Bakery & food production · Kenya
Bakery management software from raw materials to the till.
Most bakery owners in Kenya price their bread by feel — a rough guess at flour costs, a discount for "wholesale," and no clear view of whether any product actually makes money. Ingredient stock-outs stop a production run without warning. Cash sales and M-Pesa float in separate mental ledgers that never reconcile cleanly. And at the end of the day there is no P&L, just a rough sense of whether today was good or bad. We build the full loop: recipe costing that ties every ingredient price to a margin figure, production scheduling that knows what you have in stock before you start a batch, and a POS that brings cash and M-Pesa into one daily report. The system is built to your operation, not the other way around.
Available · built to spec
We build bakery and food-production management systems to specification. We have not yet deployed one publicly — if you want a reference system in this exact vertical, we will build it with you. Our production track record on the underlying loops is real: the KIMMAL poultry ERP we built runs a feed requisition → approval → consumption inventory flow with a 15-report financial module including cost-per-unit analysis across feed, labour, and overhead; MkulimaOS runs real-time finance ledgering and inventory in production for a live agricultural operation. Recipe costing, ingredient inventory, and margin reporting are the same problem domain — we have built and shipped it in adjacent verticals.
See our enterprise buildsRecipe management with live costing — know your margin before the oven goes on
The system we build holds every recipe as a structured bill of materials: flour, sugar, butter, packaging, and any other input, each linked to a live ingredient price. When the price of wheat flour moves, every affected recipe updates its cost-per-unit and margin automatically — you do not have to recalculate in a spreadsheet and hope you caught every product. At production time, a baker selects a recipe and a batch size, and the system shows the expected cost of that run, the recommended selling price to hit your target margin, and the ingredient quantities to pull from stock. Nothing leaves the production floor as a guess.
- Structured bill of materials per recipe — every ingredient, quantity, and unit cost
- Live margin calculation that updates when ingredient prices change
- Batch-size scaling — quantities and costs recalculate for any run size
- Selling price suggestion based on your configured margin targets
Production scheduling and batch tracking — plan what you can actually make
The system we build knows your current ingredient stock before you commit to a production schedule. A manager enters the day's orders or planned output, and the system checks whether the stock on hand covers every recipe's requirements. If it does not, it flags which ingredients are short and by how much before production begins — not after a baker has already mixed a half-batch. Completed batches are recorded with their actual ingredient consumption, the quantity produced, and the time taken. Over weeks, that data shows you which products are running over their theoretical cost, which shifts are most efficient, and where waste is accumulating. The KIMMAL poultry ERP we built runs an identical requisition → approval → consumption loop tracking feed across a live operation; the same pattern translates directly to a bakery production floor.
- Stock-check against recipe requirements before a batch is approved
- Shortfall alerts — ingredient gaps flagged before production starts
- Batch records — actual consumption vs theoretical, quantity out, time taken
- Production history that surfaces cost overruns and waste trends over time
Ingredient inventory with reorder alerts and waste tracking
The system we build tracks every ingredient from goods-received note to production consumption. Stock is decremented automatically when a batch is recorded, so the inventory figure is always current without a physical count. Reorder points are configurable per ingredient — when flour drops below your set level, the system raises an alert rather than waiting for a baker to notice an empty sack mid-shift. Waste is recorded separately from consumption: expired stock, spillage, and spoiled batches are entered as waste lines rather than erased from the ledger, so you have an honest picture of true ingredient cost. MkulimaOS runs this pattern in production for agricultural inputs; the same inventory accounting logic applies to any consumable that moves through a production process.
- Perpetual inventory — stock updated on every goods receipt and batch consumption
- Configurable reorder alerts per ingredient, sent before you run out
- Separate waste recording — spoilage and expiry tracked independently from production use
- Supplier purchase history for price trend visibility and negotiation context
Sales, POS, M-Pesa, and a daily P&L — yours on delivery
The system we build handles sales at the counter and on delivery routes from the same interface. A cashier records a retail sale, selects products, and closes with cash or M-Pesa — the Safaricom Daraja API confirms the payment and logs it in one step, with no manual reconciliation against a separate M-Pesa statement at day's end. Wholesale delivery orders are raised against customer accounts, dispatched with a delivery note, and settled on credit terms you configure. At close of day, a single P&L report shows gross revenue, ingredient cost of goods sold (drawn from actual batch consumption), and operating margin — the same report, every day, without anyone rebuilding it in a spreadsheet. Multiple outlets feed into one consolidated view if you run more than one location. The financial module in the KIMMAL poultry ERP we delivered runs 15 standard reports including cost-per-unit analysis and variance reporting; the same reporting architecture underpins the daily P&L we build for bakery operations. You own the source code, the database, and every report on delivery — no per-seat licence, no vendor lock-in, no subscription that outlasts the value you get from it.
