A locum pharmacist's guide to staying organised

Locum pharmacy work often means moving between different pharmacies — sometimes different chains entirely — each with its own booking process, its own way of confirming hours, and its own payment timeline. A little structure early on saves a lot of chasing later.

What to log for each shift

• Pharmacy name and location
• Date and hours worked
• Who booked you — locum agency, direct contact, or the pharmacy itself
• Rate agreed, and whether it includes anything extra (unsociable hours, travel)

Doing this the same day, rather than at the end of a busy week covering three different branches, is the difference between an easy record and a reconstruction exercise a month later.

Mileage between pharmacies

If you’re travelling between multiple locations regularly, mileage can add up to a meaningful amount over a year. Whether home-to-pharmacy travel counts as an allowable expense depends on your specific working pattern, so it’s worth confirming properly rather than assuming a blanket answer — but logging every trip as you make it means you’ve got a clean record either way, ready for whatever the answer turns out to be.

Registration, indemnity, and subscriptions

Costs worth keeping track of:

• GPhC annual retention fee
• Professional indemnity, and confirming what’s covered by each pharmacy or agency you work through versus what you may need independently
• CPD costs — courses, revalidation-related training

These are easy to forget about because they’re often annual, automatic payments rather than something you think about day to day.

Payment timing varies a lot in pharmacy locum work

Different pharmacy groups and agencies run quite different payment cycles — some weekly, some monthly, some considerably slower. Knowing which is which for each place you work, and having your own record of what’s outstanding, makes it much easier to spot a payment that’s genuinely late versus one that’s just following its normal (if slow) schedule.

How LocumBook helps with this specifically

LocumBook gives you one place to log every pharmacy shift — site, hours, rate, who booked it — the moment it happens, instead of piecing it together later from memory or a stack of confirmation emails. Mileage attaches directly to each session, with distances worked out automatically from your saved home address, so you’ve got a complete log regardless of how the allowability question resolves. And because every shift tracks through invoiced → awaiting payment → paid, you can see exactly what’s outstanding across every pharmacy and agency you work with, rather than trusting memory to know who still owes you.

If you’re unsure whether a booking is self-employed or PAYE, read Self-employed or agency PAYE?. App setup steps are in Getting started.