A text from the pub chef at eleven at night
The pub in the village takes eggs, sausages and whatever veg you have. The restaurant in town orders your beef and lamb, and sometimes asks for a whole lamb at short notice. The tea room takes cakes from your kitchen. Each has a standing order that changes when they have a function, a menu change or a quiet week. Orders arrive as texts, voicemails and a quick word when the chef is in the shop.
Deliveries go out with the veg box van or someone drops them off. Sometimes there is a delivery note, sometimes not. At the end of the month, you try to work out what each customer had and invoice them. Some months the invoices go out late, and one customer always disputes something.
Why trade orders get tangled
Trade customers are valuable and loyal, but the relationship is informal. Orders are verbal or by text, standing orders change week to week, and the prices you charge trade differ from shop prices, sometimes by customer. Weighed items such as meat have to be invoiced at actual weight. And all of it is handled on top of running the shop.
- Standing orders live in memory and change without notice.
- Orders arrive by text, voicemail and in person.
- Trade prices differ from shop prices and between customers.
- Meat and cheese are invoiced by actual weight.
- Invoices are written weeks later from incomplete delivery notes.
What informal trade costs
Missed items on a delivery mean a chef calling in a panic and a rushed extra trip. Items delivered but not invoiced are lost income. Disputes are hard to settle without a signed delivery note. Late invoices mean late payment, which hurts cash flow in a business with seasonal peaks. And the trade side often looks less profitable than it is because nobody can see the numbers.
It also makes trade depend on one person. When they are away, orders get missed.
Picture a normal Friday. The pub's standing order is two trays of eggs, sausages and whatever greens are in season. The chef texted on Wednesday to add a leg of lamb for a Sunday booking, but the text went to the owner's phone and the owner was at market. The van leaves with the usual order. At four o'clock the chef rings, the owner drives the lamb over, and nobody writes down the weight. At month end, the lamb is either missed from the invoice or charged at a guessed weight, and neither is good for a relationship you want to keep for years.
The trade order system we build
- A trade customer list with each customer's standing order by day, their prices, delivery days and contact details.
- A simple order page for each trade customer, reached from a link on their phone, where the chef can change this week's standing order or add items before a cut-off you set. Texts and calls are entered by staff on the same page.
- A daily trade pick list, combined across customers, and a packing list per customer, printed or on a tablet.
- Actual weights recorded at packing for weighed items, from the scale where possible.
- A delivery note per drop, with a signature or photo on the driver's phone as proof of delivery.
- Invoices raised in Xero or QuickBooks from the delivery notes, weekly or monthly as agreed, at the customer's prices, with statements and payment reminders from your accounts system.
| Task | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Standing orders | In someone's head | Held per customer and day |
| Order changes | Texts and voicemails | Customer's own order page |
| Packing | From memory | Pick and packing lists |
| Proof of delivery | Sometimes a note | Signature or photo |
| Invoicing | Written from memory monthly | Raised from delivery notes |
A trade week afterwards
Standing orders appear on the pick list automatically. When the restaurant has a function on Saturday, the chef adds extra lamb on the order page on Wednesday, and it appears on the list. Meat is weighed at packing and the weight goes on the delivery note. The driver gets a signature or a photo of the drop.
At the end of the month, invoices are drafted in Xero from the delivery notes. You glance through them and approve. When a customer queries an item, you can show the delivery note with the weight and signature.
And you can finally see how much each trade customer buys and what the trade side contributes to the business.
Is your trade side like this?
- Standing orders are remembered rather than written down.
- Chefs text orders late at night.
- Items have been delivered and never invoiced.
- Invoices go out late and customers dispute them.
- You are not sure how much each trade customer is worth.