What is the best software for a wholesale bakery?

A wholesale bakery needs software that does six jobs: holds a price list for each group of trade customers, lets those buyers order themselves before your cutoff, invoices them on terms, adds trade and retail orders into one production count, plans the delivery run and passes the money to your accounts. ibakepro, bakery management software for bakeries from a first cafe account to a production kitchen supplying dozens, does all six on its Business plan: US$59, A$89, £47, C$81 or NZ$100 a month.

The test for any system is what goes wrong without each job, so that is how this list is laid out.

1. Price lists by customer group

Without it: your cafe prices live in a spreadsheet, a new barista gets last year's price, and a stockist on 40 percent off sees the 30 percent cafe price.

In ibakepro: price lists hang off customer tags such as "Cafe", "Stockist" or "Hotel group". Each list can be a percentage off retail, a fixed price for particular products and quantity breaks. A buyer with two tags gets the lower price. Using example prices:

How to set the percentages is in wholesale pricing, price lists and terms and, for bread, wholesale bread pricing for cafes.

2. Buyers order for themselves

Without it: orders arrive by text at 10pm, by email at 6am and by a phone call during the bake, and someone retypes them all.

In ibakepro: each buyer signs in to a private trade area on your site with a code sent to their email, sees only their own prices, and orders for their delivery day. Minimum quantities per product stop an order for three of something you bake by the tray. Removing the tag removes their access. Buyers place each week's order themselves in a minute. See wholesale ordering.

3. Invoices on terms

Without it: you take card details from businesses that expect an invoice, or you invoice from another tool and chase in a third.

In ibakepro: trade orders go on account with no card charged. Each order becomes a payment due on your terms, such as net 14 or net 30, in the same due and overdue view as every retail balance, with reminders until it is paid.

4. One production count

Without it: you add the cafe orders to the shop orders by hand at 4am, and the shortfall shows up on the delivery van.

In ibakepro: trade orders, shop orders and orders taken by phone all feed the same bake sheet, so the mixer sees one number per product for each day. Ingredients are checked against what those orders need, so a short week of flour shows before the mix.

5. Delivery runs

Without it: the driver works out the order of 14 cafes from memory, and a missed drop is a phone call at 8am.

In ibakepro: route optimisation orders each day's stops by delivery window and traffic, the driver opens the run on a link with a PIN, and each drop is confirmed with a photo and a signature. One order can deliver to several addresses for a group with more than one site. See how do I plan an efficient delivery run.

6. The accounts

Without it: your bookkeeper rebuilds the month from bank statements.

In ibakepro: on Business, expenses go to Xero with the receipt attached, and each day's sales are sent across. Wholesale revenue is also reported by customer group, so you can see whether your cafes or your stockists carry the business. See accounting sync.

Where it fits

ibakepro runs trade and retail off one set of products, recipes and stock, so a recipe change reaches the cafe price list and the shop page together. It works for bakeries in Australia, the US, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and Europe, with data held in Sydney, London or the United States. Business also includes unlimited users, the REST API and webhooks for a buyer who wants orders from their own system.

If you have one cafe and are testing the idea, any plan can build that order by hand and send an invoice. Move to Business when buyers should be ordering themselves. The short version of starting out is how do I sell wholesale to cafes and stockists.