Kahero Apps

Overview

Kahero started as a point-of-sale (POS) system for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). It was designed to simplify business operations for shops with limited resources — both financially and technically. What began as a lightweight alternative to bulky POS systems quickly evolved into a growing suite of tools for everyday entrepreneurs.

Purpose & Context

Our initial goal was simple: make sales processing reliable and accessible — even in places with weak internet connectivity. The first version of Kahero tackled that with an offline-capable POS, Firebase-backed data, and a mobile-first experience.

But as real customers began using it, the feedback pushed us further.

They wanted:

• Deeper business insights
• Inventory flexibility
• Employee accountability
• Online selling channels

Kahero started to shift — from a POS app into a business operations platform.

Product Expansion

📊 Kahero Analytics

For many shop owners, printing receipts wasn’t enough — they needed visibility. What’s selling, what’s stalling, and what inventory is running low?

To solve that, we built a companion app — Kahero Analytics — connected to the same Firebase project. It visualizes daily sales, product performance, and revenue breakdowns.

🕒 Shift Management + Time Tracking

Employees could clock in and out, but owners had no easy way to match that against shift schedules. We expanded the employee module into a shift management system that tracked scheduled vs. actual hours worked — complete with summaries.

We used Firebase Auth for role separation, and Firestore rules to ensure data privacy between roles.

🧮 Inventory Bundling

For businesses dealing with raw ingredients (e.g. cafés, restaurants), we introduced inventory bundling — allowing items to be composed of smaller tracked units (like 1 burger = 1 bun, 1 patty, 1 sauce). This let them auto-decrement stock as bundles were sold.

💸 Money Manager

Some users asked for a way to track expenses and revenue outside the POS flow — petty cash, supply purchases, delivery fees. So we added Money Manager, an income/expense tracker that integrates with the same business profile.

It let owners quickly see where their profits were going, without needing to leave the app.

🛒 Online Store + SMS Ordering

During the pandemic, physical selling slowed. We responded by building a simple online store experience, directly integrated with their existing product catalog.

Customers could order via a unique link, and they would receive an SMS confirmation on their phone.

My Role

I was the main developer across the suite:

• Flutter for mobile apps
• React for the web-based back office
• Firebase as the real-time database and auth backend

I designed and built flows for:

• Checkout
• Shift tracking
• Inventory and bundles
• Analytics dashboards
• Online store order processing

I also handled CI/CD for releases and internal testing pipelines with Codemagic.

Challenges & Solutions

🔄 Offline Support

Some stores operated in areas with intermittent signal. I used Firebase’s offline capabilities and transaction queuing to ensure sales could be recorded offline and synced automatically later.

🖨️ Thermal Printing

We had to support a wide range of thermal printer models, many of which caused instability and crashes. I forked the original Flutter plugin and rewrote parts of the Android native code and Dart logic using method channels, leading to significant improvements in stability and print performance.

👥 Multi-role Access

Managing access across different roles — like owners, cashiers, and inventory staff — was a challenge. Instead of setting up individual accounts and emails for each user, we let store admins register employees directly in-app and assign them unique PINs. These PINs acted as lightweight credentials, streamlining login and permission control.

Outcome

• Kahero suite is actively used across the Philippines and expanding.
• Helped SMEs reduce sales reporting time by 60%+.
• Sales report and shift tracking became the top-requested features.
• Offline-first architecture increased reliability in remote areas.

Lessons Learned

This wasn’t just a POS app. It became a toolkit for small businesses trying to digitize.

I learned how to:

• Listen to user pain points and design features around real workflows
• Balance Firebase performance with cost and reliability
• Build a product that grows organically based on feedback

It also shaped how I think about frontend roles — not just writing UI, but deeply understanding the problem you're solving.