Questions
The questions we actually get asked.
Grouped roughly in the order they come up. Where the honest answer is a limitation rather than a feature, it is written as a limitation.
Group 01
How the service works
Is this software we have to run, or a service?
A service. You send us the stock statements your stockists already produce, and we send back the finished reports and KPIs. The extraction, standardisation, product mapping and reconciliation all happen on our side. Everything runs on the PharmeXa platform, and you can have live dashboard access whenever you want it — but plenty of teams never ask for it, because the reports arriving on time is the point.
What does our team actually have to do each month?
Forward the statements. That is the whole obligation. If they arrive in your inbox, forward the inbox; if your representatives collect them, they can send them on over email or WhatsApp. Nothing has to be renamed, reformatted, combined into a template or checked first.
So there is genuinely no training?
There is nothing to train anyone on, which is a stronger claim than training being easy. Nobody in your field team logs into a system. That matters in this industry specifically: representatives change companies frequently, and any process that depends on each new joiner learning software degrades every month. Sending a file is not a skill anyone has to acquire.
How do the reports come back?
By email as scheduled report packs to whatever distribution list you set, per division or per territory, and over the WhatsApp Business API for managers who read on a phone rather than at a desk. Live dashboards are available for teams that want to drill in themselves.
Can we send statements over WhatsApp too?
Yes, to our team. To be precise about the direction: WhatsApp is a convenient way to get files to us and the channel we push finished reports out on. It is not a self-service submission bot your representatives operate — that is exactly the kind of thing this model exists to avoid.
How quickly do reports come back?
The first cycle for a new stockist takes longest, because product names are being mapped to your master catalogue for the first time. After that the same stockist resolves automatically and turnaround is a function of when the statements reach us, not of how long the processing takes.
Group 02
Data and formats
Which stockist ERPs are supported?
Marg, Medica, EasySol and Prompt are the ones we handle most often, plus custom and local software. The honest framing is that PharmeXa reads the reports these systems export rather than integrating with the systems themselves — which is why an unfamiliar ERP is not a blocker.
What if a stockist sends a format you have never seen?
It goes down the same path as any other. PharmeXa works out which columns hold which stock fields and asks the MR to confirm the product names it does not recognise. That confirmation is stored, so the second month from that stockist behaves like every other stockist.
What if a stockist changes their format mid-year?
Column layout is detected per upload rather than assumed from a saved template, so a reordered or renamed column does not break the import. Product mappings are keyed to the product name, so they survive a layout change untouched.
Can you read scanned or photographed statements?
Not reliably, and we would rather say so than return figures we do not trust. A digitally generated PDF extracts cleanly. For a photograph of a printed page, ask the stockist for the Excel or CSV export instead — every one of these systems can produce one.
Exactly what gets extracted from a statement?
Product name, opening stock, purchase quantity and value, sales quantity and value, closing stock, free quantity, sales returns, batch number, expiry date and rate — twelve fields, normalised to your company’s standard names regardless of what the source called them.
Group 03
Product mapping
What happens the first time a new product name appears?
It is surfaced for mapping rather than guessed at or silently dropped. Someone confirms which master catalogue entry it corresponds to, and from that point the name resolves automatically on every future upload.
Who does the mapping — the MR or head office?
By default the MR, because they are the person who knows that this particular stockist writes “PCM 650”. The mapping is then visible to the Area Manager during approval, so a wrong mapping gets caught before it affects a dashboard.
Can a mapping be corrected after it has been approved?
Yes. A mapping is a stored decision, not a permanent one — it can be corrected, and the correction applies going forward. Historical records keep the mapping that was in force when they were approved, so past reports stay reproducible.
How large can the product master be?
Large enough that it has not been the constraint in practice, including companies running several divisions with overlapping catalogues. If you have an unusually large master, tell us the row count and we will confirm rather than guess.
Group 04
Workflow and approvals
Can an Area Manager reject a submission?
Yes, with a note. The submission returns to the MR with the reason attached, and it does not reach any dashboard in the meantime. Rejection is a normal part of the cycle rather than an exception path.
Can one MR cover another MR’s stockists?
Assignments can be changed, including temporarily for leave or a vacant territory. The submission record keeps the MR who actually filed it, so coverage reporting stays accurate rather than crediting the usual owner.
Is there an audit trail?
Every submission carries the MR identity, stockist, reporting period, the original source file exactly as received, the receipt timestamp, and the approval state with the approver’s note. The original file is never discarded, so any figure can be traced back to the document it came from.
What stops a dashboard showing unverified numbers?
Metrics are computed over approved submissions only. Pending and returned submissions are excluded entirely, which is why a figure never moves without a named person having agreed to it.
Group 05
Rollout and the field team
How much training does an MR need?
The MR side is deliberately almost featureless: they see their own stockists, attach the file the stockist sent, and confirm any product name the system does not recognise. In practice that is a short walkthrough rather than a training session.
What happens when an MR leaves or a territory changes hands?
Stockist assignments are reassigned, and history stays attached to the MR who actually filed each submission. Coverage reporting therefore stays accurate rather than crediting the current owner for someone else’s month.
Do MRs need to install anything?
No. PharmeXa runs in a browser, including a phone browser. There is nothing to install and nothing to keep updated on a device you do not control.
Can an MR submit for a stockist that is not theirs?
No. An MR only ever sees the stockists assigned to them, which is what keeps ownership unambiguous and stops two people filing the same month twice.
Group 06
Commercial and onboarding
How long does onboarding take?
The work is loading your product master, setting up MRs with their stockist assignments, and mapping the first month of statements. The first cycle is the heaviest; from the second month most product names already resolve themselves.
Does PharmeXa replace our primary ERP?
No, and it is not trying to. Primary sales, billing, dispatch and accounting stay where they are. PharmeXa covers what happens after the invoice — the secondary movement from stockist onward, which your primary ERP has no visibility of because you never billed it.
Can PharmeXa integrate with our existing systems?
API access is available on Enterprise so your own reporting stack can read the normalised data. For anything more specific, describe the system and we will tell you plainly whether it is in scope.
Who owns the data?
You do. It is your stockists’ statements and your product master. See the privacy policy for how it is handled, and the security page for where it lives.
What does support cover?
Email support on Starter, priority response on Growth, and an agreed SLA on Enterprise. Format problems — a stockist whose export suddenly looks different — are treated as support, not as a change request.