Best POS Software for Book Depots and Stationers in Pakistan

A book depot in March is not a shop. It is a queue. Three mothers at the counter with class lists, one asking whether the Oxford reader is the new edition or last year's, one who paid Rs. 2,000 in advance last week and wants it taken off today's bill, and one buying four notebooks, a geometry box and a school shirt — size 26, and is it in stock.

Behind them, a boy from a nearby school wants the whole Class 5 set, and two of the eleven titles have not arrived from the publisher yet.

This is the trade a general shop POS cannot do. Not because it is bad software, but because it was written for a shop where a bag of rice is a bag of rice. Here, the same title is two different items, a box holds 10 of one thing and 12 of another, an advance is not a sale, and a shirt is nine stock lines pretending to be one. This is a guide to what a book depot should actually expect from a POS, and what the honest options are in Pakistan today.

Five things that break ordinary POS software

Judge anything you are shown against these. Most software fails on the first one.

• A book is not one item — it is an edition. Last year's print and this year's are different books with different stock, often different prices, and a parent who gets the wrong one comes back angry.
• A box is not a unit. Markers come 10 to a box, pencils 12. You sell by piece, dozen, box, ream and carton from the same stock, and the arithmetic has to be exact.
• A uniform is a size, not a product. Shirt sizes 22 to 30 are nine stock lines. Entering them as nine products means nine chances to get the price wrong.
• An advance is not a sale. A parent paying ahead for books that have not arrived is money you hold, not money you earned. Counting it as revenue is how a depot's books stop balancing in April.
• A class list is a document, not a memory. Eleven titles, some compulsory, some optional, two out of stock. Keying that in eleven times an hour is where the queue comes from.

The options in Pakistan, honestly

1. The register

Free, and it will not crash. It also cannot tell you which edition you sold, what an advance was for, or which of the eleven titles in a class set a parent is still owed. In peak season it is a bill pad and a prayer. Most depots that leave a register do it after one bad April, not because someone sold them software.

2. Free khata and billing apps

Genuinely good at one thing: recording that a person owes money. For a kiryana shop that may be enough. A book depot breaks them immediately, because they have no concept of an edition, a pack size, or an ISBN. Stock gets tracked in one place and credit in another, and the two never meet.

3. General retail POS

Handles barcodes, stock and reports properly. Some are good products. But a general POS has no class lists, no sizes, no publisher returns, and no idea that an advance is a liability. You end up with workarounds: a fake product called "Advance", a separate item per uniform size, a notebook beside the till for what each parent is still owed. It works, in the way a register works.

4. Software built for this trade

Fewer options, and worth asking hard questions of. What should exist: editions as separate items, pack sizes per item, uniforms by size, versioned class lists, advances held as advances, publisher returns as credit notes, and a day book that balances. If a demo cannot show you a class set going onto a bill in one keystroke, it was not built for a depot.

What good looks like, feature by feature

This is where BooksPOS comes in — it is ours, built in Jhang for exactly this trade, so treat the rest of this as a worked example of what to demand rather than a neutral survey.

Editions, and never a guessed ISBN

Each edition or printing is its own item with its own stock, so the 2025 and 2026 readers are never confused at the till or in a stock count. An ISBN is optional; when you enter one, its check digit is verified on every save and import. A wrong one is refused, not corrected — because software that quietly fixes a digit is software that invents a book. Labels print the ISBN-13 as EAN-13, or Code 128 for an item with only an internal code, so everything on the shelf rings up. There is more on how the check digit works and why editions are kept apart.

Boxes, dozens and loose pieces

Pack sizes are set per item, which is the whole point: markers at 10 a box and pencils at 12 are both correct. The arithmetic worth testing in any demo — sell 2 boxes and 3 pieces out of 10 boxes of 12, and exactly 93 pieces should remain. Each pack can carry its own barcode, so a box scans as a box. See stationery POS.

Uniforms by size, entered once

Type the sizes once and every size is created together, with one price filling them all and a dearer size changed by hand. At the till it asks which size, showing price and stock for each, and size barcodes can be printed. Nine stock lines, one piece of data entry. See school uniform shops.

Class lists that go on a bill in one keystroke

This is the feature that empties the queue. A course set is a class list per school, session and section, with each item marked compulsory, optional or consumable, and approved alternatives grouped so a parent can choose. A published version never changes — a later edit is a new version, and what was already sold stays as it was sold.

At the counter you press F6, untick what the parent does not need, and the whole set goes on the bill with its set discount. The discount applies only to items from the published list, not to whatever else they buy on the same trip. And when two of the eleven titles are not in yet, "Add available, order the rest" bills what is on the shelf and raises an order for the rest in the same action. See school course sets.

Advances held as advances

Money a parent pays ahead is held against their name, used on later bills, and refundable. It is not counted as a sale until goods are handed over. That single distinction is the difference between books that balance in May and an afternoon spent working out where Rs. 40,000 went. More on taking advances from parents.

Publisher returns and consignment

Goods going back to a publisher become a claim at the net price you last paid, and a return past the supplier's window needs a manager and a reason. Consignment stock stays the publisher's until it is sold or kept, then becomes owed at the agreed price. Both of those are normal in this trade and absent from almost every general POS. See publisher returns and credit notes.