- Counter POS — retail sales with cash or M-Pesa, settled in one action
- M-Pesa Daraja integration — payment confirmed and logged without a manual step
- Wholesale order and delivery management — dispatch notes, credit terms, settlement
- Daily P&L — revenue, COGS from actual production costs, and operating margin, generated automatically
- Multi-outlet consolidation — all branches in one report for owners and finance managers
What it covers
The modules, end to end.
Recipe management & costing
Structured bill of materials per recipe with live ingredient-price links, margin calculation, and batch-size scaling.
Production scheduling & batch tracking
Pre-production stock check, batch approval workflow, actual-vs-theoretical consumption recording, and waste logging.
Ingredient inventory & reorder alerts
Perpetual stock from goods receipts and batch consumption, configurable reorder thresholds, and supplier price history.
Sales & delivery tracking
Retail counter sales, wholesale delivery orders with dispatch notes, credit terms, and settlement tracking.
POS + M-Pesa integration
Safaricom Daraja-integrated payments at the counter — cash and M-Pesa reconciled in one daily ledger, no manual matching.
Daily P&L & reporting
Automated daily profit-and-loss from actual production costs; multi-outlet consolidation; exportable finance reports.
Questions
Frequently asked.
- Can the system show me the real cost per loaf and my actual margin on every product?
- Yes — that is the first thing it solves. Every recipe is stored as a bill of materials. Each ingredient is priced at its current purchase cost, so the system calculates cost-per-unit and gross margin for every product. When an ingredient price changes, every affected recipe updates immediately. You can set a target margin and have the system suggest the selling price, or enter your price and see the margin it produces.
- How does ingredient inventory work — does someone have to count stock manually every day?
- No. Stock is a running ledger. It goes up when a goods-received note is entered (flour delivery, sugar delivery) and comes down automatically when a batch consumption is recorded. The system keeps a current figure without a daily physical count. You set a reorder threshold per ingredient — when stock falls below that level the system raises an alert. Waste is recorded as a separate line so spoilage and expiry appear in your cost figures rather than silently inflating them.
- Does the POS handle both cash and M-Pesa, and will the end-of-day reconciliation be clean?
- Yes. The POS is built against the Safaricom Daraja API — when a customer pays via M-Pesa the payment is confirmed by the API and logged in the same transaction record as a cash sale. There is no separate M-Pesa statement to reconcile manually at day's end. The daily report shows total revenue broken down by payment method, and every transaction has a timestamp, cashier, and product line. If the till is short, you know which transaction to examine.
- We have two shops and a delivery van — can the system handle multiple outlets?
- Yes. Each outlet operates its own POS and stock ledger, with its own production or resupply records. Owners and finance managers see a consolidated view across all locations — total revenue, total COGS, margin by outlet, and a combined P&L. Stock transfers between outlets are tracked as internal movements, not sales, so the inventory figures stay accurate at both ends.
- What does a bakery management system cost, and do we own it?
- You own it outright — source code, database schema, and documentation transfer to you on delivery, with no ongoing licence fee attached. Ongoing support and feature development is an optional retainer you choose, not a fee you are locked into. On cost: most engagements start with a fixed-fee Sprint (from $4,500) that scopes the build, identifies integrations, and produces a delivery plan with a fixed price for each phase. Full bakery system projects typically fall in the $15,000–$75,000 range depending on scope — number of outlets, integrations required, reporting depth, and whether we build a mobile companion app. We sign an NDA before discussing the specifics of your operation, and you know the price of each phase before work begins.
Build it properly
Tell us what your operation needs.
Fixed-scope, fixed-fee phases. Full IP transfer on delivery. We respond within one working day, and there's an NDA before any specifics.