A restaurant POS has jobs a retail POS does not: seat and time a table, send each line of an order to the station that cooks it, split the bill and keep the 5 percent restaurant VAT right on every part-invoice, and take a delivery-app order into the same ledger with its commission, which The Business Standard has reported at up to 35 to 40 percent per order, as a cost line. The sector is large and mostly informal: around 80 percent of restaurants remain unregistered, according to the Bangladesh Restaurant Owners' Association in May 2026. Off-the-shelf restaurant packages are published at around ≈ $150 one-time for either of two packages (Sunshine IT, read 4 September 2026, converted at about 120 BDT to the US dollar and rounded). BengalTech's custom tiers are Starts at $2,200 for a cafe or quick-service counter, Starts at $3,400 for a dine-in restaurant and Starts at $5,900 for a multi-branch chain, according to its 2026 price list. The six features below are the difference between those two price levels.
Updated 4 September 2026. Every outside figure links to where it was read; BengalTech figures come from its published 2026 price list.
The real cost: a restaurateur told The Business Standard that a Tk 3,00,000 delivery sale with Tk 90,000 taken as commission leaves no profit. A till that books the order at Tk 3,00,000 and never sees the Tk 90,000 is reporting revenue the restaurant does not have.
The six features, and the proof to ask for
A table map that shows seat time
Every table on one screen with its status, its server and how long it has been occupied. Turnover on a Friday evening is decided by how fast a host can see which table is on dessert.
Proof: Seat a table on the demo, wait, and check that the timer is visible from the host screen without opening the order. Then move the party to another table without re-entering the order.
Kitchen order tickets routed by station
Grill items print at the grill, drinks at the bar, desserts at the pastry station, the moment the server confirms. One ticket to one kitchen printer is a cash-register feature; routing is the restaurant feature.
Proof: Order one grill item and one drink on the same table. Two tickets should print at two stations, each with the table number and the time.
Split bills with the 5 percent VAT on the invoice
Restaurant VAT in Bangladesh is 5 percent; the NBR tripled it to 15 percent on 9 January 2025 and restored 5 percent within the week, according to Dhaka Tribune. The rate has to be a setting, not a hard-coded number, and the split has to keep it correct on every part-bill.
Proof: Split a three-guest table two ways by item. Each invoice should carry its own VAT line at 5 percent and the two should add up to the table total. Then change the rate in settings and print again.
Delivery orders in the same ledger, commission as a cost line
Delivery platforms charged commissions of up to 35 to 40 percent per order, against a pre-pandemic ceiling of 20 percent, and online orders settled at 8 to 10 percent of sales after the lockdowns, according to The Business Standard. An order on a separate tablet is revenue you cannot see net of that commission.
Proof: Enter a Foodpanda or Pathao Food order with its commission percentage and look at the day-close. Gross, commission and net should be three separate lines. Ask whether the platform feed is a scoped integration or manual entry; both are fine, a vague "yes" is not.
Stock that depletes by recipe
A retail POS subtracts one unit per sale. A restaurant POS subtracts 180 grams of rice, 120 grams of chicken and a portion of oil per biryani, so food cost is known per dish rather than guessed at month end.
Proof: Sell ten of one dish on the demo and open the stock report. The raw ingredients should have moved by ten portions; if only "biryani: 10" moved, there is no recipe costing.
A till that keeps billing through load shedding, with bKash at the table
Daytime load shedding reached seven to eleven hours a day in parts of the country in April 2026, according to Dhaka Tribune, and mobile financial services move around Tk 6,000 crore a day, according to The Daily Star. The till must bill and print without the internet, and a bKash or Nagad payment must post to the table, not to a separate phone.
Proof: Unplug the router mid-service. Bills should still print and KOTs should still route. Reconnect and check the sales appear in the cloud report with the same timestamps.
The week restaurant VAT went to 15 percent and back
Restaurant VAT had been 5 percent for years. On 9 January 2025 the NBR raised it to 15 percent alongside increases on nearly 100 goods and services; after the Bangladesh Restaurant Owners' Association appealed and protests were threatened, the NBR restored the previous 5 percent within the week, Dhaka Tribune reported on 16 January 2025. By May 2026 the association was back at a press conference asking for VAT and tax to be held at a reasonable level in the budget, and warning that around 80 percent of restaurants remain unregistered and that opening one takes 10 to 12 certificates and two to six months, according to The Daily Star.
Two things follow for the till. The rate must be a setting the owner changes and reprints in a minute, because it changed twice in one week and the association expects it to be argued over again at every budget. And the invoice must be one the NBR accepts, since it has been mandating electronic fiscal devices sector by sector, hotels and restaurants on highways among them, according to The Financial Express. The six-question POS checklist covers the Mushak 6.3 fields any Bangladesh POS has to print.
