Using your Schedule of Payment to monitor performance

Pharmacy owners can expect to receive their Schedule of Payment (and eSchedules) from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) 5-working days before the payment date. Pharmacy owners can view their monthly Schedule of Payments using a variety of options.

Electronic
Information Services Portal (ISP) – The Schedule of Payments can be viewed through the (ISP). You can still receive paper Schedule of Payments if you have registered for the ISP.

Further information on the ISP can be found here.

eSchedule – NHSBSA produces electronic payment schedule data (called ‘eSchedule’) which pharmacy owners can use instead of receiving a paper copy. The eSchedule is an electronic file that contains all of the data on the paper FP34 Schedule of Payments. Data provided in the eSchedule is particularly useful for pharmacy owners with several pharmacies and if the data is being uploaded into your own analytical tool as this allows cross-pharmacy analysis. eSchedules can be received alongside the paper FP34 and if you are satisfied with the data, at an agreed time, NHSBSA will stop sending paper FP34s. For further information on eSchedules including how to register for the service can be found on NHSBSA’s Electronic payment schedules webpage.

Paper
The paper Schedule of Payment is sent by post to the pharmacy owner’s specified address. You can still receive paper Schedule of Payments if you have registered for the ISP.Paper

A full breakdown of all the information included on a Schedule of Payments can be found on our Understanding your FP34 Schedule of Payments webpage.

The monthly net payment is influenced by many factors for example service activity, locally commissioned service payments, recovery of the advance payment and the Average Item Value (AIV).

Medicine costs and fees
The totals and subtotals in the ‘Drug and Appliance Costs’ and ‘Pharmacy Fees’ sections on Page 1 and 2 of the Schedule will provide a better understanding of the pharmacy’s performance and any changes to payments received. For example, purchasing and reimbursement costs may vary month to month (for example due to changes in stock levels) and comparing these trends against each other can be useful.

The Average Item Value (AIV)
The AIV can be found in the ‘Pharmacy Data’ section of the Schedule of Payments, as shown in the image below. The AIV is used to calculate the monthly advance payment.

The AIV is calculated by taking the total cost of drugs and appliances, including all applicable fees, and subtracting the total value of other fees. This figure is then divided by the total number of relevant items supplied comprising:

• Items supplied against NHS prescriptions
• Items supplied as part of the Pharmacy First Service
• Items supplied as part of the Pharmacy Contraception Service (using PGDs and via prescribing consultations)

Changes in the average item value
A variety of factors affect the calculated AIV figure and understanding fluctuations in the AIV in understanding your pharmacy’s performance. These factors can include:

• a change to the profile of drugs dispensed; for example, a patient regularly prescribed expensive items nominates another pharmacy to dispense their prescriptions
• cheaper generics entering the market following the patent expiry of high-volume or high-cost branded drugs
• significant price changes to popular branded products
• the level of price concessions granted in a given month
• prescribers requesting fewer expensive items in a given month or, conversely, a high number of expensive items are dispensed in a particular month
• changes in stock levels
• local deprescribing initiatives reducing the total number of items dispensed by a pharmacy
• changes to period of treatment (i.e. 28 versus 56-day or 84-day prescriptions)
• changes to Category M prices (see our page Retained margin (Category M))
• a local change such as a competitor that has just opened or closed their business, or relocation/closure of local GP practice

Data on national AIV trends can be found here. 

EPS Messages
The timing of EPS messages submitted each month can also impact on monthly payments. The dispensing month in which an EPS prescription is counted for payment is determined by submission dates of the EPS Dispense Notification (DN) and Claim Notification (CN) messages. Where a DN message is sent before midnight on the last day of the calendar month, the corresponding CN message or Electronic Reimbursement Endorsement Message (EREM) must reach NHSBSA no later than the 5th of the following month for the item to count towards that dispensing month and to avoid delays to payment. EPS items dispensed during the month but claimed after the 5th of the following month will have items delayed by a month. More information on the timing of EPS messages can be found in our Claiming for EPS prescriptions on time briefing.

