Bakery software for UK bakeries: pre-orders, website and counter sales

Menuthere is bakery software for the customer side of a UK bakery. Customers order celebration cakes for a set collection date, click and collect the morning's bakes, or order trays for the office, all from your own bakery website. Orders ring on your phone and print in the kitchen. You pay 0% commission, card money goes to your own Stripe account, and you can start free.

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Who this bakery software is for

• High-street bakeries that sell over the counter and take cake orders on a notepad.
• Micro bakeries and sourdough sellers that bake to order for Friday and Saturday collection.
• Cake shops that make birthday, wedding and celebration cakes.
• Bakery cafés with a few tables and a takeaway counter.
• Bakeries with two or three shops that want one menu per branch: run several shops from one head-office login on Pro.

What it is not: Menuthere is not a production-planning or wholesale ERP. It does not plan dough batches, route wholesale vans or invoice cafés on account. If that is your main need, look at a dedicated bakery management system such as Cybake. Many bakeries use both: an ERP for production, and Menuthere for the customer orders that feed it.

The UK bakery order problem

Most bakeries we speak to take orders in four places at once. The phone, the counter pad, Instagram DMs and email. That leads to familiar mistakes.

• A cake written for the wrong Saturday.
• "Happy 40th Sharon" spelt wrong on the topper.
• Six sourdough loaves promised when only four were baked.
• A customer who never turns up for an unpaid cake.

Bakery ordering software fixes this by making the customer fill in the order. The date, size, flavour and message arrive in writing. Payment can be taken up front.

How UK bakeries use Menuthere

1. Celebration cake pre-orders with collection dates

Customers pick a size, a flavour and a collection date and time at checkout. You set the rules.

• Minimum notice. For example, 2 days for your celebration cakes. One notice setting covers all your pre-order items, so set it for your longest bake.
• How far ahead customers can book.
• Pre-order-only items. Choose which cakes can only be ordered ahead, and the days you make them. A pre-order cake is ordered on its own, not in the same basket as today's bakes.
• Collection slots. Fixed slots, such as 9–11am, or rolling ones.
• A prebookings list. Orders due in the next hour sit at the top, so nothing is missed at the counter.

Scheduled orders and pre-orders are on Lite and above. See pre-orders.

2. Deposits for big cakes

UK cake makers usually ask for a deposit on wedding and tiered cakes. Menuthere takes full payment online through your own Stripe account (Lite and above). It doesn't take part-payments or deposits at checkout, so two simple options work:

• Take full payment at checkout for standard cakes.
• For wedding cakes, send a Stripe payment link for the deposit, then take the balance on collection.

Write your cancellation and refund terms in the item description so they are agreed before payment.

3. Click and collect for daily bakes

Let regulars order this morning's loaves, pastries and sausage rolls by 9am and collect on the way to work. Mark a bake sold out in one tap, or switch off a single size, and switch it back on when you have more.

4. Keep busy days under control

Your oven only holds so much. Make celebration cakes bookable only on the days you bake them, set the notice you need, and mark a cake as sold out when you're fully booked. Switch it back on when you can take more.

5. Office and party trays

Sell "box of 12 brownies" or "sandwich platter for 10" as one item with sizes. Add a packaging charge per order or per item on collection and delivery orders.

6. Delivery, if you want it

Set basic delivery zones on Free, or advanced zones with fees by distance on Lite and above. Most bakeries keep cakes to collection only, as tiered cakes travel badly. On Pro, your own drivers can use the riders app, and customers get a live tracking link.

Bakery website and ordering in one

You do not need a separate web designer. Menuthere builds a bakery website with ordering built in.

• Your colours, your logo and photos of each bake on every plan, with a choice of 9 menu layouts on Lite and above.
• A home page with a hero banner, featured cakes, highlights, a photo gallery and your address and opening hours. Editing it yourself is on Lite and above.
• Allergens and calories on each bake. Tag any of the 14 UK allergens, calories (kcal) and a halal mark on every item, on every plan including Free. Customers see them when they open an item.
• Your own domain on Lite and above, such as orders.yourbakery.co.uk. See branding and domain.
• Menu import from a photo or PDF. You check the items before going live.
• Google Business Profile menu sync (Lite and above), so people who find you on Google can order.
• Customers can add the site to their phone's home screen like an app. There is nothing to download from an app store. Want your bakery's own app on Google Play and the App Store? That's the Branded App plan, US$99 a month with store fees included.

Want more on website design? See our website builder for food businesses.

