POS system for F&B in Malaysia: how to choose one

A pos system for f&b is a counter system built for food service rather than for a shop. This guide covers what makes food different, the tax question, how to compare suppliers, and the orders your counter will never see.

There is no such thing as the best pos system for f&b in general. There is one that fits your room, your menu and your staff turnover, and finding it is a matter of asking better questions than the demo invites.

Why food service breaks retail software

Three differences, and each costs money.

Stock is a recipe, not a shelf. A shop sells one unit and has one fewer. A kitchen sells one nasi lemak and has less rice, less sambal and one fewer egg. Systems that track only the finished dish rely on somebody updating it, and nobody updates anything at one in the afternoon.

Choices happen at the counter. Retail variants are set in advance. Food decisions are made in the moment: less spicy, no peanuts, add an egg, make it a set. If a choice is a free-text note rather than a priced option, somebody forgets to charge for it and the kitchen receives a sentence rather than data.

The sale does not end at payment. In retail the transaction closes when money changes hands. In food that is when the work starts, because the kitchen still has to know, the ticket has to be right, and somebody has to carry it out.

The SST question

Whatever system you buy has to fit Malaysia's tax rules. The Royal Malaysian Customs Department runs the official SST portal, and that is the source to check rather than a supplier's summary of it.

Ask each supplier three things: whether the tax rate is set per item rather than per sale, whether a receipt shows the breakdown correctly, and who is responsible when a rule changes. Ask for the answer in writing.

How to compare, without the feature table

Every supplier's comparison table has ticks in every box, so ask them to demonstrate instead:

1. Order a dish that has three required choices, from the first tap to the ticket in the kitchen, and count how many taps it took and whether the ticket is complete.
2. Let one option run out halfway through service, then see whether the system still lets a customer order it.
3. A price changed while you watch, then ask what it costs when they have to do it.
4. Your own data, exported by you today, sales and customers alike, with no fee attached.

Then ask for a two year total including installation, training, the second training after your staff turn over, support tier and any per-app integration fee. Ask what leaving early costs. A best f&b pos system on a slide can still be the wrong one on a three year contract.

The orders that never reach the counter

Now the larger number. Count where a normal evening's orders come from: people at your tables, a delivery app on its own tablet, and a steady stream of messages typed at somebody who is also cooking.

WhatsApp is the channel here, not a workaround, and the messaging platform is documented and built for business use. Your counter system sees none of it.

"Ask an owner what their register cannot do and they point at the phone. Every message on it is an order that had to be typed out by somebody who was also cooking."

— Tanzeel ur Rehman, co-founder of Get Menu

The layer that handles the rest

No hardware, running beside whatever counter system you choose:

• A tax invoice with your registration number on every order, downloadable without the customer logging in.
• A QR on the tables and in the window that looks like your brand, because it comes out of the designer and not off a roll of stickers.
• Everyone orders separately, the group pays once: one bill, many phones.
• A card designer for colours and logo, so what sits in the customer's wallet is your brand, updating by itself.
• Menu import from a spreadsheet, for the day you move two hundred dishes across.
• A page that is yours, picked from 12 page layouts so the menu reads like your restaurant and not like everyone else's.
• A menu edited by you, not a vendor: options and add-ons carry their own prices, and required choices are enforced so the kitchen can trust the ticket.
• The live menu sets the price: every line is re-priced at checkout, and an old page in somebody's browser cannot undercut you.
• 3 messages in about 2 seconds, sent by the system on [WhatsApp's own business platform](https://developers.facebook.com/docs/whatsapp/overview/): the customer gets a confirmation the moment they order, the kitchen gets its ticket, and the rider gets a link with the pin dropped at checkout.
• Item and option stock that counts itself down as orders arrive, greying out whatever has run out before a customer can ask.
• Loyalty without an app: stamps for regulars, tiers with automatic discounts, the card in the phone's wallet through Google's loyalty card format.

The staff turnover question nobody asks

Kitchen and counter teams turn over, and every time they do you pay the training cost again. That makes "how quickly does a new person become useful on this" a real number rather than a soft one.

Test it properly. Put somebody who has never seen the system in front of the demo unit and ask them to ring up a set with a drink swap, with nobody coaching. Watch where they hesitate. A system that takes an afternoon to learn and one that takes a week are different products, whatever the licence costs.

The same applies to your menu. Ask who is allowed to change a price, whether you can do it yourself from a phone, and what it costs if the supplier has to do it for you.

The commission comparison

Put the delivery marketplace beside the hardware quote. It takes a share of every order it brings, including orders from people who already knew you. Your own page takes no commission on your sales, so your hundredth order in a week costs no more than your first.

Pricing is on the pricing page rather than in this article, because a figure written into a guide goes stale. The trial runs 15 days without a card.

Payment stays with you: cash or your own card machine at the table or the door. The system takes no online payments, which means it never holds a card number, and it clears old order details on its own after 120 days.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best POS system for F&B in Malaysia?

There is no single answer and any article giving one is selling something. Judge on the four demonstrations above, the two year total, and how easily you could leave.

Is Get Menu a POS system for F&B?

No. It opens no cash drawer and drives no card terminal. It is the ordering, menu, stock and loyalty layer that runs beside one.

Does it handle SST?

It produces invoices carrying your registration number. Check any system's output against the official SST portal rather than against a supplier's description of it.

How do customers pay?

They pay you directly, in cash or on your card machine, when the food is handed over. The software moves the order around and never goes near the money.

Can I keep using the delivery apps?

Yes, and most restaurants do at first. The apps bring new people, your own page keeps the ones who already know you without a commission on those orders.