User guide
Running your pharmacy on the cockpit
This guide is for the people who use the system every day: the pharmacist, the dispensing technician, the cashier, the stock controller, the claims officer and the branch manager. It explains what each screen is for, who can open it, and what a normal working day looks like from order to settlement.
In this guide
- What this system is
- Getting in
- Who sees what
- The working day, stage by stage
- Screen by screen
- The two things this is really for
- What this system does not do
- Getting help
OneWhat this system is
The cockpit is one place to write down what your pharmacy did, so that later you can find it again. Every screen is a table of your own records: what you ordered, what arrived, what is on the shelf, what was dispensed, what was charged, what you claimed from a scheme, and what the scheme actually paid. It records and it reconciles — it does not stand between you and the counter, and it does not decide anything for you.
That last sentence matters more than anything else in this guide, so it has its own section near the end. Read What this system does not do before you build a habit around a screen.
TwoGetting in
Signing in
There are two ways in, and both land you in the same place.
-
Email and password. Go to
/login, enter the email address your pharmacy registered for you and your password. -
A 6-character access code. Go to
/login/codeand type the six characters into the six boxes. The code carries your role with it, so you do not choose a role after signing in — the code already knows which one you are. This is the quicker option on a shared counter machine or a phone.
Whichever you use, sign out with /logout when you leave the machine. On a shared
till or a shared dispensary terminal this is not optional: everything you record is recorded
under whoever is signed in.
What you see first
After signing in you land on a launcher with five cards — Dashboard, Dispensing, Stock & expiry, Insurance claims, and Till. These are shortcuts to the busiest screens. Cards for screens your role cannot open do not take you anywhere.
The sidebar
The full list of screens lives in a left sidebar. It starts hidden, so if the screen looks bare, open the sidebar — you have not lost anything. Your browser remembers whether you left it open or closed, per device. The sidebar is grouped into nine sections in the order the working day runs: Overview, Dispensing, Retail, Stock, Insurance, Data, Setup, People, Admin.
Two labels you will see on many screens
Screens that sit on a stage of the dispensing lifecycle carry a strip of stage cards across the top. It is marked “Page context · not record status”. That strip tells you where this screen sits in the wider flow and who owns the stages before and after it. It is a map, not a status — it is not telling you anything about the row you are looking at.
Most data screens also carry an amber panel headed “Planned · not connected”. That panel is being honest with you: the screen is a table you type into, and there is no automatic step behind it that assigns work, approves a payment or files a claim onward. It lists the details the stage is supposed to leave behind so you know what to type in. Nothing on that panel is broken.
ThreeWho sees what
Ten roles are defined. Your role decides which screens appear in your sidebar and whether you can add or change records or only read them. A screen that is not on your list is not on your list — typing its address will not get you in.
| Role | What they do | Screens they can open |
|---|---|---|
| Administrator | Full access, including Settings. Usually the owner or the person who set the system up. | All twenty-five. |
| Pharmacist | Verifies the prescription, dispenses, and signs the controlled register. Can add, change and delete records. | Dashboard, Process, Formulary, Stock on hand, Expiry & recalls, Prescriptions, Dispensing log, Controlled register, Scheme members, Claims, Documents, Reports, Statistics, Calendar. |
| Dispensing technician | Takes in the prescription and prepares the items. Can add and change records, but not delete them. | Dashboard, Process, Formulary, Stock on hand, Prescriptions, Dispensing log, Documents, Calendar. |
| Cashier | Confirms cover, takes the co-pay and closes the sale. Can add and change records, but not delete them. | Dashboard, Formulary, Stock on hand, Scheme members, Till & sales, Returns. |
| Stock controller | Orders, receives and shelves stock against batch and expiry. Can add, change and delete records. | Dashboard, Process, Formulary, Suppliers, Goods received, Stock on hand, Expiry & recalls, Branch transfers, Data entry, Documents, Reports. |
| Claims officer | Submits scheme claims and reconciles remittances. Can add, change and delete records. | Dashboard, Process, Insurance schemes, Scheme members, Claims, Remittances, Documents, Reports, Statistics. |
| Branch manager | Reviews expiry, recalls, variance and branch performance. Can add, change and delete records. | Everything except the Controlled register, Data entry and Settings — twenty-two screens in all. |
| Viewer | Read-only. For someone who needs to look without being able to change anything. | Dashboard, Process, Stock on hand, Expiry & recalls, Documents, Statistics, Reports. |
| Supplier | Read-only, for an outside supplier. Delivers ordered lines with batch numbers and expiry dates. | Goods received, Documents. |
| Insurance scheme | Read-only, for an outside scheme. Adjudicates the claim and remits settlement. | Claims, Remittances, Documents. |
Two things worth knowing before you assign roles. The Cashier does not get the Process screen, so a cashier cannot open the map of the whole flow even though the cashier owns two of its stages. And the Branch manager does not get the Controlled register — that screen is for the Pharmacist and the Administrator only. Both are deliberate. If they do not suit your pharmacy, the role lists are configuration and can be changed.
