Pharmacy software in Bulgaria: comparing pharmacy programs and their prices

Three things determine the choice, and none of them is a matter of taste. First, reporting to the Health Insurance Fund: NZOK publishes requirements for pharmacy software and the XML file format pharmacies use to report prescriptions, effective from 01.09.2024, as well as instructions for real-time checks when dispensing medicines from May 2025. The software must follow these requirements and be updated when they change. Second, electronic prescriptions through NZIS: dispensing, returning and cancelling them at the counter, according to the specification NZIS publishes for developers. Third, verification: every prescription pack is scanned and checked in the Bulgarian verification system. BOVL (Bulgarian Organisation for Verification of Medicines) publishes a list of IT providers whose products have been tested in the system; the latest one we found is current as of 14.08.2023. Apteka Expert 2, Click Drug, Farma Pro and PharmaStar are on it.

After that come the things every inventory system has: batch and expiry date for every pack, issuing the packs with the nearest expiry date first, barcode scanning on receipt and sale, a cash register and fiscal device, orders to wholesalers, reports on expiring stock and stock that is sitting unsold.

If a provider cannot show you the first three working in a pharmacy, nothing else matters. That is why we recommend an off-the-shelf product for the counter: it already goes through these checks every day in hundreds of pharmacies, and its support team monitors changes in the requirements for you.

Providers sell their products in three different ways, which is why their prices cannot be compared on a single line. A licence plus monthly support, an annual fee, or a cloud subscription. Calculating the cost over 36 months puts them on an equal footing.

Apteka Expert 2: the full version costs €613,55 excluding VAT as a one-off payment. Support is not listed on the pricing page; under the general terms of Fyoniks Farma from June 2026, the Silver package for up to two workstations costs €88,20 per month excluding VAT, while Gold, with no limit on workstations, costs €116,42. Support is not mandatory, but without a contract each update costs €306,78. By our calculation, one pharmacy with the full version and Silver pays €613,55 plus 36 times €88,20 over three years, or €3 788,75 excluding VAT in total.

UniRx ERP: 149 € per month for 36 months comes to 5 364 €, with no initial fee. The website does not say whether the amount includes VAT or whether it is for one pharmacy, so ask before doing the calculation. Klik Apteka, Supernova and PharmaCloud: request a quote for the same 36 months and the same number of workstations.

Add the following to the calculation: workstations after the first; modules not included in the base price (integration with accounting software, wireless inventory, labels); the fiscal device and POS terminal; and the cost of an on-site visit without a support contract. Also ask what happens to your data if you change systems after three years: in what format it can be exported and who pays for the export.

NZOK, electronic prescriptions through NZIS, package verification and the till remain in the pharmacy software at every counter. It is a regulated product, updated whenever requirements change, and we do not replace it. We have not built reporting to NZOK, electronic prescriptions or verification so far.

For one pharmacy with one software system, that is everything. Once there are two or more pharmacies, a wholesale warehouse, an online store, or the owner starts assembling reports in Excel, it is time for the system on top.

The pharmacy software remains at every counter. The custom system sits above it and reads its data, or works alongside it for the areas the pharmacy software does not cover.

The owner of a pharmacy chain filled in our form for an ERP system. We sent her an idea covering warehouses, tills, human resources, reports and mobile access for managers. We also wrote “work with NZOK”. Today, we would phrase it more precisely: NZOK, prescriptions and verification remain in the pharmacy software, while our system brings inventory, staff schedules and reports from all locations together in one place. When we called her, she was at the counter and asked us to write to her instead. There has still been no meeting, and that is also an honest answer: an owner who works in the pharmacy needs something that does not require their time to get started.

Herbal pharmacies and shops selling food supplements and cosmetics are another case. A herbal pharmacy asked us for a demo of a website with a catalogue of herbs, blends and cosmetics, while the shopping cart and online orders are a separate line in the quote. There are no NZOK prescriptions there, and the online store needs to draw from the same inventory as the counter. This is a regular part of our work.

The signal is always the same: an Excel spreadsheet that someone copies from the pharmacy software into every week so the owner can see turnover and expiring batches by location. That spreadsheet is already a custom system, except that a person is operating it.

We have not built pharmacy systems; we have built warehouse systems. Pelikan DTM in Gabrovo sells office equipment and healthcare products wholesale and retail from a central warehouse and a bookshop. Each item has four prices and stock levels by location, deliveries are entered line by line and automatically replenish the warehouse, while transfers between locations are handled with a single document, valued at the price of the destination location. Stocktaking works with 2 500 items at once, is saved as a draft while counting is in progress, and distinguishes a counted zero from an item that has not been counted, so nothing is reset by mistake. The online store is connected to the same warehouse.

We show batches with expiry dates in the Testen Dom demo for food production: each batch is entered with an expiry date, the barcode tracks it, and when items are issued, those that expire first go out first. The same logic is needed in the warehouse of a chain or a wholesaler dealing in supplements and cosmetics.

This is what we can show live. For a pharmacy, it is useful around the counter, not at the counter.

For every provider in the table, and for us regarding the pharmacy-side functionality:

1. Is the product on the BOVL list, and under what name? 2. How is an electronic prescription processed through NZIS, and whose electronic signature is used? 3. Who updates the report to NHIF when the format or nomenclature changes, how long does it take, and what does it cost? 4. How many workstations and locations are covered by the price, and how much does the next one cost? 5. What is included in support, how much does it cost per month, and what do we pay without a support contract? 6. Where is the data: on a server in the pharmacy or in the cloud, and who makes the backups? 7. In what format can the data be exported if we change software? 8. Is there a central module for a chain, and what can the owner see from their phone? 9. Can we see the software running in a pharmacy before we decide?