Choosing pharmacy software in Egypt: a checklist that fits how your pharmacy really works

You want pharmacy software that fits how your pharmacy really works: the Saturday-evening queue, the prescription that is half illegible, the item that is always missing, the inspector who asks for a record. Most buying mistakes happen because the pharmacist watches a polished demo of someone else's day. This article gives you a checklist built from your own workflow and from what Egyptian rules ask a pharmacy to record, with a test you can run on any product before you pay. It is general information, not legal advice; confirm any obligation with the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) or your accountant.

Step 1: Describe your own day first

Before you see any software, write down the eight things your pharmacy does most: selling over the counter, dispensing a prescription, selling a restricted item, receiving a supplier invoice, ordering, returning expired stock, closing the cash drawer, and answering "do you have this?" on the phone. Time yourself in the busiest hour. Every item below is judged against that list, not against the vendor's feature sheet.

Step 2: Barcode and point-of-sale speed

The counter is where software is won or lost. Test it with ten real items, including a box, a loose strip, an item with a damaged barcode and an item with no barcode at all.

• Does a scan add the line in under a second, with no mouse?
• Can you sell by box and by strip (the smallest unit of sale) from the same stock record?
• Can you find an item by trade name, active ingredient or the first letters you type?
• Can you hold one customer's bill while you serve another?

A newer point: the EDA's December 2025 guideline for the unified national electronic track-and-trace system describes a 2D Data Matrix code on the pack, and, as we read it, scanning the pack and recording a dispense event when a pharmacy dispenses. Which products and from what date apply to you is for the EDA to confirm, so ask each vendor: can your software and scanner read 2D Data Matrix codes today, and how will you support the track-and-trace system as it widens?

Step 3: Dispensing recorded against the prescription

A pharmacy that dispenses should be able to answer, months later, "what was dispensed, on which prescription, to whom, by whom". Check that the software can store the prescription reference, prescriber, patient, items, quantities and the pharmacist, and link each dispensed line to it.

The EDA gives a concrete example for medicines that may be misused (its guideline of 30 June 2026 lists them in an annex). For those, the pharmacy must check that the prescription is valid and complete before dispensing: diagnosis, treatment duration, patient and doctor details, and the quantity in words and numbers, signed and stamped by the doctor. It must stamp the prescription with the pharmacy stamp, dispense no more than one month of treatment at a time, and dispense against the same prescription no more than three times or the period written on it, whichever is less. Software cannot do the checking for you, but it can count how many times a prescription has been used and warn you at the limit. Ask the vendor to show that.

Step 4: Records for controlled and restricted medicines

For narcotic and psychotropic medicines, Decree 380 of 2009 requires a safe and secured place. For the medicines that may be misused, the same EDA guideline requires the pharmacy to record the movement of these items, incoming and outgoing, electronically or in a ledger, and to keep all invoices for them. Verify the annex for your items; do not assume a list.

What to look for in software:

• A flag on restricted items, with a separate stock balance for them.
• A movement report for any period: opening balance, received, dispensed, closing balance.
• The name of the user who dispensed, and a record that cannot be edited without a trace.
• Reports you can print for an inspection without asking the vendor.

Step 5: Supplier ordering and receiving

Software that only sells is half a pharmacy system. Ask to see: suggested orders from reorder points; the same item priced from two suppliers; receiving against a supplier invoice with batch number and expiry date entered at the door; and a supplier return of expired or damaged stock with a reason. The practices behind these are explained in Pharmacy stock and expiry management.

Step 6: Reports you can run without help

Ask the vendor to produce each of these live, in under a minute, from real data: sales by day and by shift, gross margin by item, items expiring in the next 90 days, items below their reorder point, slow movers with money tied up, purchases by supplier, restricted-item movement, and the cash close. If a report needs "a custom request", you will wait for it when you need it.

Step 7: E-receipt and e-invoice obligations

The Egyptian Tax Authority (ETA) defines the e-receipt as an electronic document that proves a sale of goods or services, covering business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, and runs it as a system separate from the e-invoice. The ETA's website carries an inquiry service for "taxpayers included in decisions of the electronic receipt system", which tells you the obligation is set by decision for named taxpayers rather than for everyone at once. The ETA also states that all taxpayers have been obligated to issue electronic tax invoices for services and goods since 15 December 2022. We could not verify from an official source a specific list or date for pharmacies, so do two things: check your tax registration number in the ETA inquiry, and ask your accountant.

