Billing for your medical store in Andhra Pradesh
Orders to the agency, GST bills and a record of what came in and what went out, all on your phone.
What a medical counter in Andhra Pradesh orders, bills and keeps
Low stock warnings
A warning when a medicine that the whole lane is asking for is down to the last strip, while the agency can still reach you.
Credit book (khata)
A page for the tobacco grower's household that buys through the months before the money comes. Each month's bills go on it with their dates, so what waits for the tobacco money is one plain total.
Daily reports
Today's sales at a glance, and any earlier day looked up when an official asks to see it.
An order noted on arrival, a record one tap away, three names on one line, a warning before the shelf is bare
One medicine, three names, on one line of the shelf
Write the name on the box, the name the doctor writes and the name the customers ask for together in the item's name. The boy at the counter reads all three on one line and bills the packet that is in plain sight, instead of saying it is finished.
The day the inspector comes, the record is one tap away
When an official asks, you open the screen and hand it over, and the counter keeps serving. He reads the orders you sent to the agency with what arrived against each, and you take the next customer's strip.
A warning in the morning, an order to the agency before its van is gone
The doctors nearby write the same few strips for most patients, and the afternoon queue is the longest of the day. Ring the agency in the morning with the short list, while its delivery for that day can still be added, so the afternoon is served from a shelf that still has those strips.
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When the agency's lorry is short, the outpatient queue arrives together and an official asks for the record
The agency's delivery comes in the evening and the count differs
You tell the distribution agency what you need, usually on a call. The delivery comes late in the day, in a carton, with a bill. The driver has his next stop waiting and does not stay to count, and by the time you have a gap at the counter to open the carton, the boy who brought it has gone. A short carton is found a week later, when the agency has forgotten the call.
The record of what came in and what went out can be asked for any day
A medical store is a shop whose buying and sale records may be asked for by an official at any time. They sit in a register of what was bought, a sales book and a stack of bills from the agency, all in different places. On the day somebody asks, you spend hours bringing three books into one answer, with the counter waiting.
One medicine, three names, and the shelf knows only one
The doctor writes one name, the agency's bill another and the customer asks for a third. The medicine sits on the shelf under the name on its box. When a boy at the counter is asked by the customer's name, he says it is finished, and the packet is in plain sight under the other name.
Prawn ponds, tobacco barns and a port: the families behind the counter
A medical store sells to families, and what a family has in hand depends on its crop and its market. A shop owner sees it in what the customer can pay for.
- Prakasam farmers sell tobacco through Tobacco Board e-auctions at the Ongole platforms, and the 2017 season opened at up to Rs 161 per kg.
- Shrimp farmers in Nellore district depend on export demand, and in November 2022 shrimp prices fell there as exports dropped.
- Kakinada port plays the lead role in exporting rice to nearly 25 African countries, and also to China and Vietnam.
Questions from medical store owners in Andhra Pradesh
An inspector asks about a medicine I no longer stock. Can I show what came in and what sold?
Yes. The orders you sent and the arrivals you noted stay as they were, and any earlier day can be looked up with its bills. The shelf may be empty, but the record of that medicine is still there to read.
After the tobacco auction a grower's family buys the year's medicines in one visit. Can each person's strips be separate?
Yes. Put each person's strips on lines of their own, so the bill reads father, mother and child one after the other, and the family can see what each person's medicines cost.
A customer says the GST on medicines was cut and asks to see it on the bill. Can the bill show it?
Yes. Bills are made with the GST worked out on them, so the amount she pays and the GST in it are both written on the bill that goes to her phone.
A raid on records and a cut in GST
In September 2026 the Andhra Pradesh Drugs Control Administration raided medical distribution agencies in Visakhapatnam and checked their records of medicines bought and sold. Records of what came in and what went out are what such a check reads, and a store that keeps them in one place has less to carry to the counter that day.
In September 2025 the Andhra Pradesh chief minister announced a door-to-door campaign to tell people about the GST cut on medicines and other articles. People at the door and customers at the counter ask the same thing afterwards: what does the bill say?