Glossary · Restaurant and counter

What is a POS (point of sale) system?

A point of sale (POS) system is the software and hardware a restaurant, café or shop uses to take an order, bill it, take payment and print the receipt — and, in a good one, to move stock, send tickets to the kitchen and close the day's cash.

Also called Point of sale, POS system, Billing software · Restaurant and counter · Last reviewed 25 September 2026

What is in one

In India "billing software" often means the same thing. The parts that matter:

  • The item list — names, prices, tax rates and HSN codes, variants and add-ons.
  • The billing screen — fast enough for a queue, by scan, search or tap; by the piece or by weight.
  • Payments — cash with change, UPI, card, split between them, and credit (khata).
  • The kitchen, for restaurants — KOTs or a kitchen display.
  • Stock that comes off as things sell.
  • The close — the drawer count and a day-end report.

The hardware is usually a phone, tablet or PC, a thermal receipt printer and a barcode scanner. A card machine is normally a separate device from the bank.

Example

A kirana store sells 250 g of loose cashews at ₹1,200 a kilo. The POS charges ₹300, takes 250 g off the shelf's stock, and puts the sale in the day's UPI or cash column — so at closing the count, the stock and the money all agree.

How Nivasik handles it

Nivasik's POS is ₹1,499 per outlet a month, on any plan or on its own for a restaurant or shop that is not a hotel. It covers restaurants, cafés, bars, bakeries, grocery and kirana stores, and shops of every kind:

  • Barcode and SKU scanning, label-scale barcodes that carry the weight, and selling by the piece or by the kilo.
  • Split payments, quick cash with change, and a UPI QR code for the exact amount (a QR, not a payment gateway); khata, gift cards and credit notes.
  • Tables with QR ordering, kitchen tickets by round, a waiter app and a kitchen display by station.
  • Stock that comes off as it sells, including recipes; batches with their own cost and expiry.
  • A cash drawer per counter with shift close; reports down to GST by HSN, GSTR-1 data and a Tally import file (CSV).
  • Offline billing on shop counters, with real bill numbers, syncing when the internet is back.

What Nivasik does not do

  • No card or UPI terminal integration, and no payment gateway.
  • Swiggy and Zomato orders are punched in at the counter, not received automatically.
  • No e-invoice (IRN) or e-way bill; Tally is an import file, not a live connection.
  • A weighing scale is read through label-scale barcodes, not over USB.

See it on your own place, free for 45 days.

We set it up for you — your rooms, menu or stock list, your staff and your prices — and walk it end to end on your phone. No card, and we invoice only if you stay.