What is MR reporting software?
MR reporting software is the system a pharmaceutical company's medical representatives use to report their working day — attendance, doctor and chemist calls, tour plans, samples, orders, chemist audits and expenses — and that their managers and leadership use to review it. In India the same category is also called pharma SFA or field force automation.
Updated 2026-10
What an MR reports every day
- Attendance
- When the working day started and ended, and whether it was a field day, a meeting or leave.
- Calls (DCR)
- Each doctor and chemist visited, the products detailed, samples given and what the doctor said.
- Tour plan
- Who the MR intends to see, on which days, approved by the manager before the month starts.
- RCPA
- The retail chemist prescription audit: our brands against competitors at the chemist's counter.
- Orders and stockist statements
- Orders taken in the field, and the stockist's monthly secondary-sales statement.
- Expenses
- Conveyance, daily allowance (HQ, ex-HQ, outstation) and travel, with receipts.
What managers and leadership need from it
An area or regional manager needs to approve plans, leave and claims quickly, and to know whether the field day reported is the field day that happened — which is why visit verification, plan versus actual and coverage of the doctor panel matter more than the number of calls alone.
A national sales head or CXO needs the same facts rolled up: sales against target by zone, secondary sales kept apart from primary, coverage of the doctors that matter, incentive cost and compliance exposure. The test of good MR reporting software is that the national figure and the rep's figure come from the same records and never disagree.
MR reporting, SFA and CRM
The terms overlap. MR reporting usually means the rep's daily reporting — DCR, tour plan, attendance, expenses. SFA (sales force automation) adds the commercial side — orders, targets, secondary sales, incentives. CRM is the system of record for customers and relationships. Most Indian pharma companies want all three from one vendor, and the guide DCR vs CRM for pharma explains where they differ.
Questions to ask before choosing
- Does it work offline?
- Reps lose signal in hospitals, basements and trains. Ask what happens to a call report filed with no connection.
- Is it in the reps' languages?
- A multilingual app is adopted faster than an English-only one.
- How are visits verified?
- Ask whether an unverified visit is counted as a pass, and whether the system blocks a rep when GPS is slow.
- Does it handle RCPA and stockist statements?
- These are India-specific and are often bolted on.
- Are incentives computed on secondary sales?
- Paying on primary rewards channel stuffing.
- Can leadership see everything, and managers only their own team?
- Ask how the reporting hierarchy is modelled, and whether it works at any depth.
- How is it priced?
- Per user, per module or by bundle — and what changes as the field force grows.