Restaurant POS and VAT-ready accounting for UAE food businesses

Most UAE food outlets run a POS for orders and something separate for accounting — a spreadsheet, a bookkeeper's file, or an app nobody on the floor can see. At month end somebody re-types days of sales, splits out the 5% VAT by hand, and the totals still land differently from the bank and the card settlements. Every mismatch is an hour of chasing receipts instead of running service.

Chicken, cheese, oil and packaging move every single day, and prices from suppliers change month to month. Without live stock behind each recipe you only find out you sold a burger below cost after the fact, and waste, over-portioning and staff meals disappear into one big 'shrinkage' number that nobody can explain.

Orders arrive from the counter, the phone and two or three delivery aggregators, each paying out later, net of commission. Owners end up guessing gross sales, recording only the payout, and understating the revenue that actually needs to be reported — then scrambling when the numbers are questioned.

Filing the VAT return (VAT201) means pulling standard-rated sales, zero-rated items, and recoverable input VAT on rent, utilities, suppliers and equipment out of piles of paper. If your TRN is on some invoices and not others, or a supplier tax invoice is missing, the recovery is lost and the correction takes longer than the filing.

Tallium AI's POS, inventory and accounting share the same account, so a completed order books the sale, the tax, the cost of goods and the stock movement in one step. There is no export, no re-keying and no second subscription — your ledgers are always as current as your last order.

Build each menu item from its ingredients and Tallium AI depletes flour, chicken, sauces and packaging as dishes sell. You see live theoretical stock against what's actually on the shelf, and AI insights flag the items where cost has crept up or waste is running above your usual pattern — before the month closes.

Record dine-in, takeaway, phone and aggregator orders as separate channels with their own commission and payout handling, so gross sales and net receipts are both visible. Bank reconciliation matches the delayed aggregator and card settlements against the sales that produced them, so nothing is double-counted or quietly lost.

Set the correct VAT treatment once per menu item and expense category, and Tallium AI carries your TRN onto compliant tax invoices while tracking input VAT on supplier bills. When the VAT return (VAT201) is due, the standard-rated, zero-rated and input VAT figures are already summarised in your reports. Registration is required above AED 375,000 in taxable supplies, with voluntary registration from AED 187,500 — confirm current rules, rates and your e-invoicing obligations under the UAE E-Invoicing System (Peppol) with the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) or a local tax professional.