Feature
Bakery production software that plans your week from your orders
Bakery production software should answer one question first: what do I bake this week, and what do I need to buy? Farinu reads your confirmed orders for the week, works out how many whole batches of each recipe to make, lists the ingredients and packaging those batches need, and takes away what you already have on hand. When you log a bake, the ingredients come out of stock on their own, so the next plan starts from real numbers.
From orders to a production plan
The production plan looks at every order due in the dates you pick (this week by default, up to 31 days) that is confirmed, has its deposit paid, or is already in production. Drafts, cancelled orders and orders already ready or delivered are left out.
For each recipe it adds up the units still to make and divides by the recipe's units per batch, always rounding up to a whole batch. Units you already logged against an order are taken off, so a half-finished order does not get baked twice.
Read next: Order management for bakeries
A worked example of one week
Say three orders are due this week: 60 cinnamon rolls for an office, 18 sourdough loaves for a cafe, and 30 brownies for a birthday. Your recipes make 12 rolls, 8 loaves and 16 brownies per batch. These numbers are an example, not data from a real bakery.
| Recipe | Units to make | Units per batch | Batches |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cinnamon rolls | 60 | 12 | 5 |
| Sourdough loaves | 18 | 8 | 3 (2.25 rounded up) |
| Brownies | 30 | 16 | 2 (1.875 rounded up) |
A shopping list that subtracts what you have
Next to the batches, Farinu expands every recipe through its sub-recipes (the dough, the frosting, the filling) down to raw ingredients and packaging, in the unit you buy them in. Then it compares what the week needs with what is on hand and shows either how much you are short or that you have enough.
In the example week, the list could look like this. Only the rows marked short need a trip to the supplier.
| Ingredient | Needed | On hand | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bread flour | 9.5 kg | 6 kg | Short by 3.5 kg |
| Butter | 2.4 kg | 3 kg | Enough stock |
| Eggs | 30 | 18 | Short by 12 |
| Cinnamon roll boxes (6) | 10 | 25 | Enough stock |
Production log: record what you baked
The production log is built for a phone in a floury hand. Pick the day, type the hours you worked, and add the batches you baked in that session. Units fill in from the recipe's batch size until you type over them, and each batch can be linked to the order it was for.
Logging does three jobs at once. It moves linked orders into production, it takes the ingredients those batches used out of stock, and the hours feed the overhead rate in your recipe costing, so overhead is spread over the hours you really bake. Made a mistake? Delete the session and the stock and order status go back.
Bakery inventory management without a spreadsheet
Stock in Farinu is a running total per ingredient: purchases add to it, logged production takes from it, and counts or adjustments correct it. You never type a new total by hand after every bake.
Recording a purchase also records the new price of that ingredient, so your recipe costs stay current and a margin alert appears if a price rise eats into a product's margin. Set a low-stock threshold on the ingredients that matter and whoever manages stock gets a notice the moment a bake or adjustment takes one below it.
- Purchases: quantity, price per pack and date, with the ingredient's price updated
- Counts: type what is on the shelf and Farinu records the difference
- Stock is managed by the owner; helpers log bakes but never see prices
Plans and who can use it
The production plan comes with orders on every plan: the free plan takes up to 50 orders a month and costs up to 10 recipes, which is where the batch sizes and ingredient lists the plan relies on come from. The stock pages are part of the paid plan, Team, together with unlimited orders and helpers.
If you still plan on paper, a simple bakery production schedule template with one row per recipe (units ordered, units per batch, batches) gets you most of the way. Farinu does that arithmetic for you and adds the shopping list and stock on top.
Questions
- What is bakery production software?
- It is software that turns your orders into a baking plan: how many batches of each recipe, what ingredients they need, and what you have to buy. Farinu adds a production log and stock that update each other.
- Does logging a bake reduce my ingredient stock?
- Yes. When you log a session, Farinu works out the ingredients each batch used, through sub-recipes, and takes them out of stock. Deleting the session puts them back.
- Can my helper use the production plan?
- Yes. Helpers can read the plan and log production because both show quantities only. They cannot manage stock or see costs and prices.
- Is there a bakery production schedule template I can use for free?
- You can start with a sheet that has one row per recipe and columns for units ordered, units per batch and batches (units divided by batch size, rounded up). When that gets slow, Farinu builds the same plan from your orders.
Related pages
Plan next week's bake in minutes
Create a free account, cost your recipes, and see how Farinu turns orders into batches, a shopping list and up-to-date stock.