Bakery Software continued

Back to the first page about bakery software

Now that we've covered the guerilla solutions for bakery software, let's go over the actual software packages that are made for bakeries. Again, these will cost you $1000 or more, but if you're serious about your business, and you have the cash to buy them, a good software package will probably pay for itself.

BakeSmart
This is bakery management software that is made for retail and wholesale bakeries. It is meant for small or large bakeries and can accomodate multiple locations. It is also set up to handle retail point of sale transactions and is completely integrated with Quickbooks (which is a very, very handy feature), so it qualifies as a true bakery software POS system. It has integrated credit card processing, for example, and can handle gift cards, product variations ("vanilla, or chocolate?"), and more. If you have a bakery that's specialized to a certain kind of healthfood (vegan, gluten free), there's also a very interesting "nutrition" module.

The core BakeSmart software is not set up for website order compatibility, but there is an add-on package called "BakeSmart Online Bakery" that has that need covered. And if you have a cake business, there's a whole section of features and custom settings to adjust the software to all the specific needs of a cake business. Other attractive features include the ability to monitor employee productivity, and accurately track sales and inventory and production costs.

You can buy either BakeSmart Pro or BakeSmart Lite. If you are just starting out with a small bakery, all you need is BakeSmart Lite -- the pro version is for larger bakeries and multiple locations. BakeSmart Lite will run you a whopping $4500 for just one license. For most small startup bakeries, that's darn near their whole startup budget. However, a BakeSmart representative contacted me recently saying they now have versions starting at $995, so you could get started with this system and ramp up over time.

In terms of computer needs to run BakeSmart, a 2GB Intel Mac with 1 GB of space running MacOSX 1.4 or greater will do. For a PC desktop, you'll need Windows XP SP2, SP3 or Windows 7 on a Pentium 4 chip that's 2000MHz of higher, plus 2GB of ram and 1 gb of available space. Check their site for the Windows server requirements.

If you don't know computers, all those specs roughly mean that you'll need a newer computer (made in the last 2-3 years) that would cost $1000 or less retail. Most business computers now have about 20 to 30 GB of ram, so there's no big demands on your computer from this software. You can download a demo version from the site to get a feel of what you might be getting yourself into. That said, many, many profitable bakeries use this software. You just have to be sure you're ready to make the jump. If you're not, stick with Quickbooks.

FlexiBake

This complete bakery software package starts at $1700 and that for just sales order and deliery and route management. Add labels, nutrition and purchase orders and recieving slips and it costs $2600. But it is widely used and as very robust features, like purchasing and inventory, shipping and receiving, production and sales, route deliveries, cost of goods, nutritional analysis, label creation, and accounts receivable. There is even sales forecasting and special promotions features. It is compatible with QuickBooks, Accpac and Simply Accounting, and it does allow for multiple users.

If you want to try before you buy, there is a 30 day free trial. As you may already realize, setting up a 30 day trial is going to be a considerable amount of work, but if you can handle the added headaches, it might be a very good way to be sure this software will work for your business.