What is the best software for a cake decorator in the UK?

A UK cake decorator needs software that quotes each cake with options, takes a booking fee online in pounds, keeps allergen records that meet FSA rules for made-to-order and PPDS food, and handles VAT once you pass £90,000. ibakepro does that from £13 a month, with UK accounts held in a London data region and a 14-day free trial.

What a UK cake decorator actually needs

Quotes with options, compared by the portion. UK couples compare wedding and celebration cake quotes on price per portion, and they often want two versions side by side, a three-tier against a two-tier with a cutting cake. Software should let one quote carry both and let the customer choose.

A booking fee online, the balance chased for you. The usual UK structure is a booking fee to hold the date and the balance some weeks before the event. Taking the fee by card at the moment the customer says yes is what stops a date being held on a promise.

Allergens for made-to-order and pre-boxed food. The FSA's guidance splits your work in two. A cake packaged after the customer orders it is non-prepacked food: it does not need a full ingredients label, but you must still provide allergen information, and that can be done in other ways, including verbally. Anything you box before it is ordered and sell from the same place, a tray of cupcakes on a market stall for example, is prepacked for direct sale (PPDS, also known as Natasha's Law) and needs a label with the name of the food and a full ingredients list with allergens emphasised. Either way, you need an ingredient-level record you trust.

VAT for later. Most cakes are zero-rated under HMRC's VAT Notice 701/14, but chocolate-covered biscuits and catering are standard-rated, and you must register once taxable turnover goes over £90,000. Software should handle VAT by product category when you get there. The detail is in do I charge VAT on cakes in the UK.

Registered, then organised. UK food businesses, including those run from home, register with their local authority at least 28 days before trading. Once you are registered, the records your environmental health officer may ask about need to live somewhere you can find them.

How ibakepro covers it

ibakepro serves UK decorators working from home through to bakeries with a team, and runs each order from quote to delivery. For a UK decorator, that means:

• Quotes with several options. The customer opens their order page, picks one option and pays the booking fee by card through your own Stripe account, and the payment schedule follows the option they chose. See orders and quotes.
• Balances on a schedule. A balance can fall due a set number of days before the event, with reminders that repeat until it is paid. See payment schedules and deposits.
• Allergens from the ingredient up. Each ingredient carries its allergens, and they roll up through recipes to products and onto every order, so the information you give a customer comes from the same record every time. See allergen management.
• VAT. VAT is one of the tax types you can choose, with a different rate by product category where one needs it.
• Pounds and London. Billed in GBP, with UK accounts in the United Kingdom data region, hosted in London.
• Costing. Each design is costed from what you paid for sugarpaste, butter and boards, so your per-portion rate comes from your own numbers. See recipe costing.
• Contracts. Your cake terms can be signed online with e-sign, filed in the Vault, on every plan. See e-sign.

Which plan fits a cake decorator

A decorator taking a few commissions a week usually starts on Essentials and moves to Growth for unlimited orders or a shop. More on that in is ibakepro right for a cake decorator, and the UK setup is on bakery software for UK bakers. For setting the per-portion rate itself, see pricing celebration cakes in the UK.