A counter bill that takes GST out of the MRP instead of adding it on top, a stock sheet that reads an expiry month the way the Drugs Rules define it, and the separate Schedule H1 register you are required to keep for three years. Updated September 2026.
A cash or credit memo carrying what rule 65 asks for: your name, address and drug licence number, the memo serial, and the drug and quantity. Enter the pack MRP and the quantity, and the sheet works the tax backwards out of the price.
The purchase particulars rule 65 wants on record, supplier licence number and batch included, plus a near-expiry list that counts to the last day of the expiry month rather than the first.
The separate register for H1 sales, with the prescriber's name and address, the patient's name, the drug and the quantity. Print it or keep it in the file. Either way it is kept three years.
What a pack actually earns once GST is stripped out of the MRP, and whether a scheduled formulation's price sits inside the DPCO ceiling formula or above it.
A four-line bill filled in, including the line most stores get wrong, so you can see what the outputs look like before you touch your own numbers.
The first tab: what each sheet is for, how the cream input cells work, and the three things this template gets right that a generic invoice does not. Including why OTC is not a category the Drugs Rules recognise.
Every obligation quoted with its rule number and source document: the Drugs Rules 1945, the DPCO 2013, and the GST rate position from 22 September 2025.
Petpooja Invoice carries batch and expiry tracking on every line and pulls the pack in by barcode scan, so the batch, the expiry and the GST land on the bill without anyone typing them.
Explore Petpooja InvoiceA customer buys one strip of antibiotics. In the time it takes to hand it over, your shop has to satisfy the Drugs Rules on what gets recorded, the DPCO on what may be charged, and GST law on how the tax is shown. A generic retail bill, of the kind most retail billing software produces, handles the third and ignores the first two.
That is why a chemist's bill is not a kirana bill with medicines on it, and why most free GST invoice formats are the wrong starting point for a medical store.
What gets recorded. Rule 65 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 asks a retail licensee to record, for a Schedule C, H or H1 drug, the manufacturer's name, the batch number and the date of expiry of potency, alongside the prescriber and the patient. Purchase records carry the supplier's licence number and the batch. None of that appears on an ordinary invoice template.
What may be charged. Para 26 of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013 says no person shall sell a formulation to a consumer above the price in the current price list or on the label, whichever is less. The label price is a ceiling, not a suggestion, and it is printed with the words inclusive of all taxes after it.
How the tax is shown. Those three words are where the arithmetic usually goes wrong. If the MRP already contains the tax, then billing a ₹45 strip at ₹45 plus 5% charges the patient ₹47.25 for something the manufacturer priced at ₹45. The tax is not added, it is taken out: ₹42.86 of value and ₹2.14 of GST. The tax is not added, it is taken out.
Then there is the obligation almost nobody keeps properly. A Schedule H1 sale has to go into a separate register, not a column in the sales book, giving the prescriber's name and address, the patient's name, the drug and the quantity. It is kept for three years, where rule 65 keeps ordinary registers for two, and it is open for inspection.
This template does all of that and shows its working. Every rule is quoted on the last sheet with its number and its source, so you can check us rather than trust us. If you are weighing up software instead of a spreadsheet, we have set out what retail billing software costs in India separately.
One caveat that belongs here and not only in the file. This is a record-keeping aid, not legal advice. Schedules H, H1 and X are amended by notification, GST rates move, and state drug control offices differ on how registers are presented. Confirm the current position with your State Drugs Controller before you rely on it.
Here's a preview of what you'll get inside:
GST on drugs and medicines from 22 September 2025. Thirty-three lifesaving drugs moved from 12% to Nil, three more from 5% to Nil, and everything else from 12% to 5%. Your pack and your purchase invoice decide which one applies.
Source: Press release of the 56th GST Council meeting, read 09-Sep-2026How long the separate Schedule H1 register is kept, open for inspection. Rule 65 keeps ordinary registers for not less than two years from the last entry, so H1 is the exception most stores file away too early.
Source: Drugs Rules, 1945, rule 65, consolidated text read 09-Sep-2026The retailer margin built into the Government's formula for the ceiling price of a scheduled formulation. It is an input to that formula, not a margin you are entitled to earn, and the template uses it only to test whether a scheduled pack's MRP looks too high.
Source: Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013, para 7, read 09-Sep-2026The label reads Maximum Retail Price inclusive of all taxes. Billing MRP plus 5% charges the patient more than the printed price, which is what DPCO 2013 para 26 bars. The tax comes out of the MRP, it does not go on top.
Rule 65 asks for a separate register giving the prescriber's name and address, the patient's name, the drug and the quantity. A column in the day book is not a separate register, and this is the entry an inspector asks for first. Watch the newest additions: Pregabalin moved from Schedule H to H1 in May 2026, so stores that have sold it for years may still be recording it the old way.
The Explanation to rule 96 says the expiry date is given as month and year and the drug is recommended till the last day of that month. A pack marked 09/2026 sells until 30 September 2026. Stores that stop on the 1st throw away a month of saleable stock, every month.
Rule 65 keeps registers for not less than two years from the last entry, which is the number most people remember. The H1 register is three, and it is the one an inspection is most likely to ask about.
For a Schedule H, H1 or X drug the prescription must not be dispensed more than once unless the prescriber has written that it may be. Where a repeat is allowed a stated number of times, that direction is binding too.
For a Schedule C, H or H1 drug the record carries the manufacturer, the batch number and the expiry. Without the batch you cannot answer a recall, claim a return from your stockist, or prove which lot a patient received. Our stock and inventory template covers the same discipline for non-pharmacy retail.
Para 20 stops a manufacturer raising the MRP of a drug by more than ten percent in twelve months. It binds the manufacturer, not the chemist. What binds you at the counter is para 26: never above the label.
The gap is not cosmetic. It is the difference between a bill that satisfies GST law and one that also satisfies the Drugs Rules, which is the same reason manual billing struggles once a shop has schedules, batches and expiries to track.
| Aspect | Generic GST invoice format | This pharmacy template |
|---|---|---|
| Tax on the printed price | Adds GST to the rate you type | Takes GST out of the MRP, because the label says inclusive of all taxes |
| Batch and expiry | Optional free-text columns, if any | On the line, and flagged as missing before a scheduled drug is billed |
| Expiry arithmetic | Counts from the first of the expiry month | Counts to the last day, as the Explanation to rule 96 defines it |
| Schedule H1 | No concept of it | Separate register with the exact particulars, and the bill tells you to make the entry |
| Prescriber and patient | Not captured | In the bill header, and the line says so when a prescriber is missing on H, H1 and X |
| Selling above MRP | Nothing stops it | Flagged on the line, with DPCO 2013 para 26 named |
| Supplier licence number | Not asked for | A column in the purchase record, as rule 65 requires |
| Where the rules come from | Unstated | Quoted with rule numbers and source documents on the last sheet |
Swipe the table sideways to see the full comparison.
Download the free pharmacy billing template and get the tax, the batch and the H1 register right from the next sale.
Petpooja is India's leading SME business software suite, trusted by 1,50,000+ businesses across restaurants, retail, healthcare, manufacturing, and more. From billing and payroll to task management and procurement Petpooja helps Indian businesses run better, every day.
Petpooja Invoice keeps batch and expiry tracking on every line, scans the pack instead of asking you to type it, and generates GST-compliant invoices with the tax calculated for you. The counter work stays the same; the paperwork stops being manual.
