Business application
Café Manager
An offline Windows point of sale for an independent café
A desktop application that brings ordering, customer credit, inventory, and reporting into one local workspace. Built around the daily work of an owner and a cashier.
- My role
- Independent product development
- Context
- Single café · Windows desktop · Local SQLite storage
Inside the application
Actual interface captures with fictional demonstration data.
The problem
A café needs to keep serving customers when the internet is unavailable. The cashier needs a clear way to assemble orders and record payment, while the owner needs to maintain the menu and understand the business.
Decisions behind the interface
Keep the order journey in one workspace
The interface brings product selection and the current order together. Separate owner and cashier views keep administration away from the main service workflow.
The tradeoff. A focused single-device workflow keeps the interface manageable, but does not provide multi-till synchronization or online ordering.
Use Angular in a native desktop host
Angular supplies the interface and state management; Tauri connects it to local storage and desktop capabilities. Orders and menu data live in SQLite on the machine.
The tradeoff. Working without a cloud service makes local backup, recovery, and Windows-specific testing part of operating the product.
What the work delivered
- A connected workflow for creating orders, recording settlement, and preparing receipts.
- Owner tools for menu maintenance, recipes, ingredient stock, customer credit, and reports.
- A desktop delivery model that does not require a cloud API for daily operation.
Reflection
The next priority is making exceptional situations as clear as the normal sale: correcting a mistake, handling unpaid work, and explaining stock changes.