Billing for your medical store in Meghalaya
A prescription you could only half fill, the shelf in the wet months, and a medicine two days away.
The second bill under the same name, a market-day list packed ahead, and a special medicine on its way
The three medicines still to come, on a second bill under her name
Choose one spelling of her name and keep it, so that her page is always the same page. Make the first bill for the five medicines she took, and when the other three arrive, make a second bill under that same name. When she comes on the next market day you open the page and the three are waiting for her.
The market-day list, packed before she reaches the counter
A family sends its list from the shop's own online page the evening before the market. The order arrives on your phone, and you pack the medicines at leisure. When she reaches the counter after the long walk, the parcel is ready and the bill is made, and the queue behind her does not wait. The market-day walk is long, and a customer who finds her list ready tells her neighbours.
A special medicine that took four days and not two, because of the landslide
A medicine not on your shelf goes on the order to the wholesaler with the customer's name, and it comes by the shared taxi in two days. When a landslide holds the taxi, the two days become four, and the customer who was told a day hears from you on the day the box really arrives, because the order names her.
Farming families, an industrial estate and a jackfruit unit: who a Meghalaya medical shop serves
A medical shop serves everybody in its district, and these two show who they are.
- In Ri Bhoi's Umling block the main occupation is cultivation, and Byrnihat has an industrial estate, so a medical shop there sees farmers and factory workers alike.
- A jackfruit processing unit opened at Rongara in South Garo Hills in February 2024, and the state says about 8,000 farmers will earn more from it.
Three spellings of one name, a parcel up the road, and a medicine that a landslide delays
Three spellings of one name, and a paper with only five of eight medicines
The same patient is written one way on the hospital paper, another in your notebook and a third in the cousin's message, because Khasi and Garo names are spelled in more than one way. And the paper has eight medicines, of which you have five. She takes the five and says she will come on the next market day, and a week later you cannot tell which three she is waiting for.
A relative in a far village needs medicines, and only a taxi goes there
A family up the hill cannot come down. A neighbour or a taxi driver carries a paper up the road and a parcel back. The paper is written from memory, the parcel is packed from your shelf, and nobody records what went in it. When the money comes, you and the family have two different ideas of what it is for. A parcel that goes up on Monday and is paid for on Saturday leaves five days for the memory of it to fade.
A medicine comes by shared taxi in two days, and a landslide makes it four
Some medicines are not stocked in the village at all. They come from the wholesaler in Shillong in a shared taxi, two days after you call, and when a landslide shuts the road it is four. The customer waits, you note it on a slip, and when the box arrives you cannot find the slip. The customer is not told it came.
Tools for a medical shop a long taxi ride from its wholesaler
Bills on your phone
A second bill under a customer's name for the three medicines that came later, found by her name when she returns. Her page keeps both bills side by side, with the day each was made.
Low stock warnings
A higher warning point for the cough syrups and vapour rubs in the weeks of fog, set once, before the cold comes.
Online orders
The parcel for the shared taxi that goes up the hill road is packed from the order on your phone, and the driver takes it before he leaves.
Questions Meghalaya medical shops ask
A cousin sends a name by message and the hospital paper spells it differently. Which spelling goes on the page?
Put the spelling on the hospital paper as the page's name and add the cousin's spelling after it. A search on either finds the same page, and no second page is opened.
I run a Jan Aushadhi Kendra beside my own shop. Can the two stocks stay apart?
Yes. Treat them as two shops under one account, each with its own stock and its own sales, and read both without going from one counter to the other. The Kendra's generics and your own branded medicines are never counted together.
A mother new to my shop wants the syrup that worked last winter. How do I find which one it was?
If she bought from you last winter, her page has it. If she did not, ask the name on the old bottle and enter it as an item with its own count, so the next time she is a few taps away.
Malaria seasons and Jan Aushadhi in Meghalaya
Malaria occurs throughout the year in Meghalaya, with spikes between May and July that can continue into September to November.
The Department of Pharmaceuticals says 27 Kendras selling low-priced generic medicines were working in Meghalaya on 30 November 2025.