You need to have a good understanding of what inventory you need on a daily basis to satisfy all your walk-in customers and fill your display cases. Perhaps word has spread about your scrumptious bear claws, and so now you see at least 40 people coming in throughout the day to pick one up.
You probably base your whole operation around your bakery inventory sheet; after all, you can’t sell what you don’t have! If you’re consistently out of someone’s favorite muffin, then that person may decide to shop elsewhere.
There are quite a few different methods of bakery inventory management that can keep you and your staff on track. But your production can only be as good as your inventory management.
If you’ve decided your bakery needs help managing inventory, you could begin with some simple research. You might start looking around for a bakery inventory list example to help get you started. It’s super helpful to see what others have done to use a jumping-off point to get your bakery inventory under control.
Some bakeries use a bakery inventory Excel template as their foundation and continue to copy and manipulate sheets every so often. You have to be very precise with spreadsheets.
Bakery Spreadsheets
Bakery spreadsheets can be very useful if used in small quantities and sparingly. However, we don’t recommend using them for your entire operation. While food inventory template Google Sheets are easy to use on the surface, to get the most out of them you really need to put in some effort. And that’s not to mention getting all the math right. Sure, you could use an Excel inventory template with formulas, but doesn’t that sound complicated?
If you’re not absolutely confident in your formula skills, you could end up with wasted products or not enough to fill the demand of your customers. Either way, you end up losing money.
Instead of an excel template for bakery inventory management, we suggest finding a software option that can integrate with other aspects of your business. The same thing goes for bakery expenses spreadsheet. It just isn’t very dynamic, and we encourage you to find retail bakery software that will do all the work for you. If customers are upset when they can’t get their favorite pie, then imagine the ire you’ll bring from your bakery staff!
Retail Bakery Software
So if you don’t want to use a bakery inventory spreadsheet for bakery inventory management, then it’s time to look into getting and using retail bakery software. There are some great apps for bakery businesses out there that offer great features like a bakery inventory list that works within your production parameters. For example, BakeSmart keeps track of your inventory as you reduce your stock of raw goods and increase the inventory of finished goods.
Bakery Inventory Software is a no-brainer if your bakery always has too much or too little of an item on your bakery inventory sheet. There are even small bakery software products that streamline your entire bakery management system project—everything you need to run your bakery in a single place. Small bakery management software can come with all sorts of other great components such as a daily bakery Production Sheet, POS system, and some bakery management systems that come with wholesale bakery software already installed.
Benefits of Bakery Management Software
Running a bakery takes a lot of hard work and even more passion. There will always be issues that arise or problems that pop up. Bakery management software created specifically to meet the needs of a retail bakery can help keep everything under control.
When all aspects of your bakery business work together you’ll see increased revenue and happier customers. A bakery inventory management system is just scratching the surface. Instead of having an app for bakery orders, a separate bakery accounting spreadsheet, and other disparate methods of managing your bakery, a single bakery management software system brings everything together.
Do you find yourself manually inputting your bakery’s accounting, financials, customer data, and wasting time by repeating these tasks over multiple platforms? Luckily with BakeSmart’s handy integrations, you can cut down on the number of times you need to transfer the same information over to a different application.
BakeSmart is bakery software that was created to meet your needs. Our software offers you complete control of every aspect of your bakery, from order taking, to bakery production, to bakery inventory management, to nutrition and product costing. BakeSmart will help you conquer the chaos. There’s plenty of bakery problems that BakeSmart can solve.
Bakery Production Planning Software
One of the best ways to create efficiency for your bakery is to have technologies in place to do the work for you. While you could accomplish some of these efficiencies manually, it might actually take more time. A bakery management software like BakeSmart can help you implement all sorts of automations to make your bakery as efficient as possible.
A bakery production planning software can streamline your production so you can focus on doing what you do best, creating delicious baked goods.
Are you spending a lot of time manually building purchase orders? BakeSmart lets you know when you’re running low on inventory, and, with just a click, add items to a purchase order from your preferred supplier. One more click sends the PO to your rep!
With Full Production, you’ll get much more detailed information on your batches and inventory. Keep track of your inventory as you reduce your stock of raw goods and increase the inventory of finished goods.
Wouldn’t your life be less crazy if you could organize your bakery’s daily batches without having to worry about accidentally mixing batches from multiple dates or stores together? Luckily for you, BakeSmart’s daily bakery production sheet does just that. Its goal is to make it easier to work with a list of batches without needing to filter the list by date or store. And even better, it updates every time a change is made.
Check your daily bakery production sheet and monitor your progress to see which items still need to be baked as the day goes on. This includes any items on order for the day, and it also takes into account what items you have leftover from your last batch, so you don’t over-prepare.
Whether you’re looking for a detailed production process with ingredient and lot tracking or quick production with automatic inventory pulls, BakeSmart has features that will work for your bakery. Soon your bakery daily sales report will be going up and up!
Detailed Bakery Inventory Management with BakeSmart
We know how much work it takes to keep your bakery running in tip-top shape. That’s why our software offers you complete control of every aspect of your bakery. There are three types of Production in BakeSmart:
- Simple Production with Automatic Inventory Pulls
- Simple Production with Manual Inventory Pulls
- Full Production
No matter which type of production makes the most sense for your bakery, all three options have the same basic settings that can help you streamline your production so you can focus on doing what you do best, creating delicious baked goods. One incredibly useful setting gives you the ability to set a centralized location.
Another helpful setting allows you to round batches to the nearest quarter, half, or whole batch. You don’t have to worry if math wasn’t your strongest subject in school because BakeSmart will do the math for you!
Simple bakery production works well if you just need to keep track of inventory and costs, but sometimes you need more details. That’s why we offer Full Production. You’ll get much more detailed information on your batches and inventory, even allowing you to add equipment time and labor so you can get a better idea of what your products cost.
After you hit Run Production, you’ll see all the batches that are set to Ready but have not yet been completed. When you click on the batch it will bring up the Production Batch Details screen, where you can view the requirements to bake the selected batch as well as record your progress. It can be incredibly helpful to have all the information you need in one place at one time. With Full Production, you can see details like:
- Batch status
- Shelf life
- Required quantity
- Any formula information
- Ingredients on-hand or needed for partial products (like pie crusts)
- Partial batch calculations
BakeSmart’s production basic settings can help you keep on track so you can continue to deliver the best baked goods around.
We understand the challenges of bakery management. Whether it’s hiring trustworthy and hardworking employees, navigating custom cake consultations, retaining your customers, or anything in between, we’ve been there and done that. We’ve seen it all and conquered the chaos.
Get bakery software that will help you manage your entire operation. Schedule a demo today!