Delivery apps: one ledger, commission visible
The Business Standard's December 2021 report on the commission dispute is still the clearest account of the economics. Before the pandemic the highest commission any platform charged was 20 percent; during it, with as much as half of some restaurants' sales going through the apps, commissions rose to 30 percent and in some cases 40, sometimes applied to the VAT-inclusive price, and the owners' association demanded a 10 percent ceiling. After the lockdowns, online orders settled at 8 to 10 percent of sales. Foodpanda's managing director put its side plainly: a 25 percent commission on a Tk 200 order is Tk 50, which goes entirely to the rider.
By 2023 the market had consolidated. Uber Eats, Shohoz Food and HungryNaki had left or were leaving; nationwide orders ran at around 60,000 a day, with Foodpanda serving about two-thirds and Pathao Food most of the rest, according to The Business Standard. For the POS the lesson is the same either way: every platform order belongs in the same ledger as dine-in, booked gross with the commission as a cost line, so the day-close shows what the restaurant kept. Each platform has its own API, so an integration is scoped per platform (see the delivery API integration guide); manual entry with the commission percentage gives the same report until then.
What a restaurant POS costs
Software only, one-time. Hardware (kitchen printers, terminals, drawer) is covered with Star Tech list prices in the POS price guide; a kitchen display screen is extra.
| Option | Price | What you get | Of the six features |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunshine IT Basic | ≈ $150 | Single company, single warehouse, 1–3 users. Billing, inventory, reports. No backup or SMS. (published package, read 4 September 2026) | Billing and stock on one PC. A table map, station-routed KOT, split bills, delivery ledger, recipe depletion and offline sync are not listed. |
| Sunshine IT Professional | ≈ $150 | Single company, multi-warehouse, unlimited users, monthly backup and SMS included. (same page) | As above with more users and warehouses. The six are not listed. |
| BengalTech Cafe / Quick Service | Starts at $2,200 | Fast counter checkout, bKash/Nagad, basic inventory, daily sales reports. Source code yours, no per-terminal fee. | VAT as a setting, delivery orders with commission line, offline till. No table map or station routing (a counter does not need them). |
| BengalTech Dine-in Restaurant | Starts at $3,400 | Table map, KOT routed by station, waiter assignment, split bills, recipe costing. | All six. |
| BengalTech Multi-Branch Chain | Starts at $5,900 | Everything in Dine-in plus cloud sync, one menu and price list across branches, central kitchen and franchise controls. | All six, across branches. |
The tiers are the same ones on the restaurant POS service page. Honest reading: a single counter selling tea and snacks should buy the package. The dine-in tier pays for itself where the package stops: a kitchen that gets its own tickets, a bill that splits, a delivery ledger that shows the commission, and food cost per dish. For how a one-time build compares with Square and Toast over three years, see the custom POS development cost guide.
Signs you've outgrown a basic register
If any of these sound familiar, the dine-in tier is the one to price:
- Kitchen staff regularly work from handwritten tickets that get lost or misread.
- Splitting a bill between guests takes several minutes and a calculator.
- Delivery orders from Foodpanda or Pathao Food are managed on a separate tablet, disconnected from your main sales records.
- Nobody can say what a plate of the best-selling dish costs to make.
- Closing the register at night involves manually adding up printed receipts.
- The VAT rate on the receipt is whatever the printer was set to when it was installed.
One system, every channel
The biggest single improvement most restaurants see is not any one feature. It is having dine-in, takeaway and delivery reconciled in one place, net of commission, with stock moving by recipe underneath. Load shedding of seven to eleven hours a day in April 2026 is why the offline test is on the list, and Tk 6,000 crore a day moving through mobile wallets is why the bKash payment has to post to the table. If you also sell packaged goods at a counter, the super shop POS guide covers barcode billing and weight scales.
Running a restaurant on a basic register or a mismatched retail POS? BengalTech Solutions builds restaurant POS software with a table map, station-routed KOT, split bills and recipe costing, and scopes delivery-platform integration per platform. Tell us about your setup.
Sources
External references behind the figures and claims on this page. Rate bands and vendor pricing move — check the source before quoting a number.
- NBR restores previous 5% VAT for restaurant sector (16 January 2025)
Dhaka Tribune
Restaurant VAT had been 5 percent for a long time, was raised to 15 percent on 9 January 2025 alongside increases on nearly 100 goods and services, and was restored to 5 percent after the Bangladesh Restaurant Owners' Association appealed.
- Restaurant owners demand tax relief (11 May 2026)
The Daily Star
BROA's secretary general said VAT on restaurants was reduced from 15 to 5 percent, that around 80 percent of restaurants remain unregistered, and that opening a restaurant requires 10 to 12 certificates and two to six months.
- Restaurants vs food delivery companies: A face-off over commissions (15 December 2021)
The Business Standard
Delivery platforms charged up to 35–40 percent commission per order against a pre-pandemic ceiling of 20 percent, sometimes applied to the VAT-inclusive price; BROA demanded a 10 percent ceiling; online orders settled at 8–10 percent of sales after the lockdowns; a restaurateur's example of a large delivery sale losing almost a third to commission; Foodpanda's managing director on a 25 percent commission covering rider cost.