FourThe working day, stage by stage
The dispensing lifecycle has twelve stages. Each one names the person accountable for it, the screen where it is written down, and what it should leave behind before the work moves on. You can see this whole list on the Process screen at any time.
Read this once
“Leaves behind” is a checklist for you, not a gate. The system does not check that you filled anything in, and it will not stop you moving to the next stage with a field blank. Nothing here refuses a dispense, blocks a sale or holds a claim. The list exists so that when someone asks you in three months what happened, the answer is in the record instead of in somebody's memory.
Order
You decide what to buy and from whom. Record the order against the supplier while it is still fresh, not when the delivery arrives.
Goods received
The delivery arrives. This is the single most valuable minute of the whole day, because the batch number and the expiry date are printed on the box in front of you and nowhere else. If you do not capture them here, the Expiry screen has nothing to work with later.
Shelved
The stock goes onto a shelf, and the record follows it. Say which branch and where in that branch, and carry the batch and expiry across from the delivery so the shelf record and the box agree.
Presented
A patient hands over a prescription. Take it in on the Prescriptions screen and queue it. The point of recording it at the moment it arrives, rather than at the moment it is dispensed, is that you can then see how long people are actually waiting.
Verified
The pharmacist checks the prescription and records that they did. Same screen as the previous stage — you are updating the prescription, not creating a second one. If you have to ring the prescriber, mark it queried so the queue shows why it is standing still.
Cover confirmed
Before anything is handed over, settle who is paying. Look the patient up on Scheme members and record the scheme, their member reference, the benefit that applies and the co-pay they owe. If they are paying cash, mark it cash and move on — that is a valid answer and recording it saves an argument later.
Dispensed
The medicine is handed over and the dispense is logged. Record the batch you actually took off the shelf, not the batch you expected to take. This is the line that lets you find every patient who received a batch if that batch is later recalled.
Register entry
For a controlled item, the register entry follows the dispense immediately. That is why this screen sits directly under the Dispensing log in the sidebar — a register kept somewhere else gets written up late, or not at all. Record the schedule, the balance before, the balance after, and who signed.
Charged
Money changes hands. Record the receipt number, how it was paid and how much. The tender matters: it is what lets you separate a full cash sale from a co-pay whose balance you are going to claim.
Claimed
You send the claim to the scheme the way you already send it — by portal, by email, on paper. Then you record it here: the claim reference, which scheme, how much, and the date it went. When the scheme comes back, update the status on the same row.
Settled
The scheme pays. Record the remittance reference, what was actually paid, the date, and — this is the one that pays for itself — the variance between what you claimed and what arrived. See section six.
Reviewed
A standing review rather than a one-off step. Someone senior goes through what is close to expiry, what has expired, what has been recalled and what was sent back, decides what to do about each, and records who authorised it. Put it in the diary weekly — nothing in the system will remind you.
FiveScreen by screen
Twenty-five screens, in the nine sidebar groups. Most of them work the same way, so learn one and you have learned them all.
