How to choose a restaurant POS in India. The 2026 checklist.
Ten things to check before you sign with any POS vendor — what each one matters for, the exact questions to ask on the demo call, and how we handle it at XENIOS so you have one reference answer to compare against.
The checklist
- 01It keeps billing when the internet drops
- 02GST-compliant billing and UPI at the counter
- 03Kitchen tickets (KOT) and a kitchen display
- 04QR ordering that lands on the same bill
- 05Inventory driven by recipes (BOM)
- 06Multiple outlets on one system
- 07Published, transparent pricing
- 08You own your data, with full export
- 09Kitchen and floor staff can use it in their language
- 10No hardware lock-in
Written by XENIOS, a restaurant POS vendor. The questions are vendor-neutral — use them with anyone, including us.
01 / 10
It keeps billing when the internet drops
Indian broadband and mobile data still drop mid-service. If your POS needs the cloud to place an order or print a bill, an outage stops the counter and the kitchen at the worst possible moment.
What to ask the vendor
- If the internet goes down for an hour on a Saturday night, which screens still work — billing, kitchen tickets, payments, inventory?
- Where does the master copy of today's orders live: on a device in my outlet, or on your server?
- What happens to orders taken offline when the connection returns? Can any be lost or duplicated?
How XENIOS handles it
The master database runs on the in-cafe laptop, so orders, kitchen tickets, payments and inventory keep flowing offline. The cloud is a backup that syncs automatically once the connection returns.
02 / 10
GST-compliant billing and UPI at the counter
Every bill has to carry the right GST treatment for your outlet, and most Indian guests expect to pay by UPI. Billing that gets tax wrong creates work for your accountant; payments that don't match orders create work for your cashier.
What to ask the vendor
- Can GST be configured per outlet if my outlets are set up differently?
- Show me a sample invoice. Does it have everything my CA needs?
- Does a UPI payment link to the specific order, or does the cashier match payments by hand?
- Can I export sales and tax data in a format my accountant already uses?
How XENIOS handles it
GST rate set per outlet, applied the moment an order is created, with GST-compliant invoices. UPI deep-link generation with a per-order QR and claim flow. GST, UPI and the cash drawer are included from the Starter plan up.
03 / 10
Kitchen tickets (KOT) and a kitchen display
A POS that bills well but doesn't route orders to the kitchen leaves you with paper chits, missed items and a cashier who disagrees with the kitchen about what was served.
What to ask the vendor
- Do orders route to the right station automatically (tandoor, bar, cold kitchen)?
- Does the kitchen get an alert when a ticket is running late?
- Can tickets print and show on a screen at the same time?
- Which plan includes KOT — is it extra?
How XENIOS handles it
Kitchen Order Tickets with station filters and 15-minute late alerts, plus bilingual KOT printing. Kitchen KOT is included from the Growth plan; it is not part of Starter.
04 / 10
QR ordering that lands on the same bill
QR ordering cuts the wait for a waiter, but only if QR orders, POS orders and waiter orders end up on one bill. Otherwise you are back to reconciling at the end of the night.
What to ask the vendor
- Do guests need to download an app or log in to order?
- If two friends at one table order from their own phones and the waiter adds starters at the POS, is it one bill or three?
- Do QR orders reach the kitchen the same way POS orders do?
How XENIOS handles it
Customer QR ordering with twelve sub-screens and no app install. One running bill per table — POS, QR and friends' phones merge live.
05 / 10
Inventory driven by recipes (BOM)
Inventory that depends on someone updating it after a busy night drifts within a week. Recipe-level inventory — a Bill of Materials for each dish — deducts stock as you sell, so the numbers mean something.
What to ask the vendor
- Can I define a recipe for each menu item with ingredient quantities?
- Is stock deducted automatically when an order is fulfilled? What happens when an item is cancelled?
- How are purchases and wastage recorded, and can I attach the supplier invoice?
- Will I get a low-stock alert before I run out?
How XENIOS handles it
Recipe Bill-of-Materials per menu item, in grams. Stock auto-deducts on order fulfilment and auto-restocks on item cancel or kitchen reject. Purchase and wastage entries carry a photo and invoice number. Inventory with recipe BOM is included from the Growth plan.
06 / 10
Multiple outlets on one system
If you have, or plan to have, more than one outlet, you want one menu master, one staff list and one set of reports — not a separate login per outlet and a spreadsheet to combine them.
What to ask the vendor
- Can each outlet have its own menu, prices and staff while I still see everything in one dashboard?
- Does each outlet keep working on its own if the link between outlets is down?
