Controlled substance tracking software for Canadian pharmacies
NarcCount calculates the expected on-hand balance for every narcotic and controlled substance from your own dispensing, purchase and destruction records — then shows you the variance against what you actually counted, and the transactions behind it.
What it does
Calculates the expected balance instead of asking you for it
It reads your dispensing, purchase and destruction records and works out what should be on the shelf for each controlled substance. On a spreadsheet that number is typed by a person; here it is derived, which is what makes a variance mean something.
Shows the variance, and the transactions behind it
Every drug shows expected on hand, counted, and the difference — and you can open the difference to see the receipts, dispenses and destructions inside the count window rather than going back to the paper.
Keeps a per-drug history keyed by DIN
A count from eight months ago, the variance it raised, and what resolved it, all in one place. That is the question an inspector actually asks, and it is the slowest one to answer from a stack of sheets.
Prepares the loss or theft report from the count
When a shortage turns out to be a loss, the details are already recorded. A qualified person reviews and submits it — the software drafts, a pharmacist decides.
Imports what you already have
Existing counts and transaction history can be brought across, so the first reconciliation is not a blank page.
Canadian, and hosted in Canada
DIN rather than NDC, provincial cadences rather than a US biennial inventory, and your data stored in Canada.
What it is not
Being clear about the boundary saves everybody a demo.
- It is not dispensing software and does not replace it. Your dispensing system fills prescriptions and reports to the Narcotics Monitoring System in real time; this reconciles what is physically on the shelf against what those records say should be. They answer different questions, and most pharmacies need both.
- It is not inventory management for your whole store. It is scoped to narcotics and controlled substances, which is why the workflow is a count and a variance rather than reorder points and margins.
- It does not decide anything a pharmacist has to decide. It surfaces a discrepancy and shows the evidence; whether something is a reportable loss, and what to do about it, stays with the qualified person in charge.
Comparing vendors?
This page is about what the software has to do. If you are choosing between tools, the buyer’s guide to narcotic reconciliation software in Canada describes each purpose-built tool from its vendor’s own page, says which one is ours, and gives you six questions to put to any of them.
Start on paper if you would rather
If you are still deciding, the sheets are free and there is no account to make. A perpetual log, a worked example, a shift-change count sheet, a physical count sheet and a periodic inventory form — plus a spreadsheet whose balance and variance calculate themselves.
Free controlled substance count sheets →Questions
›What is controlled substance tracking software?
It is software that maintains the expected on-hand balance for every narcotic and controlled substance in a pharmacy, from the receipts, dispenses, destructions and returns already recorded, and compares that expected figure against a physical count. The output is a variance per drug, and the transaction history that explains it.
›Is there free pharmacy inventory software for controlled substances?
There are free templates, and we give away a full set of them — a perpetual log, a shift-change count sheet, a physical count sheet and a periodic inventory form, plus a spreadsheet that calculates the running balance. A spreadsheet works until the volume of transactions makes reconstructing a variance the slow part; that is the point at which software earns its keep.
›How is this different from Kroll, Fillware or my dispensing system?
A dispensing system is where prescriptions are filled and where dispensing data is reported. It knows what went out; it does not, on its own, reconcile that against a physical count of what is in the safe, including purchases and witnessed destructions. NarcCount takes those records as input and does the reconciliation. It sits beside your dispensing software rather than replacing it.
›Which software is best for a pharmacy?
It depends which job you are solving. For dispensing and billing, that is your dispensing vendor's decision and a large one. For narcotic reconciliation specifically, the questions worth asking any vendor are: does it calculate the expected balance from my own records or make me type it, does it keep the history a college inspection asks for, is my data in Canada, and does it use DIN rather than an American drug identifier.
›How often would I use it?
The Ontario College of Pharmacists expects narcotics and controlled substances to be reconciled at least every six months. Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are stricter: narcotics and controlled drugs are reconciled monthly. Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Newfoundland & Labrador generally require reconciliation every three months. Many pharmacies count more often than the minimum, because a small discrepancy is far easier to resolve while the transactions behind it are still recent.
See it on your own numbers
We are a Canadian team and we answer our own email. Bring a month of records and we will show you what the reconciliation looks like.
General information, not legal or professional advice. For authoritative requirements, refer to the Ontario College of Pharmacists, your own provincial college, and Health Canada.