You don’t need a machine. You’ve got a phone.

What you actually need from a POS

Search for a POS system in Ghana and you’ll find machines, bundles and a lot of promises. Strip it back and a food business needs four things from one:

1. Ring up the sale fast, in the middle of a rush, without anybody remembering prices.
2. Take the money however it comes, cash and MoMo, and know it really came.
3. Keep a record of every sale, who made it and how it was paid.
4. Tell you what the day made, without an evening with a calculator.

Everything else is a nice-to-have. The till above does all four. Go on, press something.

No machine to buy

A POS used to mean a box with a drawer and a printer. Tabworthy runs on the phone or tablet you already have: Android, iPhone or iPad. A cheap Android tablet on the counter is plenty, and the owner can keep the app on their own phone too. The receipt is a picture sent to the customer’s WhatsApp, so there’s no receipt printer. If you already have a card machine, keep it: mark the sale paid on the card machine and it’s counted with the day.

MoMo, the way it should work

Most tills in Ghana record “paid MoMo” and leave you to check. Tabworthy sends the prompt to the customer’s phone. They approve it with their PIN, and the sale only closes when the money has actually arrived. MTN, Telecel and AirtelTigo. The charge, 2.95%, is shown to the customer before they approve, and they carry it by default, which is the norm here. Mobile money goes through it, and who pays the MoMo charge has the sums.

It keeps selling through dumsor

Every sale saves on the phone first and catches up by itself when the signal’s back. Cash, the card machine, tabs and the day’s report all work with no network. There’s no backup button to remember. Selling offline explains what works without a signal and what doesn’t.

Built for food and drink

Tabworthy started with food and drink businesses, and it shows:

• Tabs that stay open while people eat, every round on the right bill.
• A kitchen board: any tablet becomes the kitchen’s screen, with every order as a ticket.
• Where each sale came from: in the shop, takeaway, or Bolt Food, Glovo and Chowdeck, with the apps’ money kept out of your drawer. Selling on the delivery apps.
• Credit: a book of who owes what, under each regular’s name.
• Stock, on Pro: bottles, packs and kilos of rice, with each plate drawing on its supply.

Who it’s for has a page for each kind of food business: chop bars, restaurants, bars and spots, cafés, bakeries, takeaways and food trucks and stalls.

A name on every sale

On Pro, everyone behind the counter signs in with their own PIN, and every sale remembers who rang it up. A shift opens the drawer with a float and closes with a count, and short or over shows by person the same night. Staff and PINs and closing up.

What the day made, from anywhere

The report is the day, already added up: what came in, cash against MoMo, what’s still open, what sold and who sold it. It’s on your own phone, wherever you are.

Ghana’s taxes, properly

VAT, NHIL and GETFund at 20%, and the Tourism Levy for licensed restaurants, picked from presets and shown on the receipt line by line. Tabworthy isn’t a GRA certified invoicing system, so it doesn’t issue E-VAT invoices. VAT and the Tourism Levy explains the rules.

What it costs

There’s a Free plan for one person on one till, and it isn’t a trial. Pro adds staff PINs, shifts, stock and reports for any period, for ₵90 a month, or ₵900 for a year. Chain is for more than one place, at ₵240 a month. You pay by MoMo from inside the app, and the pricing page has every plan line by line. Your records are yours: everything comes out as a spreadsheet, any time, on every plan.

What it doesn’t do yet

It doesn’t scan barcodes or print to receipt and kitchen printers. It doesn’t draw table maps, split a bill between friends or take discounts. It doesn’t send SMS or WhatsApp messages, take orders online, or work on a laptop. It isn’t an E-VAT invoicing system. If one of those is essential to you today, it’s better you know now.

How to get it

Tabworthy is in early access. We’re opening it to a first circle of food and drink businesses in Ghana, a few at a time. If you’d like to be one of them, Join the Gathering: ten short questions, about three minutes. Or WhatsApp us on 059 240 2005 and ask anything.