Ice cream shop software - costing, takings and HACCP
Software for an ice cream shop that lives by the season: the cost per kilogram of every flavor, a menu with prices, takings from several outlets, freezer temperatures and a schedule for your seasonal team. From the pastry chefs behind PyziPyzi.
- Recipes with cost per kilogram, the base as a sub-recipe (Profesjonalny plan)
- Takings for each outlet and delivery platform sales in the daily report
- Freezer and display case temperatures with alarms (HACCP, Mistrzowski plan)
- Labels with ingredients and allergens from the recipe
- PIN clock-in for seasonal staff
20 days free, no credit card. Built by the pastry chefs behind PyziPyzi (8 years in business).
Ice cream shop software for a business that lives by the season
An ice cream shop works differently from a pastry shop. From April to September every sunny weekend counts, the queue in front of the display case, and whether enough base is left for tomorrow in the evening. In winter production drops, some outlets close, and what remains are ice cream cakes, desserts and orders for cafes. Ice cream shop software therefore has to show three things above all: what a kilogram of each flavor costs, how much each outlet sold and whether the freezers are holding temperature.
BakePilot was created at the PyziPyzi pastry shop in Kalisz, Poland, and doesn't pretend to be a program made only for gelato makers. It doesn't control a pasteurizer or a batch freezer, and it doesn't count scoops at the display case. What it does have is an "Ice cream" product category, recipes with a cost per kilogram, takings from several outlets, a freezer temperature log and time tracking for a seasonal team. Below we describe honestly what an ice cream shop will find useful and on which plan.
Flavor menu and prices in one place
You save each flavor, sorbet, ice cream cake or dessert as a product in the "Ice cream" category, with a price, description and allergens. Variants, such as 0.5 kg, 1 kg or a serving in a cup, have their own prices. You mark seasonal flavors as inactive and bring them back next year without typing them in again. From the catalog you print a menu with prices, also to a PDF file, on every plan. More about the catalog on the Products page.
Takings from several outlets and delivery platforms
An ice cream shop with a kiosk by the lake, an outlet in a shopping mall and a production kitchen means three tills, three cash drawers and three people closing the day. In BakePilot the daily report is entered by the employee closing the outlet: till, card terminal, cash, number of customers. You keep a separate report for each point of sale, and the monthly summary shows takings split by point. Sales from Pyszne.pl, Uber Eats, Wolt or your own website are recorded as separate channels, with the VAT rate and whether they were rung up on the till. Cash payouts are recorded with a reason (from the Profesjonalny (Professional) plan). Details in the article Points of sale.
Ice cream cakes and orders for businesses
An ice cream cake for a birthday or 10 kilograms of ice cream for a restaurant is an order with a date, a deposit and a description. In BakePilot you take it from your phone, with the pickup date and time, and the calendar shows what has to be prepared for each day (on every plan). A restaurant or cafe buying wholesale gets its own price list and a delivery note (WZ) for the delivery (from the Profesjonalny plan). An ice cream cake priced per kilogram or per serving is handled by the cake configurator.
What a kilogram of ice cream really costs
Cream, milk, sugar, pistachio paste, fruit. When pistachios go up by a third and the price of a scoop hasn't moved for two seasons, your margin quietly disappears. In BakePilot you save the recipe for the base and every flavor in grams, set "The batch yields" to kilograms and see the raw material cost per kilogram straight away, together with equipment energy and a fixed-cost overhead. You save the base as a sub-recipe and add it to the flavor recipes, so its cost is calculated once. After ingredient prices change, the "Recalculate all" button updates recipes and products at once (from the Profesjonalny (Professional) plan). How to work out the margin per serving is covered in the article Ice cream and dessert margins.
Production from a recipe for any quantity
At the height of the season you make 20 kilograms of base, in October 5. Production from a recipe scales the ingredients to the quantity you enter, splits it into batches to fit your machine's capacity and guides you through the weighing stage by stage, and at the end takes the amounts actually weighed off stock (Mistrzowski (Master) plan). Details on the Recipes page.
