EasyKOT, a restaurant POS for Singapore, worked through one real check.

EasyKOT is a restaurant point-of-sale (POS) system for Singapore restaurants, cafes and hawker stalls that keeps billing offline, prints receipts with 9% GST, the service charge and the 10-cent BCRS drink deposit on separate lines, and costs S$9 a month or S$90 a year after 3 free months.

Five rules shape a restaurant bill in Singapore today. Each comes from an IRAS or NEA page we read on 4 November 2026; the links are below each point.

• GST is 9% on standard-rated food and drink, for a business registered for GST (IRAS: responsibilities of a GST-registered business).
• GST applies to the service charge too. IRAS’s own example: S$100 of food, a S$10 service charge, then 9% GST on S$110, for S$119.90 (IRAS: hotel and food & beverage).
• Menu prices include GST, with one exception: an outlet that charges a service charge may show prices before GST if it displays a prominent statement such as “Prices are subject to GST and service charge” (IRAS: displaying and quoting prices).
• Every receipt carries your GST registration number. For a bill up to S$1,000 a simplified tax invoice is enough: your name and address, GST registration number, date, an invoice number, what was sold, the total including GST, and a statement like “price payable includes GST” (IRAS: invoicing customers).
• Drinks in plastic bottles and cans carry a 10-cent deposit since 1 April 2026, under the Beverage Container Return Scheme: pre-packaged drinks in plastic or metal containers from 150 ml to 3 litres (glass, cartons and drinks made on the spot are not covered). The deposit is not subject to GST. A receipt need not show it, but if it does, IRAS asks for it on its own line, marked as not subject to GST (IRAS: GST and BCRS deposit).

A register that gets these right has to split every bill four ways: food, service charge, GST and deposit. The rest of this post shows that split on one check.

Kampong Kitchen is a sample GST-registered restaurant: menu prices include GST, a 10% service charge applies to dine-in, and the outlet is in the Return Right F&B Scheme. Two guests order a Nasi Lemak (S$6.90), a Chicken Rice (S$6.50), a Kopi C (S$2.20) and two 500 ml bottles of green tea (S$2.40 each).

Because the menu prices include GST, EasyKOT first takes GST out of each dish: S$20.40 on the menu is S$18.71 before GST. The 10% service charge is worked on that S$18.71, which gives S$1.87. GST is then 9% of food and service charge together: S$1.69 on the food plus S$0.17 on the service charge, S$1.86 in all. The deposit is added last and never taxed.

The guests left one bottle at the table and took one with them, which is why the bill carries one 10-cent deposit and not two. The next sections show where that choice is made.

Going down the IRAS list for a simplified tax invoice, line by line:

• Name and address: Kampong Kitchen Pte Ltd, 1 Example Street, Singapore, with the UEN under it.
• GST registration number: “GST Reg. No.” and the number, on every receipt.
• Date and invoice number: 06/11/2026 and Bill T1/2627/00001, numbered on the register even offline.
• What was sold: each dish and drink with its quantity.
• Total including GST, and the GST amount shown on its own.
• The statement: “GST included in food and service charges.”, and for the deposit, “Container deposit is not subject to GST.”

We built the receipt from that list, but we are not your tax adviser. Show a receipt to your accountant before your first service, and tell us if they want something changed.

A stall that is not registered for GST gets a shorter receipt: no GST lines and no registration number, only the prices, the deposit and the total.

NEA describes two kinds of outlet. An outlet outside the scheme below (NEA names hawker centre stalls and most coffeeshops as likely examples) charges the 10-cent deposit on every covered drink, and the guest gets it back at a Return Right machine. An outlet in the Return Right F&B Scheme (RRFS) collects the empty containers itself and charges no deposit for drinks finished on the premises; takeaway drinks still carry it (NEA: for F&B operators).

In EasyKOT the owner ticks which drinks carry the deposit, once, in the menu. If the outlet is in RRFS, a dine-in check shows a “containers kept” counter for each of those drinks. Here the cashier set it to one of two, so one deposit left the bill.

The service charge can be waived on a single check from the same panel, for example when a regular sits at the counter. Waive removes it and the GST on it in one tap; Charge it puts both back. A cashier or manager can do this, and the check records who did.

Later the guests ask for a refund. On the Orders screen, a refund asks for two things: the amount typed again, and how many bottles came back. The guest did not bring back the bottle they took, so the cashier sets “Containers returned” to zero and its 10 cents stays with the restaurant. The refund is S$22.44, and a manager signs for it with their PIN.

The GST on the food and the service charge is credited in full, and the deposit is not, because no GST was charged on it. If two tills refund the same bill while offline and the refunds add up to more than was paid, the bill in the owner dashboard warns about it.

Everything above comes from one settings card in the owner dashboard: whether you are GST-registered, the name, UEN and address printed on receipts, whether menu prices include GST, the service charge and where it applies, and RRFS participation. Fill it in before you connect a register.

For the GST return, Reports → Sales & collections → Daily sales has a Singapore GST records export, as Excel or CSV. Each bill and each refund is a row, with food, GST, service charge, its GST and the deposit in separate columns. Here is our check and its refund, built by the EasyKOT server from what the register recorded:

• No full tax invoice with the customer’s name and address. Every bill prints as a receipt. A GST-registered business customer whose bill is over S$1,000 needs a full tax invoice; issue that one from your accounting software.
• Not an InvoiceNow-Ready Solution. IRAS is making GST-registered businesses send invoice data through InvoiceNow in phases: businesses registering voluntarily from 1 April 2026 already, existing ones from 1 April 2028 to 1 April 2031 depending on turnover (IRAS: GST InvoiceNow requirement). IRAS lets point-of-sale data be sent in totals; EasyKOT gives you the export, and your accountant or InvoiceNow provider does the sending.
• No GST return filing. The export is for whoever files your GST return; EasyKOT does not file it.
• PayNow and card are marked, not processed. The register offers Cash, PayNow, Card and Part pay. The guest pays your own PayNow or SGQR code, or your bank’s card terminal, and the cashier marks how the money arrived once the bank confirms it. The till does not show a PayNow QR with the amount or talk to the terminal.
• No rounding to 5 cents. IRAS allows a bill to be rounded to the nearest 5 cents for cash; EasyKOT bills to the cent.
• Zero-rated, exempt or out-of-scope items cannot be sold alongside a service charge. With a service charge on, every item is standard-rated at 9%.

The first 3 months are free, with no card. After that it is S$9 a month or S$90 a year, paid once for that period. Nothing renews by itself: you pay again when you want another month or year, and the checkout shows the full amount before you pay. The price is for the restaurant and covers the register, the captain app on Android, the kitchen display and the owner dashboard.

The Singapore setup guide walks through the settings card, the menu and the first check, screen by screen. For what happens when the internet drops mid-service, read billing when the internet is down.