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.