Raw materials, purchasing and prices from invoices
You see the stock of cream, milk, sugar and add-ins with a minimum threshold in inventory, and the purchase planner works out requirements from orders and compares them with stock (from the Profesjonalny plan). Wholesaler invoices downloaded from KSeF (Poland's National e-Invoicing System) or photographed with your phone update ingredient prices, and on top of that you get expiry dates and dated stocktaking (Mistrzowski plan). More on the Inventory page.
Freezers, sanitary inspections and labels
In an ice cream shop the cold chain is the basis of HACCP. In the HACCP module every freezer, display case and cold room has its own limit (for a freezer the app suggests -22 to -16 °C), and a reading outside the limit immediately gets an alarm status and a field for corrective action. You print the monthly view for an inspection, and you also get GHP/GMP procedures and inspection forms (Mistrzowski plan). Prefer paper? Download the temperature log as a PDF. What you have to register with Sanepid (the Polish sanitary inspection) before you start producing ice cream is described in the article Registering ice cream production.
Ice cream packed to take away or for shops needs a label. BakePilot prints labels with the ingredients from the recipe, allergens highlighted in line with EU Regulation 1169/2011, nutrition values, net quantity and a date, on an A4 sheet or a label printer (from the Profesjonalny plan). Description on the Product labels page.
A seasonal team without a timesheet
In summer you hire students for a few months, in winter the permanent crew stays. Every employee has a role in BakePilot with permissions set for your business, so the sales assistant at the display case doesn't see costs or other outlets' takings. The staff screens are in Polish, English and Ukrainian. On the Mistrzowski plan seasonal staff clock in and out with a PIN on a tablet at the outlet, without creating an account, and you get a shift schedule, leave and a settlement of hours split by outlet. Description on the Time tracking page.
How much ice cream shop software costs
Products, a menu with prices, orders and the calendar start at 98 PLN net per month, plus 23% VAT (Podstawowy (Starter) plan, 2 users). An ice cream shop with several outlets usually starts with the Profesjonalny plan (189 PLN, 5 users): recipes with costs, daily reports with points of sale and platforms, inventory, labels and analytics. HACCP, production from a recipe, time tracking and KSeF invoices are on the Mistrzowski plan (319 PLN, unlimited users). During the 20-day trial you have access to all modules, with no credit card. The full comparison is in the pricing section.
Is BakePilot software made specifically for ice cream shops?
No. BakePilot was created in a pastry shop and serves pastry shops, bakeries and ice cream shops with the same modules. An ice cream shop uses the "Ice cream" product category, recipes with a cost per kilogram, daily reports from several outlets, a freezer temperature log, labels and time tracking. The software doesn't control equipment (pasteurizer, batch freezer) and doesn't count scoops at the display case.
Can I work out the cost of a kilogram of ice cream and a serving?
Yes. In the recipe you set "The batch yields" to kilograms and see the raw material cost per kilogram together with energy and a fixed-cost overhead. You save the base as a sub-recipe and add it to the flavor recipes. You set the price of a serving in the product variants. Recipes are available from the Profesjonalny (Professional) plan.
I have several seasonal outlets. Will I see the takings of each one separately?
Yes. You keep a separate daily report for each point of sale, and the monthly summary shows takings split by point. Sales from Pyszne.pl, Uber Eats, Wolt and your own channels are recorded separately. Reports are available from the Profesjonalny plan.
How do I keep freezer temperature records for the sanitary inspection?
In the HACCP module (Mistrzowski (Master) plan) every freezer and display case has a limit, and a reading outside it gets an alarm status and a field for corrective action. You print the monthly view for an inspection. A free paper temperature log in PDF is available on our blog.
Do seasonal workers need accounts?
No. In the Time tracking module (Mistrzowski plan) an employee can clock in and out with a 4-digit PIN on a shared tablet at the outlet, without an account and without taking up a place in the user limit. The staff screens are in Polish, English and Ukrainian.
Is the software useful in winter, outside the season?
Yes. In winter you still have ice cream cakes, desserts and orders for businesses, so orders, the calendar and recipes keep working. You mark seasonal flavors as inactive and switch them back on next season, without typing them in again.
Try the software in your ice cream shop
A 20-day trial with no credit card. Access to all modules: recipes, reports, HACCP, labels and time tracking.