Every week we meet business owners paying for software that fights them — a retail POS forced onto a restaurant, an "international" accounting package that has never heard of further tax, or a Rs. 8,000/month subscription used only as a calculator with a printer. This guide is the checklist we wish they'd had.
Start with your business type, not the feature list
The single biggest mistake is buying generic software and hoping it adapts. The real question is whether the software models your operation:
- General retail needs barcode speed, stock counts that stay true, and a one-page daily close-out.
- Restaurants need table state, kitchen tickets, and menu modifiers — barcode scanning is irrelevant.
- Mobile shops need IMEI-level inventory: every handset is a unique item with its own cost and warranty clock.
- Electrical & hardware shops sell the same SKU by coil, meter, foot, or kg — unit conversion must be native, not a workaround.
- Distributors & wholesalers live on credit accounts, salesman-attributed orders, and delivery gate passes — a walk-in-customer POS cannot represent their business at all.
If a vendor's demo can't show your exact workflow, the price doesn't matter.
What software actually costs in Pakistan
Cloud POS and accounting software in Pakistan typically runs Rs. 2,500–10,000 per month, with restaurant systems at the higher end and some vendors adding one-time setup fees of Rs. 40,000–50,000 per branch. On-premise systems trade the subscription for a large upfront license plus annual maintenance.
Two pricing questions to ask every vendor:
- Is there a setup fee, and does it repeat per branch?
- What happens to your data if you stop paying?
(For transparency: every Evotrade product is Rs. 1,000/month flat — 20% off paid yearly — and free for TaxAccountant.pk clients. We can price this way because software is our parent firm's client-retention engine, not our only revenue line.)
The non-negotiables, whatever you buy
1. FBR compliance path
If you are — or will become — sales-tax-registered, e-invoicing integration is mandatory, with penalties from Rs. 500,000. Ask directly: "How does your software submit invoices to FBR?" A vague answer today is your penalty tomorrow.
2. Offline capability
Power and internet interruptions are routine. The till must keep billing through an outage and sync when the connection returns. Ask the vendor to demo this by pulling the network cable.
3. Local payment reality
Cash, multiple bank accounts, Jazzcash, Easypaisa — payments should land in the correct ledger automatically, or your accountant inherits the mess.
4. PKR-native accounting
Aging reports, further tax, withholding — software built for other markets handles these as afterthoughts, if at all.
5. An exit door
Your sales history, customer ledgers, and stock records are yours. Confirm you can export them before you enter the first invoice.
Red flags that predict regret
- Pricing only available "after a call" — usually means pricing depends on how you dress.
- No trial or demo with your own data.
- Every feature you ask about is "in the next update."
- Support is a Facebook page.
A sensible buying sequence
- Write down your five most frequent daily operations (not features — operations).
- Shortlist software built for your business type specifically.
- Demo with your real products and a real day's transactions.
- Confirm FBR path, offline mode, and data export in writing.
- Start monthly; move to yearly once the software has survived a month-end.
If you'd like a walkthrough of how any Evotrade product fits your operation — DistriBooks for distribution, ElectricStore for electrical retail, or the wider suite — book a free demo. Bring your hardest workflow; that's the fun part.