Baking for six other businesses from a notebook
It started with one deli down the road asking for a tray of your brownies. Now you bake for five or six cafes, a farm shop and an office canteen. Each one orders differently. The deli texts on Sunday night. One cafe sends a WhatsApp voice note. The farm shop has a standing order that changes when they remember to tell you. On Tuesday morning at 5:45 you are in the kitchen working out from your phone how many lemon drizzles to bake, and you are not sure the farm shop still wants the flapjacks.
At the end of the month you sit down with delivery notes, messages and your bank statement to work out who owes what. Some invoices go out weeks late. One customer has not paid for two months and you only notice when you are doing the VAT return.
Why trade orders get messy
- Every trade customer orders through a different channel.
- Changes arrive late, sometimes after you have started baking.
- Standing orders live in your head, not in a list.
- The bake list for the morning is worked out by hand from the messages.
- Delivery notes and invoices are written separately, so they do not always match.
This sits beside your own counter, which has its own rhythm. The wholesale side is where the admin grows fastest, because each new customer adds another set of messages.
What the mess costs
Mistakes in quantities mean short deliveries to customers who have their own counters to fill, or trays of cake you cannot sell. Late invoices mean late payment, and cash flow suffers. The early-morning planning eats into baking time. And you cannot easily see which trade customers are worth keeping once ingredients, packaging and delivery are counted.
How we build the trade ordering side
- We build a private ordering page for your trade customers, with your wholesale range, pack sizes, trade prices and delivery days.
- Each customer logs in, places or changes orders up to a cut-off you set, and can set a standing weekly order they adjust when they need to.
- After cut-off, orders for the next day are combined into a bake list by product and tray, scaled from your recipes, with ingredients totalled for the week.
- A delivery list and delivery notes are produced per customer and route, and signed for on a phone when dropped off.
- Invoices are raised in Xero or QuickBooks from what was actually delivered, weekly or per delivery, with your payment terms.
- You see orders, sales and overdue invoices by customer on one page.
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Orders by text and voice note | Orders on one trade page |
| Late changes after baking starts | Changes locked at cut-off |
| Bake list worked out at 5:45am | Bake list ready the night before |
| Invoices written at month end | Invoices raised from delivery notes |
Labelling and allergen information for food you supply to other businesses follows your own food safety process and whatever advice you take. The system can print what your records say; it does not decide what is required.
Tuesday at 5:45 now
The bake list was ready at 8pm last night: four trays of brownies, three lemon drizzles, two of flapjacks for the farm shop, which confirmed its standing order on the page. You bake without checking your phone. The deliveries go out with notes, and the deli signs on the driver's phone. On Friday, invoices go out automatically, and the page shows that one cafe is overdue, so you mention it on the next drop.
Is your wholesale side like this?
- Trade orders arrive by text, WhatsApp and phone.
- Customers change orders after you have started baking.
- You plan the morning bake from messages.
- Invoices go out late or get missed.
- You are not sure which trade customers are profitable.