A demo shows you the parts of the software the vendor wants you to see, running on clean sample data, with the salesperson driving. It rarely tells you what year two looks like — when you have 40,000 patient records, a support ticket open for a week, and a renewal invoice that's 30% higher than last year.
The questions below are the ones that actually predict how a purchase turns out. Ask them before you sign, get the answers in writing where it matters, and pay attention not just to what the vendor says but to whether they answer directly or talk around it.
This is the single most important area and the one most buyers skip. Assume that one day you will want to leave — the questions are about how hard that day will be.
- Who owns the data we enter? The answer should be an unambiguous "you do." Be wary of contract language that gives the vendor broad rights to use or aggregate your patient data.
- Can we export all of our data ourselves, at any time, without asking you? Look for a self-service export, not "raise a request and we'll send it."
- What format does the export come in? Structured CSV or Excel per module (patients, visits, prescriptions, billing, inventory) is workable. A single PDF dump is not.
- If we cancel, how long do we have to retrieve our data, and is there a fee? Get a specific window and a specific number.
- Do we get the case-sheet history, prescriptions, and billing records, or just the current patient list? The history is the part that's painful to lose.
If a vendor is slow or vague here, treat it as the answer.
- Who does the migration — you or us? If it's on you, that's weeks of staff time nobody budgeted for.
- What's the cost, and is it fixed or hourly? Get it in the quote, not "we'll estimate later."
- What can you actually bring over? Patient demographics are easy. Old visit notes, prescription history, outstanding balances, and inventory batches are where migrations get stuck — ask specifically about each.
- How long does it take, and what does our team need to do during it?
- Do we run both systems in parallel for a while, or is it a hard cutover?
- Can we see a sample of our own data migrated before we commit?
- How long until our front desk, doctors, and pharmacy are actually working in the system?
- Is training included, and is it live or just recorded videos?
- Do you train our staff, or train one person who then trains everyone else?
- What happens when we hire someone new six months from now — is there onboarding for them?
- Is there a test environment we can practice in without messing up real data?
- What are your support hours, and do they match ours? A clinic running Sunday OPD needs Sunday support.
- How do we reach you — phone, WhatsApp, email, ticket portal — and which is fastest?
- What's your typical response time for "billing is down and patients are waiting" versus a minor question? Ask for it in writing as an SLA if you're a hospital.
- Who actually answers — someone who understands Ayurveda practice, or a general helpdesk reading a script?
- Is support included in the licence fee or billed separately?
- Can you share two or three current customers of our size we can call? Then actually call them and ask about support specifically.
- How often do you release updates, and do they cost extra?
- Do updates ever remove features or change workflows our staff rely on?
- How much notice do we get before a change that affects daily use?
- How do customers request features, and can you show us something you shipped because a customer asked?
- Is the product actively developed, or in maintenance mode?
- Is this priced per user, per doctor, per branch, or per patient volume? Understand what makes the bill go up as you grow.
- What is genuinely included, and what is a paid add-on? Get modules — EMR, Panchakarma scheduling, pharmacy, reports, SMS/WhatsApp, multi-branch — listed explicitly as included or extra.
- Are there one-time costs? Setup, migration, training, customisation, on-site visits.
- What are the per-message costs for SMS and WhatsApp, and are they marked up?
- How much has your pricing increased in the last two or three years? This tells you what renewals will look like.
- Can we lock the price for the contract term, with a cap on any increase after?
- Is there a real free trial or a pilot at one branch before we roll out everywhere?
- What's the minimum commitment — month to month, one year, three years?
- What's the notice period to cancel, and can we cancel mid-term if service is poor?
- Is there a penalty for leaving early?
- Does the price hold for renewals, or reset to current rates?
- If you're acquired or shut down, what happens to our installation and our data?
- Is this cloud-hosted or installed on our own server? Each has trade-offs — cloud means you depend on their uptime and your internet; on-premise means backups and security are your job.
- Where is the data hosted? For an Indian clinic, data centres in India matter for both latency and compliance.
- What uptime do you actually deliver, and is there a status page or history?
- How often is data backed up, where are backups stored, and have you ever tested a restore?
- If our internet goes down during OPD, what can we still do?
- What happens to our data if we stop paying — is it deleted immediately, held, or locked?
- How is patient data protected — encryption, access controls, audit logs of who viewed which record?
- Are you aligned with India's DPDP Act for handling patient data?
- Have you had a security incident, and how was it handled?
- Can we set role-based permissions so the front desk, pharmacist, and doctors each see only what they should?
If you run a hospital or plan to pursue accreditation, add:
- Does the software support NABH documentation requirements — structured case sheets, consent records, discharge summaries, audit trails? Our NABH-compliant Ayurveda software page covers what that involves, and the NABH documentation checklist lists what assessors look for.
- Are you working toward ABDM / ABHA integration, and on what timeline?
General clinic software with an Ayurveda label on it will struggle with workflows a purpose-built system handles natively. Ask:
- Is the case paper built for Ayurveda diagnosis — dosha assessment, nadi pariksha, classical formulations — or a relabeled allopathic EMR?
- Can it schedule multi-day Panchakarma courses across therapists and rooms, with package billing? See Panchakarma management software for what that should look like.
- Does the pharmacy module handle churnas, kwathas, and tailams with batch-wise expiry, not just barcoded SKUs?
- Does billing treat therapy packages, discounts, and partial dues as first-class, or as a workaround?
Our Ayurveda software buying guide goes deeper on telling a purpose-built system apart from a generic one.
- If we open a second branch, is that a config change or a new contract?
- Can we see consolidated reports across branches while keeping day-to-day operations separate?
- How many patients and how much history can one installation hold before it slows down?
- What's the largest customer you have, and can we talk to them?
- Data: you own it, you can export it yourself anytime, in a usable format, with a clear exit window
- Migration: scope, cost, and timeline in writing — with a sample of your own data migrated first
- Support: hours that match yours, a named response time, and reachable by a channel you'll actually use
- Pricing: every module marked included or extra, past price increases disclosed, renewal cap agreed
- Contract: notice period, early-exit terms, and what happens if the vendor disappears
- Hosting: where the data lives, backup and restore practice, offline behaviour during OPD
- Compliance: DPDP alignment, role-based access, NABH and ABDM support if relevant
- Fit: case paper, Panchakarma scheduling, herbal pharmacy, and package billing built for Ayurveda, not bolted on
- References: two or three current customers your size, actually called
The vendors worth buying from will answer these directly and won't mind you asking. The ones that get defensive are telling you something useful for free.
If you're evaluating options now, the Ayurveda software comparison page lays out how Ayumanager PRO handles these areas, and Ayurveda clinic software walks through the modules in detail.
