Baseline measurement of pharmacy work practices can assist in optimally utilising staff expertise. Work sampling technology was applied to measure community pharmacy staff activities. Random reminders, programmed to average 6.4 signals per hour, alerted staff to scan custom-defined barcodes with pocketsized readers. Barcodes depicted location, contact (person) and activity when signalled. Recording took place for one working week. Data were validated by initial observation and search for illogical data. Data are presented for one pharmacy; compliance with the study was estimated at 83%. It was estimated that the pharmacist was in the dispensary 81% of the time, and in contact with patients in 14% of instances. Technical tasks constituted 21% of the pharmacist's and 43% of the intern's recorded tasks. Reallocation of nonprofessional tasks could allow more patient consultation and professional tasks by pharmacists. These electronic methods were considered viable, and further development are underway.