time spent on the Item Master before the first sale is time you will not spend unpicking margins and VAT returns afterwards. Decide the unit, check the numbers, flag the exempt items, and save each item once.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.