What a café billing system needs in India: five rules from building Print Lab Co.

When Simp’s Café asked for a billing system, the easy answer was to copy the biggest POS on the market. We did the opposite and studied it first: how it works, what café owners complain about, and the GST, FSSAI and service charge rules every bill has to follow. Six research documents later, we had five rules.

1. A bill can never be deleted quietly

Missing bills are where money disappears. In Print Lab Co. a bill can only be cancelled or reopened on the same day, and a manager’s PIN is needed to cancel one.

2. Billing keeps working when the internet does not

Café internet drops at the worst moment, usually during a rush. The counter has to keep billing anyway, which is why the app installs on the counter device and carries its own fonts and assets instead of fetching them mid-rush.

3. The menu price is the bill price

Customers notice when the total does not match the menu. The price a customer sees on the menu is the price that lands on the bill, with taxes handled the same way every time by one calculation on the server.

4. The owner hears about it first

Unusual cancellations, a till that does not match, a day that closes short: the rule is that the owner should hear about it on WhatsApp that day, not find out at the end of the month.

5. Compliance by default

GST on the invoice and the right details on every receipt are not settings someone has to remember to turn on.

What it does at the counter

Counter and table modes, kitchen tickets (KOTs) on the printer, 80 mm thermal receipts, split payments with a UPI QR, a day-end close and an insights dashboard for the owner. The menu and table plan came from the café itself: five tables inside and eight outside.

It went live on 12 October 2026 and runs at Simp’s under their own brand, alongside the social media we run for them.