Running a cafe in Nepal is a game of small, repeated habits. The espresso machine, the seating, and the menu matter, but what actually keeps a place profitable is how consistently the same routines get done every single day — whether you are open in Thamel, Pokhara Lakeside, or a quiet neighbourhood in Lalitpur. This is a practical checklist you can adapt to your own floor.

Start the day with a clean open

The first hour sets the tone for everything after it. A rushed open leads to a rushed lunch. Build a fixed opening routine and make it non-negotiable.

Count the drawer before the first order. Write down the opening float (for example Rs 3,000 in small notes and coins) so you have a known starting point for the evening count.
Check power and backup. Load-shedding is less brutal than it used to be, but it still happens. Confirm your inverter or backup is charged, and know which appliances you can and cannot run on backup at once.
Test wifi and your payment QR. Print or wipe down your eSewa and Khalti QR standee. A smudged or peeling QR loses you sales at the counter.
Prep and taste. Check milk, syrups, and anything perishable. Smell the milk before you trust the date on it. Do a quick tasting shot on the espresso machine and dial in the grind.
Brief the team. Thirty seconds is enough: what is 86’d (out of stock), any specials, any large bookings, and who is on which station.

Set your stations

Even a small cafe runs better when everyone knows their zone. A typical split:

Counter / cashier — takes orders, handles billing and payments, owns the drawer.
Barista / kitchen — makes drinks and food, calls out when something runs low.
Floor — clears tables, refills water, reads the room for who needs the bill.

In a two-person cafe one person wears two hats, but the roles should still be spoken out loud so nothing falls through the cracks.

Keep order flow tight

Most cafe chaos comes from orders getting lost between the table and the kitchen. Slips of paper go missing, verbal orders get forgotten, and the customer who ordered first gets served last.

A clear ticket flow fixes this. Every order should move through the same path: taken, sent to the kitchen, made, served, and settled. When a table can see their order was heard and is moving, complaints drop sharply. A POS like GoServe keeps each table’s running order in one place and sends tickets straight to the kitchen screen, so nothing depends on a barista remembering table 4 wanted oat milk. If you run on paper, at least use numbered dockets and a spike so the sequence is never in doubt.

Table numbering that survives a rush

Number or name every table and stick to it. During Dashain and Tihar season your floor will be full and half your staff may be new hires covering the rush. A consistent table map is what lets a new server drop the right bill at the right table without asking around.

Handle the rush without losing the plot

Peak hours — the morning coffee wave, the lunch crowd, and the long evening sit-downs — are where money is made and where mistakes multiply. A few things that hold up under pressure:

Take payment method early on busy tables. Knowing a table will pay by QR versus cash lets you settle faster when they stand up to leave.
Batch, don’t scatter. Fire similar drinks together. Making four Americanos in one go beats making them one at a time between other tickets.
Keep the counter clear. A pile of unsettled bills at the till is how money and orders go missing. Close each table as it leaves.
Watch your 86 list. The fastest way to anger a full house is to take an order for something you ran out of an hour ago. Update the out-of-stock list the moment something runs dry.

The busiest hour is the one where your routines have to run themselves. If a step only works when things are calm, it is not a routine yet.

Cash versus digital

Nepal has moved fast to digital payments, and most cafes now see a healthy mix of cash, eSewa, and Khalti — plus the occasional card or bank transfer. Handle each cleanly:

Cash goes straight into the drawer, change comes straight back out. Do not let staff make change from their pockets; it wrecks your count.
eSewa / Khalti should be confirmed on your own screen before you clear the table. “I already sent it, didi” is not a confirmation — the transaction landing in your account is.
Record the method on every bill. At the end of the night your drawer cash plus your digital receipts must match your total sales. If you do not tag the payment method as you go, reconciling later is guesswork. We cover this in detail in closing the day.

If you are still deciding how to present your menu and take orders, a QR menu pairs naturally with digital payment and cuts the queue at your counter.

Common mistakes that quietly cost you

No opening float discipline. If the drawer starts at a random amount, your close never balances and you can never tell theft from sloppiness.
Free drinks that never get logged. Staff coffees, owner’s tea, a comp for a regular — all fine, but log them. Untracked giveaways look identical to shrinkage.
Menu prices that do not include the maths. Decide early how you show VAT and service charge on the bill and keep it consistent. Customers forgive a fair price; they do not forgive a surprise line at the bottom.
Ignoring stock until you run out. Waiting for the shelf to be empty before reordering guarantees you will be out of your best-seller on your busiest day.
No end-of-day count. Skipping the close “because it was busy” is exactly when you most needed to do it.

Close the day properly

The close mirrors the open. Count the drawer, match cash and digital to sales, note any discrepancy, restock what you can for tomorrow, and lock up knowing your numbers. Ten disciplined minutes at close saves you an hour of confusion the next morning and protects you from slow leaks that add up over a month.

Running a cafe well in Nepal is not about fancy systems — it is about doing the boring things the same way every day so your team can move fast when it counts. Get the open, the order flow, and the close right, and the rest of the business has room to grow.

If you want to see how a POS built for Nepali cafes handles tables, tickets, and daily close in one place, talk to us — we are happy to walk you through it.