End of month submission and payment dates
The timing of monthly payments can be impacted by weekends and Bank holidays.

Where one or more bank holidays fall within the first five days of the month, pharmacy owners are given an extra day, until the 6th, to submit their FP34C declaration through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal and to dispatch their prescription bundle to NHSBSA. In those months the early Advance payment date remains four working days from the extended submission deadline. The deadline for CN messages and EREMs is not extended and remains the 5th.

Where the 1st of the month falls on a weekend or bank holiday, NHSBSA brings the payment forward to the nearest previous working day (the exception is 1st April, where payment is made on the next available working day rather than being brought forward).

Changes in the number of items
The total number of items for which a fee is paid can be found in the ‘Pharmacy Data’ section of the Schedule of Payments.

When reviewing the Schedule of Payments, consider the dispensing month it relates to, rather than the month in which the payment is received. For certain months, it is important to account for seasonal impacts (such as holidays and cold/flu season) and the number of working days (due to Bank holidays or shorter months in general). These could impact the number of items dispensed each month.

In order to be reimbursed, dispensed EPS prescriptions must be claimed within the period of validity (six months for regular prescriptions, 28 days for Schedule 2, 3 and 4 Controlled drugs). We recommend pharmacy owners to regularly review prescriptions on their IT systems to identify whether there are any dispensed items which are require claiming. Items where CN messages are not sent in time will not be paid.

Pharmacy owners are reminded that disallowed items and referred back (unpaid) items could also impact monthly payments and pharmacy cashflow for example, if expensive items are being returned as unpaid. Disallowed items and referred back items are managed through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal. Pharmacy owners can submit a challenge (if applicable) for disallowed items and provide the necessary information for unpaid items through the portal. Both must be actioned within 18 months of the item first being sent to the pharmacy using the MYS portal.

Impact of NHS Services
Seasonal service activity will also impact on monthly pharmacy payments for example during the autumn and winter months when Seasonal Vaccination Services are provided. Pharmacy owners should take these variations into account when reviewing their figures and avoid drawing conclusions from a single month in isolation. Comparing the same month across different years will usually give a more reliable picture of pharmacy activity growth rather than comparing activity across consecutive months.

Payments for NHS services are shown separately from prescription reimbursement and fees in the ‘Pharmacy Fees’ section and the number of consultations which have been declared for each service is outlined in the ‘Pharmacy Data’ section. Pharmacy owners should reconcile the service payments on the Schedule of Payments against their own record of claims made for the Pharmacy First Service, the New Medicine Service (NMS), the Pharmacy Contraception Service (including prescribing consultations), the Hypertension Case-Finding Service (HCFS) and the seasonal Vaccination Services including influenza and COVID-19 vaccination services.

The ‘Pharmacy Fees’ section is also where the Single Activity Fee payment is displayed, shown as the Activity payment (which is calculated by multiplying the Single Activity Fee rate by the number of prescription items). Because service fees and the Single Activity Fee sit in the same section, a fall in service claims can be masked by a rise in item numbers if the “total of all fees” figure is monitored in isolation. Community Pharmacy England recommends monitoring the individual service lines as well as the section subtotal.

Claiming for NHS service activity
Each service has its own claim window, and it is the date the claim is submitted through the Manage Your Service (MYS) portal, rather than the date the consultation or vaccination took place, that determines which Schedule of Payments the payment appears on. Pharmacy owners should be aware of the claim deadlines for each service and ensure that any unclaimed activity is submitted on time and before the claim deadlines to avoid any delayed or lost payments. Submission deadlines for NHS services can be found on our Payment timetable and deadline tracker webpage.

