Free controlled substance log spreadsheet (Excel)
The paper log is the record; this is the same thing with the sums done. Enter what came in and what went out and the balance carries itself forward, which removes the single most common cause of a variance that turns out not to be a variance.
It is a plain .xlsx — Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets all open it, and nothing in it phones home.
What is on it
- Date, reference, received, dispensed, destroyed, returned
- Balance — calculated, not typed
- Expected vs counted, with the variance calculated at the bottom
When you reach for it
- A pharmacy that already keeps the log on a computer rather than on paper.
- Checking a hand-written month's arithmetic quickly.
- As a stopgap before moving the whole reconciliation into software.
How often a Canadian pharmacy has to count, how long a completed sheet must be kept, and the difference between a log and a count sheet are all answered on the count sheets hub. Every sheet prints the Ontario and federal retention rules in its own footer.
More sheets
- Perpetual inventory log — The ongoing record you keep between counts.
- Log example (filled in) — When you want to see one done before you start.
- Narcotic count sheet — shift change — At handover, when custody passes from one person to another.
The counting is the easy half
Working out what you should have — last count, plus purchased, minus dispensed, minus destroyed, per drug — is the part that takes the afternoon. NarcCount does that arithmetic from records you already keep. See it worked through on one drug or get the data out of your dispensing system.