The cafe ran out of milk at eleven
Your cafe is busy on a Saturday morning. It runs out of milk, so a member of staff grabs four bottles from the shop fridge. The kitchen needs more eggs for the breakfasts, so a tray comes over from the shop. The bacon is from your own pigs and comes from the butchery counter. The scones use your own jam from the shop shelf. A loaf for sandwiches, a block of cheese for the ploughman's, a bag of salad leaves.
None of this goes through the till. The shop's stock count shows items missing that look like theft or waste. The cafe's figures show food costs lower than they really are. And at the end of the month, nobody can tell you whether the cafe is really making money or quietly living off the shop.
Why the shop and cafe blur together
Having a shop next to the cafe is one of the best things about a farm shop cafe: fresh produce, your own meat, local cheese a few steps away. It is also why the boundary disappears. Staff move between the two, orders are placed together with the same suppliers, and in a rush nobody wants to stop and write things down.
- Cafe staff take stock from the shop in a hurry, with no record.
- Some items are bought for both the shop and cafe on one delivery.
- Own produce and meat go to the cafe with no internal price.
- The shop's stock losses are blamed on waste or theft.
- Each department's margin is a guess.
What blurred figures cost you
If the cafe's food costs are understated, its prices may be too low, and you will not know until the cafe is expanded or the shop has a bad year. If the shop's figures show unexplained losses, you may tighten controls that were never needed, or miss real waste. When you consider investing in the cafe, perhaps a bigger kitchen or more covers, the decision rests on figures that do not reflect reality.
Your accountant also has to make assumptions at year end, and those assumptions are rarely in your favour for planning.
The transfer log we build
- A tablet or phone screen by the cafe kitchen with the items the cafe most often takes from the shop, shown as large buttons with photos: milk, eggs, bread, bacon, sausages, cheese, jam, salad.
- A tap per item and a quantity, taking a few seconds, with a 'something else' option that searches the shop's product list.
- An internal price for each item that you choose: cost price, a set transfer price or shop price, so both departments' figures are fair.
- Transfers recorded against the shop's stock, so the shop's figures stop showing unexplained losses, and against the cafe's food costs.
- Own produce and meat valued at the price you set for the cafe, so the farm, shop and cafe each see their share.
- A weekly summary per department: sales, food costs including transfers, and margin, plus a list of the most-transferred items so you can decide whether the cafe should order them directly.
| Item | Where it comes from | Internal price |
|---|---|---|
| Milk and eggs | Shop fridge | Your choice: cost or transfer price |
| Bacon and sausages | Butchery counter | Price set for the cafe |
| Jam, chutney, cheese | Shop shelves | Cost price |
| Salad and veg | Own produce | Set by you per season |
| Bread | Bakery or supplier | Cost price |
If your till system has a 'transfer' or 'internal sale' function, we use that instead of a separate screen. The point is that the record is made, not which device makes it.
After a month of logging
Transfers take seconds, so staff actually record them, even on a busy Saturday. The shop's stock losses fall to what they really are, and the cafe's food costs rise to what they really are. You can see, for the first time, whether the Sunday roast is priced sensibly given the cost of your own beef.
The list of most-transferred items is useful by itself. If the cafe takes a lot of milk from the shop every weekend, it should have its own milk order. If it uses your own bacon all week, the butchery can plan for it.
Year end is easier too, because your accountant gets department figures rather than an estimate.
Does this sound like your shop and cafe?
- Cafe staff take stock from the shop without writing it down.
- The shop's stock checks show losses nobody can explain.
- You are not sure whether the cafe makes money on its own.
- Own produce and meat go to the cafe with no price attached.
- Year-end figures lump the shop and cafe together.