Service Advance payments
Advance payments are also made for certain services, and these are received on the same date as the early Advance payment for dispensed prescriptions. The service advance payments include the consultation fees for Flu (adult), Covid-19, the Pharmacy Contraception Service (including prescribing consultations) and the Hypertension Case-Finding Service. Reimbursement for any items supplied as part of the Pharmacy First and the Pharmacy Contraception Service is factored into the calculation of the main drug advance payment itself. As with prescription payments, an advance is followed by a recovery when the month is reconciled, so service income should be reviewed across two Schedules rather than one.

Where a service payment does not appear at all, the first check is whether the claim was successfully submitted and accepted on MYS. Information reports available through MYS give greater visibility of the claims made and are a useful reconciliation tool where the Schedule and the pharmacy’s own records do not agree.

The Schedule of Payments will show the final amount payable to pharmacy owners after recoveries and deductions are applied by the NHSBSA.

Recovery of the advance payments

• Recovery of advance payment– This relates to the early advance payment (value displayed on page 1 of the Schedule of Payments) that was paid earlier in the month, direct into pharmacy owner’s bank account, if the payment timetable was followed and the declarations were submitted via MYS by the 5th of the month. The payment is now being recovered as all items have been individually priced. The recovery of advance can sometimes result in a negative balancing payment. This can impact on pharmacy cashflow as the negative adjustment will be deducted from following payment.
• Recovery of service fee advance – the service fee advance payment is also recovered similar to the recovery of advances paid for prescriptions

Discount deduction
The ‘Drug and Appliance Costs’ section lists the total value of drugs and appliances as priced by the NHSBSA. It states a sum for all products which attract discount deduction, together with the percentage discount that will be deducted from the total of basic prices at the standard discount rate; further details on discount deduction can be found in Part V of the Drug Tariff. A separate figure is given for zero discount items, which have no discount deducted.

The Schedule of Payments displays the total reimbursement and amount of discount deducted in the ‘Discount on Schedule’ section which includes the type of item (generics, branded, appliances and Discount not Deducted items) and the relevant discount deduction rates. This section of the Schedule of Payment is further split into four sections to display items supplied against:

• NHS prescriptions
• Pharmacy First Clinical Pathways
• Pharmacy Contraception Service
• Flu vaccination service

Pharmacy owners should keep an eye on the proportion of their reimbursement that falls into each discount band. A shift in the mix of generics, branded products and appliances dispensed will change the average rate of discount deduction applied, and can reduce the net payment even where the headline reimbursement figure has gone up.

Other deductions

• Prescription charges – charges collected from patients are also recovered through the Schedule under the ‘Charges’ section. The value of prescription charges declared on the FP34C is deducted when the Advance payment is calculated, so an error in the declared charge income will feed directly through to the payment received. NHSBSA only use submitted EPS tokens for patient levy fraud auditing, and any annotations on submitted EPS tokens would be ignored.
• Administrative charges – for example end of month prescription bundles dispatched late may attract a £25 administrative charge deduction, which will be visible on the Schedule of Payments under the ‘Details of Other Amounts Authorised’ section.
• Service caps – various payments from services such as the Pharmacy First Service are adjusted if the service activity exceeds the pharmacy owner’s cap. The adjustments made are displayed on the Schedule of Payments under the ‘Pharmacy Fees’ section.

Community Pharmacy England recommends that pharmacy owners track the deduction totals month on month in the same way as the reimbursement and fee totals. An unexplained movement in the discount deduction or in the recovery figures is worth investigating before the next month’s submission is made.

Prescription switching happens when the NHSBSA moves an FP10 paper prescription between the exempt and chargeable (paid) groups. At the end of each month pharmacy teams are required to sort their FP10 paper prescriptions into either exempt or paid groups before the prescription bundle is submitted to the NHSBSA for pricing, and this sorting is what allows the NHSBSA to calculate the correct number of charge deductions. Where a form has been placed in the wrong group, or where the patient’s declaration has been completed incorrectly or left unsigned, the NHSBSA will switch the prescription to the appropriate group.