How a data screen works
A data screen shows your records as a table. Across the top there is a search box, up to four filter buttons, a More filters menu for every other column, and a Columns menu for choosing what to show. Click a row to open it. To add a record, use the + New button in the top right — it is labelled with the thing you are adding, so on the Formulary it reads + New product.
Three things about filters are worth knowing. They match on the text you type, so typing
Main in a Branch filter finds every branch whose name contains it. A filter
button only appears if your data actually has a column of that name — if you never
imported an expiry-date column, no expiry filter will be there to click. And the page keeps
your filters in the address bar, so you can bookmark a filtered view or send it to a
colleague and they will see exactly what you saw.
If a screen says “No data yet”, the table, the detail view and the entry form all appear as soon as the source is imported. If it says you have read access only, your role does not carry the permission to write to that screen.
Overview
Dashboard
Your front page. It carries the stage rail across the top, so it is a quick way into any stage of the flow. It does not yet show tiles or charts of its own for this vertical — for numbers, use Statistics and Reports.
Process
The whole twelve-stage lifecycle on one page, in order: who owns each stage, who supports them, what it leaves behind, and which statuses it can carry. A stage you cannot reach is marked Not your role, and a stage recorded on an ordinary table is marked Recorded on a table. Send a new member of staff here on their first morning.
Dispensing
Prescriptions
Prescriptions taken in, from arrival through verification. Stages four and five.
Dispensing log
Every dispense, with the batch it came from. Stage seven, and the record a recall is traced through.
Controlled register
Register entries for controlled items, with balance before and after and the signature. Stage eight. Pharmacist and Administrator only.
Retail
Till & sales
Sales and co-pays as they are taken. Stage nine.
Returns
Anything coming back over the counter, with the reason it came back.
Stock
Goods received
Delivery lines as they arrive, with batch, expiry, quantity and condition. Stage two.
Stock on hand
What is on the shelf, by branch and by batch. Stage three.
Expiry & recalls
Batches near expiry, expired, recalled or returned. Stage twelve. See section six.
Branch transfers
Stock moved between your branches. Useful in its own right, and the usual first answer when something is about to expire in one branch and is selling in another.
Insurance
Scheme members
Who is covered, by which scheme, for what benefit. Stage six — the screen the cashier checks before handing anything over.
Claims
Claims you have submitted and where each one stands. Stage ten.
Remittances
What each scheme actually paid, and the difference from what you claimed. Stage eleven. See section six.
Data
Data entry
Source records brought in from elsewhere, before they are worked into the screens above. Stock controller and Administrator.
Documents
Your document register — delivery notes, scheme correspondence, anything you need to find again by type, branch or scheme.
Statistics
Recorded measures by branch, product and date.
Reports
Your report register: which report, its status, who owns it and when it is due.
Setup
Formulary
Your product list — the spine everything else hangs off. Get the generic name, form and schedule right here and every screen downstream becomes easier to search.
Branches
Your branches. Administrator and Branch manager.
Suppliers
Who you buy from, and where orders are recorded. Stage one.
Insurance schemes
The schemes you deal with and their settlement terms. Claims officer, Branch manager and Administrator.
People
Users & roles
A read-only view of which role may open which screen, plus the audit trail of who did what, when and where. Use it to check an access question or to answer one. Note that this screen shows access — it is not where accounts are created.
Calendar
Reserved. It appears in the sidebar but has no content in this version.
Admin
Settings
Administrator only. Your pharmacy's own details and the master data behind the cockpit. Every change here is validated and recorded.
SixThe two things this is really for
Everything above is bookkeeping. These two are where the bookkeeping turns into money you keep. Both are quiet losses — nobody notices them happening, which is exactly why they keep happening.
Catching expiry before it costs you
Stock written off at quarter end was visible months earlier. It was visible on the day it was delivered, in fact — the expiry date was printed on the box. The reason it turns into a write-off is that nobody could ask the question “what expires in the next ninety days?” without walking the shelves.
Expiry & recalls is that question as a screen. Filter by expires within to see what is running out of time, by branch to see where, and by status to separate what is merely near expiry from what has already gone. Thirty days is the panic window; ninety days is the useful one, because ninety days is enough time to actually do something — discount it, move it to a branch that is selling it through Branch transfers, or agree a return with the supplier.
