• Tracking orders
• Ingredients inventory
• Invoice and production requirements

To be able to accomplish these repetitive everyday tasks, bakeries have novel tools like bakery software. Not only does bakery software improve overall efficiency, but it also cuts waste and labor, overall leading to lower operating costs for bakeries.

What is bakery software?

Bakery software is a technological tool especially made to manage all bakery operations from small craft bakeries to industrial size ones. The ultimate goal of these tools is to simplify administrative work for bakers by automating repetitive and human error sensitive tasks like tracking orders, ingredient inventory, e-commerce, EDI, POS, labeling and weighing.¹

Most bakery software comes with a core package to fulfill the basic administrative need of a bakery. However, additional modules are available, from recipe management and costing to e-commerce, to fill the required needs of every bakery size.²

What can a bakery software application do?

Depending on the needs of each bakery, multiple tasks can be performed by bakery software. Among them, the most commonly performed are:^2,3

Production

• Management reports: improve decision making by providing clear reports associated with product margin, profit percentage, bakery stock, etc.
• Picking lists: sequencing picking process, reducing human errors and improving efficiency.
• Production reports: automation of clear end-of-day reports.
• Production waste control: reduction of batch size calculations and accurate forecasting of retail requirements.
• Pricing: automation of increasing or changing of bakery products.
• Recipe management and costing: simplification of recipe interpretation and direct calculations of recipe costs from ingredients formulation.

Wholesale

• Monitor returns: easy monitoring of product returns.
• Automated invoicing and standing orders: automation of invoice formats and delivering.
• Delivery route optimization: suggesting optimal delivery routes by using web mapping platforms.
• Weekly orders: view overall weekly orders to help in scheduling required activities.
• Customer online orders: provides a wholesale catalog for consumers to view and place orders.

Retail 

• Waste control: produce accurate forecasting of retail requirements.
• Shop ordering: automate sales-based orders.
• Stock reconciliation: automatically reconcile quantities delivered with quantities sold, wasted and transferred.
• In-store production planning: planned what and when products are baked.

Integrate

• Accounts: reduce administrative errors and data re-entry.
• Labeling: generates accurate label information for your bakery’s ingredients, allergens, nutrition and claims declarations and then exports the data to your labeling system of choice.
• Weighing: automate recipe sending and production batch calculations to weighing scales.

How can bakery software reduce costs?

Cut out repetitive admin labor costs
The use of bakery software aids in cutting done administrative labor intensive tasks like order tracking, batch size calculations, invoicing sending, among others; thus reducing the amount of time spent on them, and the amount of workers required to fulfill those tasks.³

Get a grip of your purchasing 
Know what, when and how much you need to restore your inventory to fulfill forecasted production in an automated way, and thus reducing time spent ordering, invoicing and restocking. Never be left without a precious ingredient before a big order.³

Stop making so much costly waste
Food waste is one of the most common problems in the food industry, according to FAO nearly 1.4 billion tons of food waste are produced every year. In the UK around 800,000 tons of waste were produced from bakeries in 2009. Accurate sales forecasting, appropriate batch size calculations and inventory management help reduce the production of bakery waste; all of these tasks can be simultaneously accomplished with the appropriate bakery software.⁴

In today’s world, the use of technological tools have become more than ever a requirement to operate successful and efficient business, and thus the baking industry is required to move with the times and start integrating technological tools like specialized bakery software to improve performance and increase productivity.

Looking for an all-in-one management software specifically designed for bakeries? You’ll find it with Cybake, a cloud-based, comprehensive and easy-to-use solution. Set up a demo today!

References

1. Davidson, Oprah. “What Is Bakery Software? | Bakerpedia.” Bakerpedia, 2021, https://bakerpedia.com/what-is-bakery-software/.
2. Davidson, Oprah. “How Bakery Software Helps With Staff Shortages – Blog | Bakerpedia.” Bakerpedia, 2021, https://bakerpedia.com/how-bakery-software-helps-with-staff-shortages/ .
3. Cybake Bakery Systems. “Cloud-Based, Mobile Solutions For Every Size And Type Of Baking Business.” Cybake, 2022, https://cybake.com/bakery-software/ .
4. Recycle Track Systems.Food Waste in America in 2021: Statistics & Facts. Rts.Com, 2022, https://www.rts.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/RTS_Food_Waste_Guide_2021.pdf .