Bakery POS Software that you actually NEED

Often bakery owners and entrepreneurs confuse Bakery POS with Restaurant POS only covering the following features: 

• Payment Processing
• Discounts
• Basic Inventory Management
• DSR
• Third-party online aggregator Integrations

These are a few similarities that Restaurant POS and Bakery POS share amongst themselves. However, the functionality and the usage of POS differ as Bakeries operate in a different manner than Restaurants. A lot of Bakery owners and entrepreneurs get confused and make the mistake of buying restaurant POS which specializes and fulfils the needs of restaurants only. Whereas Bakery POS must provide the required features that work as a complete bakery management system.

Salient features of the Bakery (POS) Management System: 

• Special Orders / Custom Design Cake- Orders that are requested by the customers and are customized by the bakery fall under special orders. The customized cake is the perfect example for special orders: the customer requests a particular size of the cake, the shape of the cake, flavours to be mixed, photos to be added, etc. All such specifications are noted down by the POS and forwarded to the chef which then begins the process of making the delicious cake. This special order feature is provided by Bakery POS which helps make tasks simple at bakeries.
  
• Design Catalogues- Customers that walk into your bakery should get options for styles and designs of cakes as it’s their special day, Bakery POS helps make their day better by providing them with designs of their own choice. This feature is not included in other POS that are confused to be Bakery POS software.
• Advanced and Outstanding Payment Handling- Customers that regularly visit your bakery may ask to pay later and in order to maintain customer loyalty the bakery must provide customers with such facility, but without booking any losses, which is where Bakery POS helps you maintain records of outstanding payments.
  When a customer orders a custom cake, the bakery inevitably asks for some amount in advance. In order to not forget the amount, Bakery POS helps you maintain records of that too.
• Customer Information- People visit bakeries for an occasion, it is also a perfect opportunity to record the event along with customer information e.g. anniversary, birthday, job promotion, etc. Usual Billing software or POS does not give an opportunity to ask for this information to the customer and eventually record and send the wishes. Further group your customers based on the value of the order, and frequency of visits. Bakery POS must have these functionalities to drive business as when you get the customers’ information, the bakery can send reminders and updates to them not to forget their loved ones’ occasions.
• Inventory Management- Stock in and stock out becomes a part of the production process in Bakery POS as it reduces the stock of raw materials as soon as the production is completed.  whereas, in Restaurant POS, the raw material stock gets subtracted when you sell an item. It becomes inconvenient for the operations team to keep track of the sale and the stock, whereas Bakery POS software handles raw materials at the production and finished goods stock at the retail store.  
• Batch Production and Barcoding- As and when the products are baked, it gets limited to a certain time span known as expiry date or shelf life. Every batch’s shelf life needs to be recorded which is nothing else but barcoding. When the barcode is scanned, it gives information about the specific batch number and expiry date.

Conclusion

Restaurant POS is not good enough for a complete Bakery Management System.

A lot of bakeries use POS which is meant for restaurants. For a scalable bakery business, it is important to use the right software with appropriate functionalities and features.  Rise POS has a module specialized for single and multi-location bakeries. Here are some of the links you want to visit:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VPFeetHH_g

Here is a quick benchmarking between Rise Bakery Management System (Bakery POS Software) and Restaurant Billing Software (Restaurant POS)

Bakery POS, Bakery Management System