- Where is Bangladesh's online food delivery market headed? (16 July 2023)
The Business Standard
Daily online food orders of around 60,000 nationwide, Foodpanda serving about two-thirds and Pathao Food the rest; Uber Eats, Shohoz Food and HungryNaki exiting or winding down.
- Installation of EFD/SDC mandatory at hotels, restaurants located on highways: NBR
The Financial Express
EFD/SDC installation being mandated sector by sector, hotels and restaurants on highways among them — why the invoice must be one the NBR accepts.
- Tk 6,000cr moves daily, but not every wallet is winning
The Daily Star
Mobile financial services move around Tk 6,000 crore a day — why a bKash or Nagad payment must post to the table rather than a separate phone.
- Power supply slashed, daytime load shedding surges to 8–9 hours nationwide (17 April 2026)
Dhaka Tribune
Daytime load shedding of seven to eleven hours a day in Chittagong, Khulna and Rangpur in April 2026 — why the till must bill and route KOTs offline.
- Restaurant POS Software in Bangladesh: packages
Sunshine IT
Two published one-time restaurant POS packages (Basic: single company, single warehouse, 1–3 users, no backup or SMS; Professional: multi-warehouse, unlimited users, monthly backup and SMS) listing billing, inventory and reports, with no kitchen order tickets, table map or delivery integration listed, read 4 September 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
What features does restaurant POS software need in Bangladesh?
Six. A table map with seat time, kitchen order tickets routed to the right station, split bills that keep the 5 percent restaurant VAT correct on every part-invoice, delivery-app orders in the same ledger with the commission as a cost line, stock that depletes by recipe so food cost is known per dish, and a till that keeps billing offline and posts bKash or Nagad payments to the table. Waiter assignment, best-seller reports and a supplier ledger sit behind those six.
How much does restaurant POS software cost in Bangladesh?
Off-the-shelf restaurant packages are published at around ≈ $150 one-time by Sunshine IT, read 4 September 2026 and converted at about 120 BDT to the US dollar; that page lists billing, inventory and reports, and does not list kitchen order tickets, a table map or delivery integration. A custom build from BengalTech is Starts at $2,200 for a cafe or quick-service counter, Starts at $3,400 for a dine-in restaurant with a table map, station-routed KOT, waiter assignment, split bills and recipe costing, and Starts at $5,900 for a multi-branch chain with one menu and stock ledger across outlets, one-time, with the source code yours and no per-terminal fee. Hardware and delivery-platform integrations are scoped separately.
What is the VAT rate for restaurants in Bangladesh?
5 percent. The NBR raised it to 15 percent on 9 January 2025 as part of increases on nearly 100 goods and services, and restored 5 percent within the week after the Bangladesh Restaurant Owners' Association appealed, according to Dhaka Tribune. In May 2026 the association was still asking for the rate to be held at a reasonable level in the budget, according to The Daily Star. For the POS that means the rate is a setting the owner can change and reprint, and every split invoice carries its own VAT line. The NBR has also mandated electronic fiscal devices sector by sector, including hotels and restaurants on highways, according to The Financial Express.
Can a restaurant POS combine dine-in, takeaway and delivery apps into one system?
Yes, and it should, because the commission is where the margin goes. The Business Standard reported that delivery platforms charged up to 35 to 40 percent commission per order, sometimes applied to the VAT-inclusive price, and that online orders settled at 8 to 10 percent of restaurant sales after the lockdowns. Nationwide online orders ran at around 60,000 a day in 2023, with Foodpanda serving about two-thirds and Pathao Food most of the rest. Each platform has its own API, so an integration is scoped per platform; until then, a delivery order entered at the till with its commission percentage still gives you gross, commission and net on the day-close.
What is a Kitchen Order Ticket (KOT) and why does routing matter?
A KOT is the order slip that prints in the kitchen the moment a server confirms an order. Routing means each line prints at the station that makes it: grill, fryer, bar, dessert. Without routing, one printer gets everything and someone in the kitchen sorts it by hand, which is where lost and misread orders come from. With routing, each station sees only its own lines, with the table number and the time the order was placed.
How does table management help during a busy service?
A visual floor map shows which tables are occupied, which are free, which server has them and how long each has been seated. The host seats from the screen instead of walking the floor, a party can be moved between tables without re-entering the order, and the seat timer tells the manager which tables are slow before the guests do.
What are the signs a restaurant has outgrown a basic cash register?
Kitchen staff work from handwritten tickets that get lost, splitting a bill takes several minutes with a calculator, delivery orders sit on a disconnected tablet, nobody can say what a plate of the best seller costs to make, closing the register means adding up printed receipts by hand, and the VAT rate on the receipt is whatever the printer was set to when it was installed.