When to use this guide: To understand how BitMed categorizes prescription drugs and helps you capture required billing particulars. Compliance still depends on prescription verification and local rules.
5 Types of Medicines in BitMed
When searching or billing medicines, BitMed displays color-coded schedule tags so you know exact handling rules at a glance:
In the picture above, 1 is the SCH column, which carries each medicine's tag on its own line. 2 is the caution banner that appears whenever the bill holds any prescription-only medicine. 3 is the legend along the bottom of the screen, always on show, so you can match a colour to a schedule without leaving billing.
- General Medicine (Grey Tag): Standard over-the-counter (OTC) products, vitamins, and general items that do not require any doctor prescription.
- Schedule G (Blue Tag): Medicines requiring a caution label on the box; sold under medical advice without needing prescription retention.
- Schedule H (Orange Tag): Prescription-only medicines; BitMed shows a prescription caution alert when added to a bill.
- Schedule H1 (Red Tag): Stricter prescription drugs (antibiotics, habit-forming medicines); requires filling out patient & doctor details in the H1 Register before billing.
- Schedule X (Dark Red / Purple Tag): A specific list of high-risk drugs (e.g. certain sedatives and stimulants) that requires an "XRx"-labelled sale, a prescription retained in duplicate, and a separate bound, serially page-numbered register — distinct from the general narcotics/psychotropics rules under the NDPS Act. Requires strict prescription verification and dedicated record keeping.
Step-by-Step Billing for Scheduled Drugs
1. Schedule H Medicines
When a Schedule H item is on the bill, the line carries an H tag in the SCH column, and a caution banner appears above the table: "Prescription-only medicine(s) in cart. Ensure valid prescription is available before dispensing."
Verify the customer's prescription before dispensing. When you take payment, BitMed asks you to link the customer and the prescribing doctor if either is missing. It also asks for the doctor's address when needed. Payment cannot continue until those details are complete: BitMed uses them to create the Schedule H register entry.
In the picture above, 1 is the H tag on the line and 2 is the banner. The banner is about the whole bill, not one line — it stays up as long as any prescription-only medicine is in the cart.
2. Schedule H1 and X Medicines (register details)
You can add a Schedule H1 or X medicine and carry on building the bill as normal. When you go to take payment, BitMed stops and opens Prescription Details Required by itself.
In the picture above, 1 names the medicines on this bill that triggered the window, with their batch numbers. 2 and 3 are the two halves of the register entry. 4 records it and carries on to payment.
Every field marked with a star is mandatory:
- Patient Name and Patient Address
- Doctor Name, Doctor Address and Doctor Registration No.
You can search for an existing customer by phone, or an existing doctor by name, and the saved details fill themselves in. Add New Doctor saves a prescriber you have not billed before.
Note: you cannot finalize the bill until these details are completed.
3. Automatic Statutory Register Entry
Once you finalize the bill (F10), BitMed records the transaction details in the digital Drug Register. Print and sign the register where required, and confirm with your state FDA before discontinuing any physical register or signed printout.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the system block me from completing the bill? For Schedule H, link the customer and doctor and complete the doctor's address when asked. For Schedule H1 and X, complete all required patient and doctor fields in the register form.
Do Schedule H1 records work when offline? Yes. The screenshot above was taken on a counter with no internet — note 5, the "Offline — billing continues and will sync when back online" notice along the bottom. The register form still appears and still blocks the sale. Entries saved offline are stored safely on your device and sync to the cloud database automatically when the internet connection returns.