Prescription switching information for each pharmacy is usually found in the section headed ‘Items Transferred Between Exempt and Chargeable Groups’ (as shown in the image below.) This shows the number of items the NHSBSA needed to transfer between groups. The figure shown under “Exempt to Chargeable” does not always mean that a charge has been deducted from the payment, so the numbers and values in the ‘Charges’ section should always be checked alongside it.

High levels of prescription switching may indicate a need for additional staff training to check that the reverse of FP10 forms are completed correctly before they are submitted for payment. Exemption and charge declarations must be signed and completed in full on all prescriptions, unless the patient is age exempt and their date of birth is computer generated on the prescription. Pharmacy teams should check a patient’s exemption status each time a prescription is presented and update the PMR system accordingly, and PMR systems should be set up to prevent a claim being submitted without an exemption category having been selected. At the end of the month, paper prescriptions should be sorted into the correct charge group, including separating items paid at an old charge rate.

The financial impact of switching can be significant. Where a prescription is switched from exempt to paid, the prescription charge is deducted from the pharmacy’s payment even though no charge was collected from the patient. Looking at prescription switching figures for 2025/26, 221k items were switched from exempt to paid group, Community Pharmacy England estimates that across all pharmacies the NHSBSA deducted £2.1m in prescription charges as a result of switching.

Where a pharmacy owner believes the NHSBSA has made an error in the level of switching shown on the Schedule of Payments, this should be reported to the NHSBSA and a request for a recheck submitted.

Switching applies to paper prescriptions only. EPS prescriptions cannot be switched, because the claim is processed according to the exemption status contained in the electronic claim message rather than a declaration on the reverse of a form. It is worth noting that some IT systems may automatically default selection to paid category if no exemption reason has been selected on an EPS claim message. Tips to avoid prescription switching can be found here.

An expensive item is any item dispensed on an NHS prescription with a total net ingredient cost (NIC) of £100 or more. This applies whether the cost arises from supplying a single pack or multiple packs of an item used to fulfil a prescription. The Summary of Expensive Items section of the Schedule of Payments lists all the expensive items which were dispensed during the month, as shown in the image below.

Missing or incorrect payment(s) for expensive items can have a large impact on pharmacy cashflow therefore Community Pharmacy England recommends that pharmacy owners keep a monthly record of all expensive items dispensed and submitted for payment so that any claims can be reconciled against the list of expensive items published in the Schedule of Payments. Some IT system suppliers may be able to assist pharmacy owners by generating monthly reports of expensive items dispensed and submitted for payment.

Please note: If a broken bulk claim has been made, the Schedule will only show the value of the prescribed quantity, even where the pharmacy has been paid for the full pack under the broken bulk arrangements.

It is important to consider human error / inputting error as a possible reason for any discrepancies in data presented in the Schedule of Payment. We recommend the following checks are carried out to ensure declarations are submitted accurately:

• Check that there is no significant discrepancy between the number of forms/items declared on the FP34C and your Schedule of Payments (paying particular attention to your submitted EPS figures). The number of items used to calculate the Advance payment* should match the number of items declared on the FP34C for the relevant dispensing month
• EPS Dispense Notification (DN) and Claim Notification (CN) messages are submitted time considering the EPS 5-day window (Community Pharmacy England’s Claiming for EPS prescriptions on time factsheet explains how EPS 5-day window affects timing of payment)
• Payments for Advanced Services match your declaration
• The number of prescription charges deducted matches the number of prescription charges declared on the FP34C submission form. Pharmacy owners are reminded to declare the correct number of items charged at the old prescription rate, if applicable
• The number of FP57 refunds match your declaration

* Discrepancies between the declared item totals and the actual items received by the NHSBSA total will have an impact on your Advance payment and balancing payment. This could lead to cashflow issues that may take time to stabilise. The correct declaration of items will help with prescription reconciliation.

For more information on Advance payments and how balancing payments are calculated, visit our Understanding your FP34 Schedule of Payments webpage.