Counter sales and POS for bakeries

Counter billing is available as the POS add-on for US$10 a month, so walk-in sales and online orders sit in one place. For example, Lite US$17 + POS add-on US$10 = US$27 a month. Bills show UK VAT at 20% or 0% per item.

• Ring up walk-in sales, with discounts.
• Print bills and separate kitchen tickets.
• See best sellers and your busiest hours.
• Unlimited staff logins on every plan.

It is "POS-lite", not a full EPOS. It doesn't connect to a card terminal or cash drawer; you record each sale as cash or card. Keep your card reader and record the sale against it. If you want a full till for a busy counter, read our guide to EPOS for cafés and bakery counters. Menuthere has no UK EPOS integrations.

Bakery software features checklist

What it costs: a worked UK example

A high-street bakery takes 300 online orders a month at £18 on average. That is £5,400 of cakes, click and collect and party trays. Here is the cost on a delivery app versus your own bakery ordering system.

Even against the cheapest app rate, that is about £700 a month back in the till. If you are VAT-registered you can usually reclaim the VAT on app fees, but the commission is still gone. Uber Eats rates are from Uber Eats' UK merchant pricing page; the Just Eat rate is a typical headline rate and yours depends on your contract. See our Uber Eats commission and Just Eat pages, and check your own statements before you decide.

Keep the apps if they bring you new customers. Put a card in every app bag that says "Order direct next time" with your link.

How Menuthere compares with other bakery software

Bakery software does different jobs. Choose by the job you need done first.

Running from home rather than a shop? Our cake website for home bakers is set up for that.

UK rules every bakery must follow

Register with your council

You must register your food business with your local council at least 28 days before you start trading in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Registration is free and cannot be refused. In Scotland, register with your local authority's environmental health service, also at least 28 days before you open. Registration is free there too. The council will then inspect you and give you a food hygiene rating.

Food hygiene rating

Ratings run from 0 to 5 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland uses Pass or Improvement Required. You must display your rating sticker in Wales and Northern Ireland. In England it is voluntary, but customers look for it. Show your rating on your website too.

Allergens and Natasha's Law

• Distance selling: for online and phone orders, allergen information for the 14 allergens must be available before the customer buys and again when the order is handed over.
• Natasha's Law (PPDS): food you pack on site before the customer orders it, like wrapped brownies or boxed sandwiches on the counter, needs a full ingredients label with allergens in bold. Read our guide to Natasha's Law.
• Made-to-order cakes are packed after the customer asks for them, so they are not PPDS. You still have to give allergen information.
• On your online menu, tag each item's allergens in Menuthere so customers see them before they buy. You still need allergen information at hand-over, such as a printed chart or a label on the box.
• Make an allergen chart for the counter with our free allergen matrix maker. It can load your item allergens from Menuthere.
• Calories: only businesses with 250 or more employees in England must show kcal on menus. Smaller bakeries can add kcal to each item if they want to.

VAT on bakery products

• Cold takeaway cakes, bread and most bakes are zero-rated.
• Food eaten in your café area is standard-rated at 20%.
• Hot takeaway food, such as a sausage roll kept in a heated cabinet or sold as "hot", is standard-rated. A pasty left to cool naturally can be zero-rated (HMRC VAT Notice 709/1, section 4).
• Biscuits wholly or partly covered in chocolate are standard-rated, even cold. Even a little piped chocolate on top counts (HMRC VAT Food manual VFOOD6240).
• Menu prices must include VAT. Read our guide to VAT on takeaway food. Menuthere lets you set 20% or 0% VAT on each item.

Card surcharges

You cannot charge customers extra for paying by card. Consumer card surcharges have been banned in the UK since January 2018.

Price your bakes properly

Commission-free ordering helps, but only if your prices cover your costs. Use our free cake price calculator (ingredients, time, boxes and margin) or the recipe cost calculator. Set the currency to GBP.

Set up your bakery ordering system in a day

1. Sign up and find your bakery on Google.
2. Import your menu from a photo or PDF. Add sizes, flavours and add-ons.
3. Tag allergens and calories on each item. Add your refund and notice terms to cake descriptions.
4. Set pre-order rules: minimum notice, booking window, bake days and collection slots (Lite).
5. Connect Stripe for card payments (Lite, US$17 a month, with a 7-day free trial), or start with pay on collection (Free).
6. Test a cake order and check the kitchen ticket.
7. Share the link on Google, Instagram, your window and your cake boxes.

Free for 50 orders a month, with no card needed on the Free plan, no contract and 0% commission.

Create your free ordering pageBook a demo (opens in a new tab)