Books that balance

Every posting is a balanced journal entry, with a day book, trial balance, profit and loss, and a daily sales report carrying cost of goods sold. Posted bills are never edited — a correction is a new document with its reason — and the owner can close the books through a date, after which nothing can be posted into it and reopening needs a reason.

FBR, if you are Tier-1

Each sale is reported as it is billed, and the receipt carries the FBR invoice number, QR code, your NTN, STRN and POS ID. Returns go as credit notes against the original invoice, and bills made while FBR is unreachable print as offline invoices and are resent automatically. It stays switched off — no FBR fields, no fee — until you turn it on, so a depot that is not Tier-1 never sees it. See FBR POS integration.

Offline, because March does not wait

The shop's own Windows PC runs the store server and owns that branch's records. Selling, returns, purchases, khata payments, closing a shift and printing all carry on with no internet. One rule worth understanding: only the store PC writes to the database, so two counters can never both sell the last copy. On the cloud edition each branch reports every fifteen seconds, and a branch that has not reported for fifteen minutes is marked STALE rather than shown as a quiet day — a silence you can see beats a zero you trust.

Comparison

Features as of October 2026. Confirm the current details of any product before buying — ours included.

What it costs

Two editions, priced differently, and the choice is really about branches.

Paying yearly on cloud saves about 16% against monthly. The offline edition is a one-time lifetime licence for one shop whose data never leaves its own PC — but it has no cloud sync and no owner portal, so if you have branches, or want to see the shop from your phone, cloud is the one. There is a 14-day free trial with no card required, and no setup fee.

How to judge a demo in ten minutes

Ask for these, in this order. Any depot software worth paying for will do all six without the salesman changing the subject.

1. Add two editions of the same title. They should be separate items with separate stock, not one item with a note.
2. Type a wrong ISBN. It should be refused with a reason, not silently corrected.
3. Sell 2 boxes and 3 pieces from 10 boxes of 12. You should be left with 93 pieces.
4. Add a shirt in five sizes. Count how many times you type the price.
5. Put a class set on a bill with one title out of stock. It should bill the rest and raise the order in one action.
6. Take an advance, then look at today's sales. The advance must not be in the sales figure.

If you want to run that list against ours, the 14-day trial is the whole software with nothing switched off, and items, customers and suppliers import from an Excel workbook or CSV with a preview before anything is saved.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best POS software for a book depot in Pakistan?

The one that treats an edition as its own stock, sells stationery by the box and uniforms by size, puts a class list on a bill in one keystroke, and holds a parent's advance without counting it as a sale. Generic billing apps and general retail POS both miss most of that. BooksPOS was built for this trade specifically; the six tests above will tell you honestly whether any product qualifies.

Can it handle school course sets?

Yes — that is what it was built for. A course set is a versioned class list per school, session and section, with items marked compulsory, optional or consumable and alternatives grouped so a parent can choose. Press F6, untick what they do not need, and the whole set bills with its discount; anything out of stock becomes an order in the same action.

How are uniform sizes handled?

Type the sizes once and every size is created together with one price filling them all; a dearer size is changed by hand. The till asks which size and shows price and stock for each, and size barcodes can be printed. You do not create a product per size.

Does it work without internet?

Yes. The shop's Windows PC owns the branch's records, so billing, returns, purchases and khata payments all carry on with no connection. On the cloud edition changes queue and sync when the line comes back. A till on a second PC does need the shop network to reach the store PC, though the till on the store PC itself keeps working regardless.

What does it cost?

Cloud from Rs 17,500 a year (Rs 1,750 a month) for one till, up to Rs 45,000 a year for three branches. Offline is a one-time lifetime licence from Rs 24,999 with no yearly fee. Every plan has a 14-day free trial and there is no setup fee — see the pricing page.

Does it report to FBR?

Yes, for Tier-1 retailers: each sale is reported as it is billed, with the FBR invoice number and QR code on the receipt, and returns go as credit notes. It stays off, with no FBR fields and no fee, until you switch it on.

Can I see the shop from my phone?

On the cloud edition, yes — a free Android app showing each branch's sales, profit, stock on the floor and in the godown, khata and alerts. It is read-only: it cannot bill, change a price or touch stock, so a lost phone is an inconvenience rather than a risk. There is no iPhone app yet.

How long does it take to get started?

Installing takes a few minutes on a Windows 10 or 11 PC. The work is the data, and it is less than most expect: products, customers and suppliers import from Excel or CSV with a preview and row-numbered errors, and you enter each party's current balance rather than past bills. Do it between seasons, not in March.

In short

The right POS for a book depot is not the one with the longest feature list. It is the one that knows an edition from a title, a box of 10 from a box of 12, a size from a product, and an advance from a sale — and that keeps billing when the internet does not, because the queue in March will not wait.

Run the six tests on whatever you are shown. If you want to run them on ours, the trial is free for 14 days and nothing is switched off. Questions, or want a walkthrough on a call? Talk to us — we are in Jhang, on WhatsApp and the phone — or read more about BooksPOS.