Where a figure on the Schedule of Payments cannot be explained, the first step is to establish whether the difference is a timing difference or a genuine error. Many apparent discrepancies resolve themselves once the dispensing month, the Advance payment and its subsequent recovery, and the timing of service claims and referred back resubmissions have been taken into account. Comparing two or three consecutive Schedules will usually make this clear.

If the number of forms or items received by the NHSBSA does not match the FP34C declaration, the declaration itself should be checked first. Discrepancies between the declared item totals and the actual items received by the NHSBSA will affect both the Advance payment and the balancing payment, and can lead to cashflow issues that take time to stabilise.

Where a pricing error is suspected, pharmacy owners may ask the NHSBSA to carry out a recheck of individual prescriptions or of an entire monthly prescription bundle. The current prescription recheck arrangements are set out in Part XIVB of the Drug Tariff, and Community Pharmacy England’s Prescription Re-checks webpage has more information on this. Pricing errors can also be reported to Community Pharmacy England’s Dispensing and Supply team at ds.team@cpe.org.uk to support further investigation.

Prescription item reports (PIR)
The prescription item report provides a more detailed item-level breakdown of payments for each product supplied against NHS prescriptions and for certain NHS services. The report can be used to reconcile monthly payments against any claims submitted for these services and allows pharmacy owners to investigate any payment errors or discrepancies which may prompt a request for a prescription re-check, if required. More information on the PIR can be found in our Prescription Item Reports (PIRs) briefing.

If a Schedule of Payments has not been received by the payment date, or a payment query cannot be resolved from the Schedule itself, NHS Prescription Services can be contacted on 0300 330 1349. General queries about monthly payments can be sent to contractorpayments@nhsbsa.nhs.uk. Pharmacy owners who are unable to resolve a payment issue with the NHSBSA should contact their Local Pharmaceutical Committee or Community Pharmacy England for support.

Once a FP34C declaration is submitted, pharmacy owners can receive an electronic copy via NHSmail of their submission showing the details of activity claimed that month. This should be kept as a record to help reconcile claims submitted with payments received in the Schedule of Payments.

Community Pharmacy England recommends pharmacy owners to take note of the following parameters:

• number of forms and items declared on the FP34C
• number of forms and items shown as received on the Schedule
• the Average Item Value
• totals and subtotals from the ‘Drug and Appliance Costs’ and ‘Professional Fees’ sections
• the value of prescription charges collected
• the Advance payment and its recovery
• service payments for each NHS service,
• any local payments for example from a locally commissioned service,
• the number of items referred back.

Receiving the data as an eSchedule makes this easier if the pharmacy owner has the IT ability to store and extract the information provided. Because the eSchedule is an electronic file containing all of the data on the paper FP34 Schedule of Payments, the figures can be extracted directly into a database or spreadsheet and manipulated to meet the needs of the organisation.

Other payments such as out of pocket expenses (OOP/XP), consumables and container fees are also listed here Some IT system suppliers can assist pharmacy owners by generating monthly reports of:

• expensive items dispensed and submitted for payment,
• Out of pocket expense claims
• broken bulk claims
• Unlicensed specials or imported products dispensed in the month
• Serious Shortage Protocol claims

These reports can be cross-referenced with the Schedule of Payments and PIR which allows individual items to be identified and any payment discrepancies can be investigated.

Once several months of data have been collected, the pharmacy’s own trends can be compared against national figures. Data on national AIV trends is published and can be found on our Remuneration statistics webpage. It provides useful context for judging whether a movement in Average Item Value is specific to the pharmacy or reflects a wider change, for example a Category M price adjustment or a change in the profile of drugs being dispensed nationally.

Pharmacy owners concerned about prescription pricing errors may request the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) to carry out a recheck of prescription(s) (or entire monthly prescription bundles) if it is believed that they have been priced incorrectly. More information on prescription re-checks and the process to request a re-check can be found on our Prescription Rechecks webpage.