Accounting software for shopkeepers

POS at the counter, books in the background

Most shopkeepers don't sit down at a desktop to bill customers — they bill from a phone or a tablet at the counter, often one-handed. HelloBooks POS is built for that: barcode scan or quick item search, BharatQR and UPI displayed on the screen so the customer pays without cash exchange, and a thermal-printer receipt that doubles as the GST invoice (with HSN, rate split and place-of-supply, for shopkeepers above the threshold). For composition-scheme retailers the receipt drops the GST split and reads 'Bill of Supply' as required under Rule 49.

Each day's POS sales close into a cash and card summary that posts to the GL automatically. The shopkeeper sees a single 'day-close' number and the system reconciles cash drawer counts, card-terminal settlement files (HDFC Mswipe, Pine Labs, Razorpay EDC) and UPI inflows against the day's POS register. Variance gets posted to a suspense account that the bookkeeper clears weekly — instead of a shoebox of receipts and an end-of-month reconstruction.

Composition scheme returns, Khata-style credit, and SMS bank feed

Composition scheme retailers — turnover below ₹1.5 crore for goods, ₹50 lakh for services — pay GST at 1% (traders), 5% (restaurants without ITC) or 6% (services), file CMP-08 quarterly and GSTR-4 annually, and cannot collect tax from customers. HelloBooks switches the entire UI to composition mode based on the GSTIN's registration type: invoices read 'Bill of Supply', CMP-08 quarterly is auto-generated, and the GSTR-4 annual return rolls up from the quarterly data without re-keying.

Credit ('Khata') is the other half of small-shopkeeper accounting. A neighbourhood kirana runs informal tabs with regular customers — pay weekly, monthly or 'next time'. HelloBooks keeps a Khata-style customer ledger right inside the POS so the shopkeeper can flip to a customer's page, add today's purchase, and send a WhatsApp reminder when the balance crosses a threshold. The SMS bank feed (India-specific — read SBI, HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Kotak SMS alerts and parse credits/debits) auto-clears the Khata when a UPI inward lands. No daily login to net-banking, no spreadsheet of who paid what.

WhatsApp invoices, sales returns, and pharmacy/garment specifics

Indian small retail runs on WhatsApp — for orders, for invoices, for collection reminders. HelloBooks sends invoices and credit notes over WhatsApp Business directly, including PDF attachments and payment links. Sales returns at the counter are a one-tap reverse (credit note auto-generated, GST credit recovered in the next return), and pharmacy retailers get batch-and-expiry tracking with Schedule M-friendly batch reports. Garment shops get the ₹1,000-per-piece apparel rate split for GST handled automatically — a single bill can carry 5% and 12% lines if the customer picks SKUs across the threshold.

Cash flow forecasting for shopkeepers

Counter-sale shopkeepers see cash arrive fastest — UPI lands T+0, card settlements T+1 to T+2 — but the outflow side has its own clock. Supplier credit cycles run 7-21 days for FMCG and 30-45 for branded electronics, monthly rent and salary come due on fixed dates, GST is calculated on every billed invoice including digital wallet sales, and seasonal stocking for Diwali, Eid or wedding-season pushes 3-4x of normal inventory cash a month before the sale spike. HelloBooks cash flow forecasting reads AR ageing (for shopkeepers running tabs or supplying nearby kiranas), AP ageing, recurring rent and salary commitments, and seasonality drivers, then projects 13-week and 12-month cash positions. Scenario branches let a Mumbai garments shopkeeper model whether stocking 3x for Diwali on 20% lower sales still leaves room for the rent and supplier cheque cycle — converting Diwali planning from sheet-of-paper to a live model.