This only works if two things are true. The expiry date has to have been captured at Goods received, and somebody has to actually look. Make the review a fixed slot in someone's week — that is stage twelve, and it is owned by the branch manager for a reason.
Catching a short-paid remittance
A scheme that pays less than you claimed has taken money out of your pocket for medicine you have already handed over and cannot get back. Short payments are close to invisible, because a remittance arrives as one lump sum covering many claims. Unless somebody matches each remittance back to the claims it was meant to settle, a shortfall looks exactly like a payment.
That is why Remittances asks for four things and not two: the remittance reference, the amount paid, the date, and the variance. The variance field is the whole point of the screen. Work it out against the claims the remittance covers, write it down, and mark the row short paid rather than remitted.
Once you are doing that, filtering Remittances by variance and by scheme tells you which schemes underpay, by how much and how often — which is the evidence you need to go back to them. Mark a row written off only when you have genuinely decided to stop chasing it, so that the write-offs stay visible as a number instead of disappearing.
Do the matching yourself. The system stores the claim and it stores the remittance; it does not compare them for you and will not tell you a payment was short.
SevenWhat this system does not do
This section exists so that you find out here rather than at the counter. The cockpit records and reconciles. It does not enforce.
- It does not block a dispense. There is no rule that stops you recording a dispense against an expired batch, an unverified prescription, a patient whose cover was declined, or stock the system thinks you do not have. The professional judgement is yours; the system writes down what you decided.
- It does not lock the controlled register. The Controlled register is a table with the right columns on it. Entries can be edited by anyone whose role can write to it. It is not a tamper-proof record and it does not replace whatever register you are required to keep.
- It does not send claims to a scheme. Nothing is transmitted electronically to any insurer. You submit claims the way you already do, and the Claims screen records that you did. The same is true in reverse for remittances.
- There is no clinical decision support. No interaction checking, no dose checking, no allergy alerts, no contraindication warnings. The interaction check and dose check on stage five are places to record that you did the check.
- There is no link to e-prescribing. Prescriptions are entered by hand from whatever the patient hands over.
- It does not calculate stock levels, expiry windows or claim variances for you. The screens hold what you typed and let you filter it. Arithmetic between screens — claimed against paid, ordered against received — is yours to do.
- It does not carry a regulatory certification. It has not been certified or approved by any regulator or professional body, and using it does not by itself satisfy any record-keeping obligation you are under. Keep whatever records the law requires of you.
- It does not chase anybody. There are no reminders, no escalations and no alerts. Nothing will tell you a batch is expiring, a claim is unanswered or a prescription has been sitting in the queue since Tuesday. Someone has to open the screen.
None of this makes the cockpit less useful. A pharmacy that loses money to expiry and to short-paid claims does not lose it because a system failed to block something — it loses it because nobody could see the position in one place. That is the problem this solves. It is worth being clear about which problem that is.
EightGetting help
Work through it in this order. Most questions stop at the first or second step.
- A screen is missing from your sidebar. Check section three. Almost always your role does not carry it. Your administrator can confirm on the Users & roles screen.
- The page looks empty. The sidebar starts hidden — open it. If the table itself is empty, the screen will say “No data yet”, which means the source has not been imported yet, not that something has broken.
- You cannot add or change a record. If the page says you have read access only, your role carries read permission and not write. That is a role change, not a fault.
- A filter button you expected is not there. The button only appears when your data has a column of that name. Ask whoever set up the import.
- An amber “Planned · not connected” panel. Not a fault. See section two.
- The page says it could not reach the operations backend. Wait a moment and reload. If it persists, tell your administrator — that one is a real fault and it is not yours to fix.
- Anything else. Your administrator first; they can raise it onward. Say which screen you were on, what you clicked and what you expected instead — that turns a half-hour of guessing into five minutes.
Written against the pharmacy operations profile as it stands. Screens, roles and stages are configuration: if your pharmacy's setup differs from this guide, your setup is what is true.