Oct 18, 2026 · 6 min read
Ask any bar owner what their old billing software got wrong and you will usually hear the same answer: tax. In India, alcoholic drinks for human consumption sit outside GST and are taxed under your state’s VAT, while the food on the same table is taxed under GST. One combined bill with one tax line is wrong on both counts — and it makes month-end reconciliation painful.
One order, two bills
The clean way to do it is to let staff take one order the way the table orders — a round of beers, two starters, another round — and let the POS split it at billing time. Drinks go on a liquor bill with VAT at your state’s rate; food goes on a GST bill. Each document has its own number series, so your VAT and GST registers never share invoice numbers.
Your bar licence number and VAT TIN should print on the liquor bill, and both bills should add up to one amount payable when the guest settles.
- ✓Map each liquor item to a VAT tax and each food item to GST, once
- ✓Liquor bill and food bill print from the same table order
- ✓Separate number series — the liquor series can carry its own prefix
- ✓Licence number and VAT TIN on the liquor bill
Drinks to the bar, food to the kitchen
The same split matters before the bill. When a steward fires a mixed order, the drinks should print on a Bar Order Ticket (BOT) at the bar and the food on a KOT in the kitchen — even if both happen to go to one printer. Nobody at the bar should have to read past the paneer tikka to find the two pints.
Rules the POS should enforce for you
- ✓Serving hours and a last-call warning, so liquor can’t be ordered after hours
- ✓Dry days marked in advance
- ✓Age confirmation before a guest orders liquor from the QR menu
- ✓Liquor kept out of bill discounts if that is your policy
- ✓Split equally or take part payments with liquor VAT included in the total
Reports your accountant will ask for
At the end of the month you want a VAT liability report, liquor-versus-food sales, an excise register built from what you actually sold, and pour cost to spot over-pouring. If you post to Tally, VAT and GST sales should land on separate ledgers automatically.
How BistroBot does it
BistroBot’s bar features do all of the above. The bar module — separate liquor and food bills, serving hours, dry days, the QR age check, the automatic BOT, the excise register, pour cost, the bar dashboard and brewery kegs and taps — is on the Pro plan. VAT rates follow the taxes you set up for your state — BistroBot doesn’t replace your licence or excise filings.