For the software, the ETA publishes an eReceipt API through which a point-of-sale system submits signed receipts, and a list of approved POS devices whose serial numbers can be checked online. Ask the vendor:

• Is the software integrated with the ETA eReceipt system today, and can you name a pharmacy that issues receipts through it?
• Which POS devices or printers does it need, and are they on the ETA approved list?
• What happens to a receipt if the ETA service is unreachable? (The ETA's own documentation describes validations that can be done offline before storing receipts locally.)
• Who updates the software when the ETA changes its rules, and is that included in the price?

The wider background is in E-invoicing in Egypt: what your accounting system actually has to do.

Step 8: What happens when the internet drops

Decree 380 itself expects a pharmacy to have internet access and a computer program that keeps records and prescriptions, so connection is assumed; interruptions are still normal. Run this test in the demo: unplug the network, ring up five sales, plug it back in. The sales should be kept, the stock should be correct afterwards, and nothing should be duplicated. If the product only works online, ask what the pharmacy does for the hour the line is down.

Step 9: Who owns the data

Your sales, stock, supplier prices and prescription records are the most valuable thing the software holds. Before signing, get written answers to these:

• Can I export all my data (items, batches, sales, suppliers, prescriptions) to Excel or CSV at any time, without a fee?
• Where is it stored, who can see it, and how often is it backed up?
• What happens to the data and to my access if I stop paying, or the vendor closes?
• Does each pharmacist have their own login with a record of who did what?

Health information deserves extra care. Egypt's Personal Data Protection Law No. 151 of 2020 treats health data as sensitive personal data. In the English translation we read, Article 12 prohibits collecting or processing sensitive data without a licence from the Data Protection Center, except where the law expressly permits, and requires written, explicit consent otherwise. Whether and how this applies to your pharmacy's records is a question for a lawyer; the practical point is that a pharmacist should know where patient data lives. Having software built: how to make sure you actually own and control it goes deeper on ownership.

Step 10: Score it

Give each product 0 to 3 for each step above, then weight by what matters to you. A pharmacy that does heavy prescription work might weight Steps 3 and 4 double. Do not average away a zero: a product with no offline behaviour or no export is a zero that stays. For the method of comparing products on evidence rather than the demo, see How to compare business software on evidence, not on the demo.

The next step

Write your eight daily tasks, then give each shortlisted vendor the same ten-item counter test, the same five-sale offline test and the same list of reports, and score them the same day. Softwiro builds MyClinic (Sehaty), in which a pharmacy tracks stock per item with an alert before an item runs out, and records dispensing against the electronic prescription that authorised it. Its listed features do not include integration with ministry platforms or national e-prescription systems, so ask us, as you should ask any vendor, exactly what is and is not covered for e-receipts and track-and-trace. Contact us to see a demo against your own checklist.

Sources

• Ministerial Decree No. 380 of 2009, health requirements for pharmaceutical institutions — Egyptian Ministry of Health, hosted by the EDA. Secured place for narcotic and psychotropic medicines, and a computer program with internet access to keep records and prescriptions.
• Regulatory Guideline for the Import, Distribution, Monitoring and Dispensing of Products and Substances with Misuse Potential, 30 June 2026 — Egyptian Drug Authority (Arabic). Pharmacy duties: verify the prescription, stamp it, dispensing limits, and recording in and out movement with invoices.
• Regulatory Guideline for the Unified National Electronic Track-and-Trace System, 2025 — Egyptian Drug Authority (Arabic). The 2D Data Matrix code on the pack and the recording of dispense events.
• Egyptian Tax Authority home page and eReceipt API documentation — Egyptian Tax Authority. The e-receipt definition (B2C), the inquiry for taxpayers included in e-receipt decisions, approved POS devices, the 15 December 2022 e-invoice notice, and the API a POS system uses.
• Law No. 151 of 2020, Personal Data Protection (English translation) — Unofficial English translation hosted by a law firm. Sensitive personal data, including health data, and Article 12 on licence and consent.