Retail billing software should scan and bill a ten-item basket in under a minute, keep stock right in every branch, record the salesperson on each bill, link bills to customers, keep billing when the internet drops and close the day with a report you can download. This checklist shows how to prepare your items, test vendors and score them.
At a glance
| Area | What good looks like | How to test it |
|---|---|---|
| Billing speed | Ten scanned items billed and paid in under a minute | Time it with your own items and scanner |
| Item master | SKU, barcode, category, unit and cost in one form | Create a product with sizes and colours |
| Stock | Falls on every sale, alerts before a shelf runs empty | Sell an item below its low-stock level |
| Staff | Roles, salesperson on the bill, activity log | Bill as a cashier, then check the log |
| Branches | Stock per branch, transfers, branch-limited staff | Transfer stock and check both counts |
| Offline | Billing continues, bills sync later | Disconnect the internet mid-bill |
| Reports | Daily close by payment type and counter | Download today's report |
Set up your item master before you compare vendors
The item master is the list of everything you sell, with codes, prices and units. Vendors demo well on clean sample data. Bring yours, and you will see how each system copes with real items.
SKU codes that stay readable
Pick one pattern and never break it. For clothing, category, style, size and colour works well: SH-1023-M-BLU is shirt, style 1023, medium, blue. For a general store, category and a running number is enough: ST-0045.
- Never reuse a code for a different item, even after the old one is gone.
- No spaces, and the same separator everywhere.
- One code per size and colour, because that is the unit a customer buys.
Barcodes: use theirs or print your own
Packaged goods already carry a manufacturer barcode; use it, so you never relabel. Clothing, loose goods and unbranded items need your own labels. Ask each vendor how labels are printed and on which printers, because a shop that cannot label stock cannot scan it.
Sizes and colours multiply fast
A style in 5 sizes and 4 colours is 20 items with 20 stock counts. Check that the system creates the set from one form, and that a customer asking "do you have this in large?" gets an answer in one search.
Item master columns to copy
- Item name
- Category and sub-category
- Brand
- Size, colour or other variant
- SKU code
- Barcode
- Unit (piece, pack, metre, kg)
- Cost price
- Selling price
- Tax category and HSN code, as your accountant advises
- Supplier
- Opening stock per branch
- Low-stock level
- Active (yes or no)
Supermarket billing software: what changes at scale
| Single shop | Supermarket | |
|---|---|---|
| Items | Hundreds | Thousands |
| Counters | One | Several billing at once |
| Price changes | You change the tag and the system | One change must reach every counter |
| Suppliers | A few | Many distributors with different terms |
| Daily close | One total | Totals by counter and payment type |
| What to test hardest | Search for items without barcodes | Scan speed with the full catalogue loaded |
For a supermarket, load your full catalogue before the demo. A system that is quick with 50 sample items can be slow with 5,000.
Worked example: setting low-stock levels and catching mismatches
The figures below are an illustrative example with round numbers, not data from any shop.
When should an item trigger a reorder?
Use this rule: low-stock level = daily sales × supplier lead time in days + a buffer.
| Item | Sells per day | Supplier takes | Buffer | Low-stock level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast-moving biscuit | 10 | 3 days | 10 | 40 |
| Shampoo, 180 ml | 3 | 5 days | 5 | 20 |
| Formal shirt, size M | 1 | 10 days | 2 | 12 |
Set the level too low and the reorder lands after the shelf is empty. Say the biscuit earns ₹4 a packet and is out of stock for 3 days: that is 30 packets and ₹120 of margin lost, plus the customers who bought it elsewhere and did not come back.
Catching stock mismatches with cycle counts
A full stock count once a year finds problems a year late. Say your count finds 60 items short by 2 units each, at an average cost of ₹150. That is ₹18,000 missing, and you cannot tell when or how it happened.
Count a little every day instead. Split 3,000 items by value:
| Group | Items | Count every | Items a day |
|---|---|---|---|
| A: top 300 by sales value | 300 | Week (6 days) | 50 |
| B: next 900 | 900 | Month (26 days) | about 35 |
| C: the remaining 1,800 | 1,800 | Quarter (78 days) | about 23 |
That is about 108 items a day, a short task before opening. A mismatch on an A item shows up within a week, while staff still remember what happened.
10 questions to put to any vendor in a demo
Bring your scanner, 20 of your own items and a colleague to time it.
- "Bill these ten items." Scan them, take a split payment of cash and UPI, and print. Time it, then repeat with someone queuing behind you.