- How is a second or third outlet priced?
How XENIOS handles it
Cafe Deja Vu runs three outlets on a single XENIOS instance, with per-outlet menus, pricing, staff and reports rolled up centrally into one dashboard. The multi-outlet dashboard is part of the Growth plan, priced per outlet.
07 / 10
Published, transparent pricing
Many POS vendors in India don't publish pricing. The headline subscription is rarely the full cost once you add outlets, modules, support, hardware and migration. Comparing vendors is impossible until every cost is on paper.
What to ask the vendor
- Can I have an itemised written quote — subscription per outlet, each paid module, support, hardware, migration and GST?
- Which features on your demo are not included in the plan you are quoting?
- What is the renewal price, and is there a minimum contract term or cancellation fee?
- Is there a free trial or a refund window?
How XENIOS handles it
Prices are published: Starter ₹4,999 a year for a single outlet (up to 30 tables), Growth ₹6,999 per outlet per year, Enterprise custom. All prices exclude 18% GST. Every tier has a 14-day free trial.
08 / 10
You own your data, with full export
Your sales, menu, customer and staff history is the most valuable record your restaurant has. If you can't take it with you, switching vendors later becomes a negotiation.
What to ask the vendor
- Can I export all my data — orders, menu, customers, staff — at any time, not just at cancellation?
- In what format? A spreadsheet of totals, or the full raw records?
- Where are backups stored, and how often are they taken?
- What happens to my data if I stop paying?
How XENIOS handles it
Postgres on your hardware is the master, with daily backups and full SQL export on demand. On cancellation you get 30 days of read-only access to export everything. Leaving XENIOS is a download, not a negotiation.
09 / 10
Kitchen and floor staff can use it in their language
Your cashier may read English at speed; your kitchen may not. A system that only speaks English slows the people who actually cook and serve.
What to ask the vendor
- Can kitchen tickets print in Hindi or another local language?
- Can the waiter or kitchen app announce orders by voice?
- Can staff switch the interface language themselves?
How XENIOS handles it
Bilingual KOT printing, a bilingual English/Hindi UI, and voice in en-IN and hi-IN with Hinglish phrasing for kitchen and waiter staff. KOT voice feedback (Hindi/English) is part of the Growth plan.
10 / 10
No hardware lock-in
Some systems only run on the vendor's own terminals. That raises your upfront cost and ties you to one supplier for repairs and replacements.
What to ask the vendor
- Will it run on laptops, tablets and phones I already own?
- If I buy your hardware and later leave, does the hardware still work with another system?
- Which printers and kitchen screens are supported?
How XENIOS handles it
Runs on any Windows or Linux laptop or tablet you already own; kitchen displays, staff tablets and printers are optional. A turnkey hardware bundle is available from ₹35,000, but nothing is locked to our devices.
Put XENIOS through the same checklist.
Bring these questions to a demo. Or, if you're in Pune, come watch it run at Cafe Deja Vu, where the nightly close went from 45 minutes to 8.
Restaurant POS questions, answered.
Short answers to what operators in India ask most when choosing a POS.
- What is a KOT in a restaurant POS?
- A KOT (Kitchen Order Ticket) is the instruction the kitchen receives for each order — which items, for which table, and any notes. In a modern POS the KOT is sent to a kitchen printer or kitchen display automatically when the order is placed, so the kitchen and the cashier work from the same order.
- Does a restaurant POS in India need to work offline?
- If your outlet ever loses internet during service, yes. Ask the vendor which functions keep working offline — billing, kitchen tickets, payments and inventory — and where the master copy of the day's orders is stored. XENIOS keeps its master database on the in-cafe laptop and syncs to the cloud when the connection returns.
- How much does a restaurant POS cost in India?
- It varies widely, and many vendors don't publish prices. Ask for an itemised written quote that lists the subscription per outlet, paid modules, support, hardware, migration and GST. For reference, XENIOS publishes its pricing: Starter is ₹4,999 a year for a single outlet and Growth is ₹6,999 per outlet per year, both excluding 18% GST.
- Can one POS run multiple restaurant outlets?
- Many can, but check whether each outlet keeps its own menu, prices and staff while you see combined reports in one dashboard. Cafe Deja Vu runs three outlets in Pune on a single XENIOS instance with reports rolled up into one dashboard.
- Do I need to buy new hardware to switch POS?
- Not always. Ask whether the system runs on laptops, tablets and printers you already own, and whether any hardware you buy is locked to that vendor. XENIOS runs on any Windows or Linux laptop or tablet; extra kitchen displays, tablets and printers are optional.