Restaurant POS Software Features: A Checklist for India

Every restaurant POS brochure lists dozens of features, and most of them sound the same. The useful question is not "does it have billing?" but "does it bill the way my restaurant bills, on my busiest night?" This checklist breaks a restaurant POS into the parts that actually matter in India, with specific things to check and questions to put to every vendor. It does not rank anyone. A dhaba, a café and a fine dine restaurant will tick different boxes, and that is the point.

How to use this checklist

Before you open a single demo, mark each section below as one of three things for your restaurant:

• Must have — you would not buy without it
• Nice to have — useful, but you could live without it for a year
• Not needed — irrelevant to how you serve

Then take the list into every demo and ask the vendor to show each must-have, not describe it. A feature you saw working on your own menu counts. A feature that is "coming soon" or "possible with customisation" does not, until it is in writing.

If you are still working out what a full system includes, start with what a restaurant management system is, then come back here.

1. Billing and GST

This is the core of any POS, and in India it has to be exact.

• GST shown on every bill with the SGST and CGST split
• Tax and fee lines you can configure yourself, such as service charge, and switch on or off
• Separate tax setup and invoice numbering per outlet, with a prefix and a reset date
• Discounts applied in the right order relative to tax, and shown clearly on the bill
• Bill history you can filter by date and status, including cancelled bills

Ask: "Show me a bill with a discount, a promo code and GST, then show me where I find it tomorrow." If you are on the composition scheme or have a mix of tax rates, ask your CA what your bills must show and check the software can produce exactly that.

2. Payments

Most Indian restaurants now take a large share of payments by UPI, alongside cash and card.

• UPI, cash and card all available from the same bill screen
• A UPI QR generated for the bill amount, or your UPI ID shown on screen
• Cash change calculated automatically from the amount received
• A payment-mix view at day end, so cash in the drawer can be checked against the system

Ask: "Does your software settle the money, or does my bank or payment provider?" Also ask what happens when one guest pays part in cash and part by UPI, and whether you can split one table's bill between several guests. Some systems handle both, some do neither.

3. Kitchen: KOT and kitchen display

How orders reach the kitchen decides more of your service quality than the bill screen does.

• Orders sent to the kitchen without re-typing, with modifiers and notes attached
• Either printed KOTs at each station, or a kitchen display, or both. Decide which you need
• On a display: timers that change colour as orders age, and filtering so cooks see only what concerns them
• Marking individual items ready, not just the whole order

Ask: "Can the grill and the tandoor each get only their own items?" Some systems route by station, others filter by menu category, others do neither. If you print KOTs today, confirm printer support with your printer model. Our KOT explainer covers paper versus digital tickets.

4. Tables and floor

Skip this section if you run a counter-service café or a takeaway.

• A floor view grouped by section, with table status at a glance
• Combining tables for a large party
• Opening an occupied table straight into its order
• A waiting list for walk-ins, if you get queues on weekends
• Captain and waiter assignment per table

See how this affects table turn time.

5. Menu, modifiers and availability

• Categories, veg and non-veg flags, short codes for fast entry
• Modifier groups with rules, such as "choose one spice level" or "up to three add-ons", each with its own price
• Switching an item off when the kitchen runs out, from the floor and not only from the back office
• One menu that feeds billing, staff ordering and any QR menu

Ask: "If I change the price of paneer tikka, where else do I have to change it?" The right answer is "nowhere".

6. Discounts and promo codes

• Manual discounts that are recorded, not just typed over the total
• Promo codes with a minimum order, a maximum discount, a date range and a usage limit
• Day-of-week and hour-of-day windows, for filling slow afternoons
• Codes limited to one outlet or open across all outlets
• A report showing which promos were used and what they cost you

7. Inventory and food cost

Often skipped at purchase and regretted later.

• Raw materials with units, cost per unit and supplier
• Minimum and maximum levels with low-stock status
• Stock in and stock out recorded with a reason, such as purchase, wastage or correction
• Recipes linked to menu items, giving a cost per dish

Ask: "Does selling a dish reduce stock automatically, or do I record usage myself?" Answers vary, and the difference matters for how much daily work stock takes. Our guide to inventory management explains the habits behind it.

8. Reports

• Sales, order count and average order value, by day and by outlet
• Top-selling items
• A day-end summary: gross sales, discounts, GST collected and net collected
• New versus returning customers

Ask: "Can I export this to Excel or send it to my accountant?" Not every system exports, and those that do export different things.

9. Staff roles and access

• Separate roles for owner, manager, captain, waiter and chef
• Permissions per module: view, add or edit, delete
• A way to stop staff deleting bills or changing prices
• Removing a staff member's access the day they leave

10. Multi-outlet

Even with one outlet, ask what adding a second would involve.

• All outlets under one account and one login
• Per-outlet tables, taxes and invoice series
• An owner view that compares outlets side by side
• Managers limited to the outlet they run

See how to manage multiple outlets.

11. Hardware

• Does it run in a browser on phones and tablets you already own, or does it need the vendor's terminal?
• Which printers, cash drawers and card machines does it support, by model?
• What happens to the hardware if you leave the vendor?

12. Internet dependence

This is the question owners most often forget to ask.

• Does the POS keep working if the internet drops in the middle of service?
• If it has an offline mode, what syncs when the connection returns, and what does not?
• If it has no offline mode, what is the recommended backup: a second broadband line, a mobile hotspot?

There is no wrong answer here, only an unknown one. Cloud software gives you access from anywhere; it also needs a connection. Know which you are buying.

13. Integrations: ask, don't assume

Integrations differ more between vendors than anything else on this list. Ask each one, by name:

• Delivery apps — do online orders arrive in the POS, or on a separate tablet?
• Printers — receipt and KOT printers, with your models
• Card machines and payment providers — which ones, and is settlement automatic?
• Accounting — can sales be exported in a format your accountant uses?
• An API — can your own developer connect other tools?

If an integration matters to you, make it part of the written quote.

14. Support and onboarding

• Who enters your menu, tables and staff: you, or the vendor?
• Training for captains and kitchen staff, in the language they work in
• Support hours that include your busiest hours, and a real phone number
• What a renewal costs, and how you get your data out if you leave

Our guide to what restaurant POS software costs in India lists the cost questions in detail.

Which sections matter for your format

Treat this as a starting point, not a rule. A twelve-table dhaba with a busy weekend may need table management more than a café twice its size.

How KhaanaPina measures up against this list

We would rather you ask us these questions than discover the answers later. KhaanaPina covers billing with SGST and CGST split and per-outlet tax lines and invoice series; UPI, cash and card; a kitchen display with colour-coded timers, category filters and item-level ready marking; tables, sections, table combining and a waiting list; menu with modifier rules and availability toggles; promo codes with caps, windows and outlet scope; inventory with recipes and per-item cost; five ready roles plus custom roles with a 22-module permission matrix; and an account dashboard across outlets.

It also handles bill splitting — equally, by what each guest ordered, or one person paying — one bill across Cash, Card and UPI, tips and part-payments, KOT printing by category or section or on a kitchen display, WhatsApp e-bills, and accept mode so staff approve QR orders before they reach the kitchen. Where it does not fit today: it is cloud-based and needs an internet connection, and it does not connect to delivery apps or offer a public API. If any of those is a must-have for you, tell us in the demo and we will be straight with you.

See the POS and billing features, or book a free demo and bring this checklist.

KhaanaPina is restaurant management software built in Gujarat, India, for restaurants across India — QR table ordering, POS billing, kitchen display, table management, inventory and GST-ready reports on one platform. Book a free demo or read more restaurant operations guides on the KhaanaPina blog.