How to choose a POS system for your business in India

Billing speed is the one thing you feel every single day. On a busy evening you need to add items in one or two taps or a single barcode scan, adjust quantity inline, split or merge bills, and settle across cash, UPI, and card without hunting through menus. Test this yourself — build a ten-item bill against the clock — rather than trusting a demo video.

Flexibility matters just as much. Check that the POS handles the way you actually sell: loose weight for a grocery, size-colour variants for apparel, KOT routing for a restaurant, or advance payments for furniture. A screen that forces your business to work its way, instead of the other way round, quietly costs you time on every transaction.

A POS should do your GST maths for you. Confirm it applies the correct CGST/SGST/IGST split automatically, stores HSN codes against each product, and generates GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, and an HSN summary for any date range and outlet. Ask to see a sample export — 'GST-ready' on a brochure means little until you hand the file to your accountant.

Also check the small things that trip up filings: credit notes for returns, correct treatment of discounts before tax, and per-outlet reports if you have more than one branch. Good GST output turns filing from a monthly scramble into a two-minute export.

Power cuts and broadband drops are a fact of Indian retail, so ask the vendor a blunt question: exactly what still works with no internet? A well-built cloud POS keeps billing on the local network and queues sales to sync when the connection returns; a purely online tool simply stops, which is unacceptable at a live counter.

Understand the difference between your local network and your broadband. Your billing device talking to the receipt printer or kitchen screen usually runs on in-shop Wi-Fi, which keeps working even when the line to the outside world is down. Test this before you buy by pulling the internet cable mid-bill and seeing what happens.

Pricing comes in two shapes. Per-addon pricing lets you pay only for the modules you switch on — handy for a small shop that needs billing and GST but not delivery or loyalty. Bundles charge a flat fee for everything, which can be cheaper once you use many features. Add 18% GST to every quoted subscription and compare the real monthly cost per counter.

The most important long-term question is ownership of your data. Before committing, confirm you can export products, customers, and full sales history to a spreadsheet yourself, without begging support. Watch for the red flags below — they are how businesses get quietly locked in.

• No self-serve data export, or an 'export fee' to leave
• Long lock-in contracts with steep early-exit penalties
• Hardware that only works with that one vendor's software
• Prices quoted without GST, or per-feature charges hidden until later
• No offline mode, or vague answers about what works without internet

Software ranges from free starter tiers to roughly ₹300–₹2,500 per month per counter for a full cloud POS with GST reports, plus 18% GST. On hardware, budget a one-time ₹8,000–₹15,000 for a thermal printer, ₹1,500–₹4,000 for a barcode scanner, and ₹2,000–₹4,000 for a cash drawer; many shops simply run the POS on an Android tablet or an existing computer.

ERP Node uses per-addon pricing, so you can start with just billing and GST reports and switch on inventory, delivery, or loyalty later as you grow. Whatever you choose, total the software, hardware, and GST together before comparing quotes — the cheapest monthly plan is not always the cheapest counter.