¶ Dispensing — Endorse a Prescription
¶ What you'll be able to do
After reading this guide you will be able to endorse a dispensed prescription — the last step in the dispensary —
and you will know exactly what the endorsement records, what it sets going, and what it does not do.
Who does this? Endorsing is a Responsible Pharmacist step, and only a pharmacist can record it. A
Dispensing Technician is never offered it, and the app refuses the step if it is asked for directly.
¶ What the endorsement is
A dispensed prescription still has one thing left to be said about it: the claim. Endorsing it does three
things:
- It completes the record. The prescription moves from Dispensed to Endorsed, and the step is
recorded with your name and the time. - It keeps the charge declaration as the basis of the claim — whether the charge was due or the patient was
exempt, and whether evidence was seen, exactly as declared at the dispense. - It sets the expected reimbursement going. The app works out what the pharmacy should be paid for the
claim — the reimbursement price of each item plus the professional fee — and keeps that estimate with the
claim. That estimate is what the accounting work is built on.
Nothing is sent to the NHSBSA at this step. The message you get says "local record", and that is
exactly what it is: the pharmacy's own record of the claim. What the pharmacy is actually paid is reconciled
later, when the money arrives — an estimate is not income.
¶ Before you start
- The prescription must be showing the state Dispensed — the only state the endorsement is offered from. A
prescription cannot be endorsed without having been dispensed. - Your login must hold the Responsible Pharmacist role.
¶ Step 1: Open the prescription
A dispensed prescription that is waiting to be endorsed is still in the dispensary queue: In progress
holds the prescriptions that are moving, and a dispensed one stays there until it is endorsed.
- Log in to the pharmacy app.
- Click Dispensary in the top menu.
- Under In progress, find the prescription — its state reads Dispensed — and click Open.
An endorsed prescription has left that list. To find one afterwards, use
Dispensing History and click Open on its row.
¶ Step 2: Endorse it
The endorsement is recorded from the prescription's own page — there is no separate screen:
- Click Endorse — there is nothing to fill in.
- The app records the step and returns you to the prescription with a green banner:
"Token endorsed (local record)."
A dispensed prescription, opened as the Responsible Pharmacist. The declaration the dispense recorded is shown
in full — charge due, whether evidence was seen, when it was dispensed — and Endorse is the only action
left. There is no release or cancel at this point: dispensing settled that.
¶ Step 3: What you are left with
- The state reads Endorsed, and the prescription's record is complete: the items, the declaration, when it
was dispensed, and when it was endorsed. - There is nothing further to do on it. Once endorsed, the prescription offers no actions at all — the page
says "No further action is available to you for this token." - It leaves the queue. It no longer appears under In progress; it is in the dispensing history, with the
state Endorsed, for as long as the pharmacy keeps its records.
After the endorsement: the state reads Endorsed, the declaration card carries the declaration made at the
dispense and the time the endorsement was made, and the actions have run out. This is a complete record of a
prescription.
¶ What the endorsement sets going
- An expected reimbursement, computed item by item from the reimbursement prices held in the ledger plus the
professional fee, and kept with the claim along with the basis it was worked out from and who computed it.
It is an estimate and it is idempotent — endorsing does not keep re-pricing the claim. - That is all. The endorsement transmits nothing, posts nothing to a ledger, and takes no payment. The
accounting surfaces — the expected figures, the actual receipts and the variance between them — are where the
money side is worked through.
¶ The Technician's view
A Dispensing Technician cannot endorse, and is not offered the endorsement. On a dispensed prescription they see
the state, the items, the declaration and the history, but no action — the clinical and claim steps belong to
the pharmacist. Asking for the step directly gets the same refusal as the control being absent.
¶ If it doesn't work
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| "endorse requires the token to be DISPENSED (it is ENDORSED)." | The prescription has already been endorsed — by you or by another pharmacist, or while your copy of the page was open. Nothing was recorded. Read the History on the prescription to see who did what. |
| "endorse requires one of: PHARMACY_RESPONSIBLE_PHARMACIST (actor role is …)." | The step was asked for by a login that is not a pharmacist's. |
| No Endorse control on the prescription | Either the prescription has not been dispensed yet, or your login is not a pharmacist's. |
| The prescription has gone from In progress | It has been endorsed. In progress only holds prescriptions that are still moving; look for it in Dispensing History. |
Only the Endorse button writes anything, so a refused endorsement needs no tidying up.
¶ What the record keeps
Older records may still show a reference. The app asked for an "endorsement reference" until
19 September 2026. The field has been removed, and a reference is shown only on prescriptions recorded
before then — those entries are kept as they were made.
- A history row on the prescription: the time, the move from DISPENSED to ENDORSED, and the name of
the pharmacist who endorsed it — recorded at the time, so a later change of name does not rewrite history.
No reason is asked for at this step. - The declaration, unchanged, with the endorsement added to it: charge due or exemption, whether evidence
was seen, when it was dispensed and when it was endorsed. Endorsing does not alter
what was declared at the dispense. - The expected reimbursement, held with the claim — an estimate, with its basis and who computed it. It
becomes income only when a receipt is recorded against it. - An audit entry for the action and the person, with no clinical content.
¶ Related
- Dispensing — Dispense a Prescription — the step
before this one, where the declaration is recorded - Dispensing — Dispensing History — where an endorsed
prescription is found afterwards - Dispensing — The Accuracy Check — earlier in the same journey
- Coverage Plan — the guides and what is left to write
- Release or Cancel a Claim — how a prescription is stopped, which must be done before dispensing (B6)
- The accounting figures — expected reimbursement, receipts and variance (group G)