Opening a café in Malé is exciting — and the day you open is the worst time to discover your billing setup is not ready. Sorting the point-of-sale and reporting side early means service runs smoothly from your first customer. Here is a checklist to work through.
1. Build your menu and recipes
Start with a clean menu in your POS: categories, items, sizes and modifiers (extra shot, oat milk, no sugar). If you want real control over costs, go a step further and define recipes so each sale draws down ingredient stock. That turns your menu into a live view of food cost, not just a price list.
2. Set up kitchen tickets (KOT & BOT)
Decide how orders reach the kitchen and bar. Kitchen Order Tickets (KOT) and Bar Order Tickets (BOT) route each item to the right station automatically, and a kitchen display keeps everyone working from the same list. This is what stops orders getting lost between the counter and the pass on a busy evening.
3. Plan your tables and service flow
Map how you actually serve: dine-in tables, takeaway, and counter orders. Your POS should let you open a table, add to it over time, and split or merge bills when groups share. Getting this flow right before opening saves a lot of confusion in week one.
4. Get GST and receipts right
Configure your GST rate once so every receipt is correct from day one, and make sure you can print compliant receipts on the hardware you have. Food businesses also need clean records for filing — set this up now rather than reconstructing it later. Our GST and MIRA guide covers the essentials, and the receipts feature page shows how it works in practice.
5. Sort payments and the counter hardware
Confirm you can take the payment types your customers use — cash, card and transfer — and that your receipt printer and register are configured. Walk a few test orders end to end before opening day so staff know the flow cold.
6. Make sure it works offline
A café cannot pause service because the Wi-Fi blinked. Check that your POS keeps taking orders offline and syncs afterwards — see why offline mode matters for why this is essential in the Maldives.
7. Decide what you will watch on day one
Know your numbers before you need them: sales by item, busy hours, payment mix and best-sellers. Good reporting from the first day tells you what to prep more of and what is not moving — information that is gold in your opening weeks.
Your opening-day checklist
- Menu, sizes, modifiers and recipes entered
- KOT/BOT routing and kitchen display tested
- Tables and split-bill flow set up
- GST rate configured and receipts printing
- Payment types and hardware confirmed
- Offline mode tested with a real order
- Staff trained on the full checkout flow
LeadPOS Restaurant is built for exactly this — recipe management, KOT and BOT, kitchen display, tables and offline mode on one system. It is launching soon for Maldivian cafés; see LeadPOS Restaurant and join the waitlist for early access.
