Khata — billing a regular customer on their name and collecting payment later — is a normal part of running a bar or restaurant in India. It's also a feature most POS software built outside India simply doesn't have, because the practice doesn't exist the same way in the markets those products were designed for.
What a bar actually needs from a Khata feature
- Bill directly on a customer's name, without forcing a full customer-record system just to track a running balance.
- Accept full or partial collection against the balance, with the remainder staying open.
- One ledger that covers both food and liquor credit sales — a regular at a bar-restaurant shouldn't need two separate tabs.
What Khata is not (and shouldn't try to be)
HotelBarDost's Khata is tracked by customer name, not a full CRM — there's no dedicated customer database, no credit-limit enforcement per customer, and no automatic payment reminders currently. For an owner who knows their regulars personally, that's usually enough; for a business that needs formal credit controls or automated dunning, it's a genuine limitation worth knowing upfront.
How it fits the rest of the system
Khata is one of the 4 payment methods on every bill (alongside Cash, UPI, and Card), so recording a credit sale is part of the normal billing flow, not a separate module you switch into. Combined with Shifts & Cash Reconciliation, an owner can see exactly how much of a shift's revenue is outstanding on Khata versus collected.