Software for Food Production Businesses: Sales, Stock and the Cash Book

When you make what you sell, money goes out long before it comes back. Oil, spices, jars and labels are paid for this week; the finished goods sell over the next month to shops, at your own outlet and online. Between production days you're also writing bills, tracking what suppliers are owed and guessing how many jars are on the rack.

This guide is about the selling and money side of a food business. Saauzi doesn't plan production or hold recipes, so we're clear about where it helps and where it stops.

What software a food production business actually needs

• Finished-goods stock you can trust, by product and pack size, so you know what you can promise a shop.
• Billing for every buyer: trade customers collecting in bulk, walk-ins at a factory outlet and direct customers online.
• Supplier records for ingredients and packaging, and what you've paid each supplier.
• A cash book that answers one question: did this month's production pay for itself?

Production planning, recipes and unit costing are a different kind of software. If you need those, read the limits section first.

How POS Shop, Online Store and Cashbook cover it

Choose the food production industry at sign-up and Saauzi switches on POS Shop, Online Store and Cashbook, sharing one product catalog, one stock count and one book. Other apps can be added later from the hub.

Finished goods as products

Add each finished item as a product, with variants for pack size or flavour, such as a 500 g jar of achar in radish and lapsi. When a production run is packed, add it to stock with a stock adjustment. Each product's stock history then shows runs coming in and sales going out.

POS Shop for trade and outlet sales

Bill a shopkeeper collecting 50 jars or a walk-in buying one, by search or by scanning the barcode on your own label (a scanner is optional). Apply a trade discount, take cash, wallet or a split of both, and hand over a VAT/PAN-ready bill with your business name and PAN. Best-sellers, slow movers and product-performance reports show which flavours and pack sizes earn a place in the next run.

Ingredient and packaging purchases

Record deliveries as purchase entries against each supplier, and purchase payments show what you've paid. Because there are no recipes, a production run won't reduce flour or jars automatically. Either keep raw materials as products and reduce them with an adjustment after each run, or track only finished goods and record ingredient and packaging spending in Cashbook by category. The second is simpler for a small kitchen. Our guide to inventory and purchasing in one system covers the purchase routine.

Online Store for direct customers

A branded, mobile-first storefront you style without code, selling from the same stock as the outlet, with eSewa, Khalti, card and cash on delivery. Saauzi doesn't manage delivery, so you arrange couriers or riders yourself.

Cashbook for the money

Every sale posts to Cashbook automatically. Record expenses by category, such as ingredients, packaging, gas and wages, across cash, bank and wallet accounts. Income vs expense by category shows whether a month's production covered its costs. It's a digital khata with exports for your accountant, not full accounting software.

A week of achar, with hypothetical numbers

Say you make achar in Bhaktapur. The figures are invented; the rhythm is typical.

1. Monday: you buy radish, lapsi, mustard oil, spices, 400 jars and labels for NPR 38,000, recorded in Cashbook as ingredients (NPR 26,000) and packaging (NPR 12,000).
2. Tuesday and Wednesday: you pack 380 jars, 220 radish and 160 lapsi, and add both with stock adjustments.
3. Thursday: three shops collect 150 jars, billed with a trade discount. The outlet sells 40 more.
4. Weekend: 30 jars sell online by eSewa, Khalti and cash on delivery. Stock shows 160.
5. Saturday count: the rack holds 158, so you record minus two for broken jars. Lapsi is selling faster, so next week's lapsi run gets bigger.

A checklist for choosing software for food production

• Can you track finished goods by pack size and flavour?
• Do outlet, trade and online sales come out of one stock?
• Can you record supplier purchases and what you've paid?
• If shops pay at month end, how does the system record what each customer owes?
• Do you need recipes, costing or lot codes in the same system?

Where Saauzi fits and where it doesn't

Saauzi fits small and growing food producers, such as pickle, snack, spice, sweets and bakery-goods makers, who want selling, finished stock and cash in one place. More is on the Saauzi page for food production businesses.

• No production planning, BOM or recipes. A run doesn't consume ingredients automatically, and there's no cost per unit.
• No batch, lot or best-before records. If supermarkets or exporters require lot traceability, keep that elsewhere.
• No delivery or route management.
• No stock transfers between outlets; use an adjustment at each end.
• Not full accounting, and no VAT return filing.

You can add HRM later for staff profiles and leave requests, though it has no payroll or attendance. If you need material planning and recipe costing, a manufacturing ERP is the better choice; our guide to what an ERP is for a small business helps you tell them apart.

What it costs

Your first app is free forever. One flat subscription unlocks every Saauzi app for NPR 1,500 per user per month or NPR 12,000 per user per year (US$20 or US$200 internationally), with no commission on sales. Two users on the yearly plan would pay NPR 24,000 a year for all three apps. See the pricing page.

FAQ

Can Saauzi deduct ingredients when I make a production run?

No. There are no recipes or BOMs. Reduce raw materials with a stock adjustment, or track ingredient spending in Cashbook instead.

How do finished goods get into stock?

Record a stock adjustment when a run is packed.

Does Saauzi record best-before dates?

No. It doesn't store batch, lot or best-before information.

If your sales, stock and cash are spread across notebooks while your energy goes into making the product, see how the three apps work together on the Saauzi food production page, or start with one app free and add the rest when you're ready.