Batch selection (FEFO)

‹Draft — replace with a real story from our floor.› Expiry write-offs are real money in a pharmacy, and an expired pack reaching a patient is worse than money. At our own counters we learned you can’t leave batch choice to whoever grabs the nearest box. So the counter chooses for you — oldest-to-expire, first out.

The problem

Pharmacy stock has batches and expiry dates. If the counter lets a cashier sell any batch — or just the most recently received one — near-expiry stock sits on the shelf until it’s written off, and in the worst case an expired pack goes out the door. Manual batch selection on every line is also slow, and slow is the enemy at a queue.

How the Smart Counter solves it

The counter selects the batch automatically: earliest expiry first (FEFO), then oldest stock. The cashier doesn’t have to think about it on a normal sale — the right batch is already chosen. When a specific batch genuinely needs to be dispensed (the physical pack in the customer’s hand differs), the cashier can override it on the line — but the safe default is the default.

What makes it different

FEFO-by-default is the difference between software that knows it’s selling medicine and software that treats every SKU like a tin of beans. It quietly reduces expiry write-offs and protects patients without adding a step — a default we chose because we carry the write-offs ourselves.

When it doesn’t apply

• You deliberately need a different batch → change the batch on the line.
• The selected batch always shows on the cart line; to also print it on the receipt, see Print a receipt.