Counter sales that keep the case moving
Most bakery sales happen at the case. A guest points at a sourdough, two croissants and a box of butter tarts, and wants to be on their way. Platter's menu shows your breads, pastries and cakes by category with photos, so new staff can find a rye loaf without asking. Set up items by the piece or by the box, and item notes cover requests like "sliced, please" or "pack separately". Send the order, take the payment and the next guest is up. If you sell coffee alongside your baking, drinks and their modifiers sit in the same menu.
Custom cakes as pickup and phone orders
Cake orders are where details matter most. A name spelled wrong on a birthday cake is a remake and an unhappy family. In Platter, a custom cake is a pickup or phone order, kept in the takeout list with the guest's name and phone number. Set up each cake with modifiers for size, flavour, filling and finish, so staff are prompted for every choice. Add the inscription, pickup date and decoration notes as an item note, where the decorator can read them exactly as the guest said them.
Platter records partial payments on an order and shows the paid and outstanding amounts, so staff can see what is still owed. Ask us in a demo how to handle deposits on pre-orders. You can send the receipt by SMS or email, so the guest has a record of the order. On pickup day, staff find the order by name, take the rest of the payment and hand over the box.
Busy seasons put the most pressure on cake orders. In the weeks before a holiday, the takeout list can fill up fast. Because every order carries the guest's name, number and notes, staff can call a guest to confirm a detail instead of guessing, and the decorator works from what was written at the till. Staff roles keep things tidy too: give counter staff a Server role and keep menu and discount changes for managers.
Stock and reorder points
A bakery depends on a steady supply of flour, butter, eggs, sugar and boxes. On the Pro plan, inventory tracks each product by category and unit of measure, such as flour by the kilogram, butter by the block and boxes by the bundle. Set a reorder point for each one, and Platter flags it with a low-stock alert before you run short. Record deliveries as they come in. At close, do a day-end count of finished goods and ingredients in the app. Over time, those counts show you what you use each week and what you bake too much of.
Recipe-based depletion, which would deduct ingredients automatically as each loaf sells, is part of Advanced Inventory and is coming soon.
End-of-day discounts without the marker pen
Fresh bread has a short life, and many bakeries discount what is left in the last hour. In Platter, you can set up a percentage or flat-rate discount and schedule it to run at the times you choose. It can apply on its own at the till, so staff do not have to remember the deal or work out the price. Discounts show on the day-end report, so you can see how much you marked down and decide whether to bake a little less tomorrow.
Payments, receipts and reports
Card payments are processed by Moneris, at Moneris preferred pricing for Platter customers, subject to Moneris approval. Moneris terminals pair over Wi-Fi, and Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android in the Platter app is powered by Stripe, which helps at a busy holiday counter. Guests can pay by tap, debit, credit or cash, and receipts go by SMS, email or print on an Epson printer.
The back office has more than 30 reports. Sales by item and category show which breads sell on which days. The back office dashboard shows revenue by hour of day, which helps you decide when the second batch of croissants should come out of the oven. Staff clock in and out with a PIN, and their hours feed the labour report.
What it costs
Essentials is $79 per location per month. Pro is $149 per location per month and adds inventory with reorder points. Add one extra tablet at $10 for the cake-order desk and a customer display at $15, and phones and printers are free. The main POS iPad is included in your plan. Hardware is not included, so you can bring your own iPad, iPhone or Android device and Epson printers. Plans are month-to-month with no cancellation fee. See the full details on the pricing page.
An onboarding specialist sets up your menu, floor plan, printers, Moneris and staff roles with you. Your account stays in set-up mode until you launch, so you can enter a test cake order before the first real one comes in.