- "Find this item without a barcode." Search by three letters of its name.
- "Hold this bill while the customer tries a size." Bill another customer, then recall the first.
- "Create a shirt in five sizes and four colours." Count the steps.
- "Sell this item below its low-stock level." Show where the alert appears.
- "Log in as a cashier and give 20% off." See whether it is allowed, and whether it is recorded with their name.
- "Pick the salesperson on this bill." Then show sales per staff member for today.
- "Disconnect the internet and bill three more." Reconnect and find them in today's report.
- "Transfer five units to the second branch." Check both branch counts.
- "Close the day." Show sales by payment type and by counter, and download the report.
Also ask: what happens to my data if I leave, and in what format can I take it? Who answers the phone on a Sunday evening?
Score each vendor, with weights
Score each line 0 (cannot do it), 1 (does it badly) or 2 (does it well in your demo). Multiply by the weight.
| Check | Weight | Score (0 to 2) | Weighted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barcode and search billing speed | 3 | ||
| Stock falls on every sale, with alerts | 3 | ||
| Offline billing | 3 | ||
| Daily close and downloadable reports | 2 | ||
| Staff roles and salesperson on bill | 2 | ||
| Variants by size and colour | 2 | ||
| Branches and transfers | 1, or 3 if you have two shops | ||
| Customer history and loyalty | 1 |
A zero on any weight-3 line rules the vendor out, whatever the total.
Staff, salesperson and customers
Salesperson on every bill. If you pay incentives, the bill is the record. Picking the salesperson at billing beats a register at closing time.
Discount limits by role. Margin leaks quietly through discounts nobody checks. Let cashiers give only what you allow, and review the activity log weekly.
Customers and loyalty. Link bills to a phone number from day one, even if you do not run loyalty yet. In six months you will know who your regulars are and what they spend. Start loyalty points only when you can say what you want regulars to do more of.
Switching plan: three weeks
Week 1: fill the item master, agree the SKU pattern, print labels for unbarcoded items, set staff roles.
Week 2: count opening stock branch by branch, enter low-stock levels for your top 300 items, run the new system next to the old one at quiet hours, and compare totals.
Week 3: go live on a weekday, not a festival weekend. Start the daily cycle count. Review the first week's reports and fix item names cashiers struggled to find.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
- Demoing on sample data. Every system is fast with 50 items. Fix: load your own catalogue and scanner.
- One code for all sizes. You cannot tell which size sold out. Fix: one SKU per size and colour.
- No low-stock levels. Alerts never fire, or fire for everything. Fix: daily sales × lead time + buffer for your top items.
- Counting once a year. Losses surface too late to trace. Fix: a daily cycle count by value group.
- Unlimited discounts for every login. Margin leaks quietly. Fix: limits by role and a weekly look at the activity log.
- Skipping the offline test. Billing stops at the evening rush. Fix: disconnect in the demo.
- Ignoring the exit. Your data is locked in. Fix: ask how you export items, customers and bills before you pay.
Where Ordrio fits
Kadal is Ordrio's billing and POS software for clothing, fashion and retail stores, and for grocery shops and supermarkets. Against the checklist:
- Billing: barcode support with custom invoices, search, held bills, the salesperson picked on every bill, keyboard shortcuts, cash, card, UPI and wallet, and GST-ready invoices.
- Items: SKU codes, categories, units and costing in one form.
- Stock: real-time stock with low-stock alerts, branch by branch; stock counts; suppliers, purchase orders, supplier payments and returns to suppliers.
- Branches: switch branches from one login, transfer orders between them, and staff access limited to chosen branches.
- Staff and customers: roles, activity logs and performance per staff member; order history, total spend, loyalty points and wallet per customer.
- Reports and offline: daily summaries, sales by payment type and device, downloadable reports, and billing that continues offline and syncs later.
- Selling online: add Nadi on the same products, stock and customers. For fashion, the Aura and Spree template lists sizes and colours under one product.
What is not included or not stated. Our Kadal pages do not state barcode label printing, weighing scale connections, cash drawer or shift close by cashier, or exports to accounting software. If you need any of these, ask in the demo and get the answer in writing.
When Ordrio is not the right choice. If you need your billing to feed an ERP, that is an Enterprise conversation, not an off-the-shelf plan. If your counter depends on specific hardware, confirm it works before you switch. And if you already use Swipe POS and are happy with it, keep it: Nadi connects to Swipe POS, so you can add an online store without changing your counter. See integrations.
You start on the free plan. Any paid plan costs ₹1 for the first 30 days. See pricing.