40 pharmacies, one login, and room to grow to 50

Before Affiniti

Do traditional banks understand community pharmacy? “Absolutely not.”

Ask Jeff Harrell whether traditional banks understand the business model of community pharmacy and the answer is two words long: “Absolutely not.” Courtney Quinby, who owns Chehalis Pharmacy and Centralia Pharmacy in partnership with Cascadia, explains what rides on it: “It’s really hard to find a partner that has independent pharmacies’ best interest in mind, and making sure that we choose them wisely. It can determine our success or failure.”

Cascadia chose Affiniti in March 2024, for one pharmacy. Two and a half years later, more than 40 pharmacies, their holding companies, and a handful of side businesses run employee cards, receipts, and supplier payments through a single login, and Jeff is planning for 50.

Before Affiniti

A new bank login for every pharmacy Jeff bought

Jeff bought into Peninsula Pharmacies on the Washington coast in 2006, working long hours to keep a handful of stores afloat amid rising drug costs and shrinking margins. By 2011 he had added two more and begun forming alliances with like-minded owners, and that network became Cascadia, which centralizes what a single store can’t do well on its own: purchasing, HR, payables, compliance, IT. Finance was the piece that refused to centralize.

“Most traditional financial institutions just can’t keep up with our growth,” Jeff says. “Every time we add a new pharmacy, finding a partner who can quickly issue business credit cards is a real challenge. It often feels like navigating a maze just to open a new line of credit.”

Getting the card was only half the problem. “When I do find a bank willing to issue a card, it adds a heavy burden on my finance team: new usernames and passwords, multiple dashboards to manage, and the hassle of tracking each employee’s cards across various banks. It quickly becomes a nightmare to keep everything organized.” At roughly one acquisition a month, that nightmare compounded.

The turning point

Click the store, add the employee, set the limits

Jeff was on his way to the NCPA presidency when the association endorsed Affiniti. “The NCPA faces one of the toughest challenges out there. Fighting for community pharmacists against PBMs and large insurance companies is no small task,” he says. “So when they endorse a tool, it definitely warrants a closer look.”

He gave it one store, then asked for the thing no bank had been able to give him. “I requested a way to manage all my pharmacies through a single dashboard with one set of credentials. They listened, and delivered. I’ve never experienced that level of service before.”

Onboarding a pharmacy now sounds like this: “We got one login, we got an enterprise list. You click on the store, you add in the employee, you set the limits, they get an email, they enroll, they get the cards. It is smooth as silk.” That flow has produced 468 active employee cards across the group, each with spending limits set at the store level, and a newly acquired pharmacy, like the two Cascadia added in September, is buying inventory on Affiniti within days instead of waiting on a bank.

Receipt capture

The receipt that knows which pharmacy it belongs to

Courtney’s week is split across more than one store, so receipt capture is the part of the platform she touches most. “As a multi-store owner, I’m able to use Affiniti’s receipt feature. It knows which store to put it on. It knows where to add that memo. It has saved hundreds of hours of time and headache.”

A technician snaps a photo of a receipt and texts it in. Affiniti’s AI reads it, matches it to the right card transaction at the right pharmacy, and attaches the memo, so nobody at Cascadia’s central office is sorting receipts by location. “My employees don’t have to deal with complicated apps, and I don’t have to spend thousands on expense tracking,” Jeff says. “All I do is snap a photo of a receipt and text it in, and at the end of the month, my accountant is impressed.”

To date, 44 Cascadia businesses have filed 6,789 receipts this way, 83% of them by text, with 99% matched automatically.

Bill pay by card

The wholesaler invoice, paid on Cascadia’s schedule

The newest piece arrived this September: bill pay by card. A pharmacy’s largest recurring cost is its drug wholesaler, and 19 Cascadia pharmacies now pay that invoice on the Affiniti card instead of by ACH or check. The wholesaler is paid on time, and the cash stays in Cascadia’s accounts until the card statement comes due, which lines the group’s biggest payable up with the weeks it takes to collect from PBMs.

In the first two months, that was $4.8 million in supplier invoices across 244 payments, with flu vaccine, compounding supply, and generics purchases already running through the card alongside it.

Outcomes

Growing to 50 pharmacies on the same back office

Ask Jeff what the platform is worth and he starts with five words: “Time savings and the money savings.” Then the part an operator cares about: “It allows us to grow in our business to 50 without having to add a ton of manpower.”

The numbers behind that line:

• More than 40 pharmacies, plus holding companies and side businesses, managed from one login, with a new store added in minutes rather than weeks.
• 468 active employee cards, each with store-level limits set by the pharmacy that uses them.
• $30 million in purchasing run through Affiniti to date, including nearly $18 million in 2026 so far, up from $10.5 million in all of 2025.
• 6,789 receipts matched to the right store automatically, 99% without anyone touching them.
• $4.8 million in supplier invoices paid by card in the first two months of bill pay by card.

Card volume has nearly doubled year over year without, in Jeff’s words, “a ton of manpower.” “I save days each year by having everything in one place,” he says. “As a community pharmacy owner, I want to focus on patient care, not managing finances.”

Advice

Jeff and Courtney’s advice to other pharmacy owners

Both of them frame the decision as choosing a partner, not a card. Courtney’s test is whether the partner keeps pace: “When we find partnerships like Affiniti, it’s really important for them to adapt and evolve just like we do.” Jeff’s test is whether it slows him down: “Finance should help drive growth, not slow it down. I finally have a partner who supports my growth. We are growing quickly and moving nimbly, and so is Affiniti.”

Courtney’s reason for caring this much about who runs the back office is one every independent owner will recognize: “Honestly, every day in an independent pharmacy, you’re fighting for your existence. To not have to fight with someone who’s kind of nice.”