Buyer guide · Restaurant POS in Kenya
Choosing a restaurant POS in Kenya.
A restaurant till has to do things a shop counter never will: hold a table open, send the order to the kitchen, cost a plate against its ingredients and split a bill. This guide covers what a Kenyan restaurant, bar or lodge needs from a POS, where M-Pesa and KRA eTIMS fit, and the questions worth asking before service depends on it.
Who it fits
Who this is for, and who it is not.
Table service software and a quick-sale till pull in different directions. Check which side your venue sits on.
A good fit if
- You seat guests, keep a table order open and add to it over the course of a meal.
- You want orders to reach the kitchen or bar without a waiter walking a paper ticket.
- You want to cost recipes so a plate of food deducts its ingredients from stock.
- You run rooms or a bar tab and want folios and checkout on the same record.
Probably not if
- You run a quick takeaway counter with no table service. A general retail till may be simpler.
- You need hotel property management across many properties. That is wider than a POS.
- You want kitchen screens to run with no computer on site. Omnix is a Windows desktop product.
The working day
Walk the day before you buy.
A restaurant POS should follow a table from seating to shift close. Walk service and check each step is on one record.
- Seat
Open a table
Start an order against a table or tab and keep it open as the guest adds to it.
- Fire
Send to the kitchen
Push the order to a kitchen display or ticket so the line knows what to prepare.
- Cost
Deduct the recipe
A sold dish consumes its ingredients by recipe, so stock stays close to the plate.
- Bill
Split and take payment
Split a bill, add service where it applies and take cash, M-Pesa or card on the same check.
- Close
Reconcile the shift
Read sales by method, tips and cash variance at shift close from the recorded checks.
Local and connected
What runs on the device, what needs the line.
Service cannot pause for the network. Know which parts of the flow are local and which reach Safaricom or KRA.
Works on the device
- Opening tables and taking orders.
- Sending orders to a kitchen display on the same setup.
- Costing recipes and deducting stock.
- Printing checks and reading the shift close.
Needs a connection
- An M-Pesa STK push at the table.
- KRA eTIMS submission, retried when the connection returns.
Platform facts
The same platform facts, whatever you sell.
These hold for every Omnix product. The licence is a one-time purchase, and the optional update plan is a separate choice.
- Platform
- Windows desktop (Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit)
- Works offline
- Core sales, stock and records use the local database on the computer
- Install
- Protected download from the customer dashboard after purchase
- Activation
- Each device activates its own licence
- Licence
- KES 30,000 one-time, per device, perpetual
- Compliance updates
- Optional KES 12,000 per year, not required to keep the licence working
Before you switch
Questions about moving your data.
A menu is more than a price list once recipes are involved. Ask these before the first service.
- Which menu items, recipes and prices must be ready before the first service?
- Do you have ingredient costs and recipe quantities, or only menu prices?
- How will tables, rooms and folios be set up to match how you actually run?
- Who signs off opening stock for the kitchen and bar?
Questions for any vendor
Ask these before you commit.
Ask any restaurant vendor these before a busy service depends on their software.
- Can it hold a table open and add to the order during a meal?
- Does it send orders to the kitchen without a paper ticket?
- Does a sold dish deduct its ingredients from stock?
- Can it split a bill and record several payment methods on one check?
- Does service keep running when the internet drops?
Where Omnix fits
Omnix Hospitality
With the service flow mapped, look at the product built for a Kenyan dining room.
Omnix Hospitality runs from table to kitchen to checkout: tables and tabs, a kitchen display, recipe costing, rooms, bookings and folios, on a Windows desktop that keeps taking orders offline. M-Pesa and KRA eTIMS sit around it as connected steps.