Central Kitchen
Overview
A central kitchen makes products and sends them to your outlets, which sell them. In Rewardly the kitchen is one of your outlets, with its own stock count. Three screens on the POS Inventory tab carry the stock from the kitchen to the outlets:
| Step | Who | On the POS | What happens |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Make | Kitchen | Make Stock | The batch is added to the kitchen's stock, and its recipe's ingredients come off the kitchen's ingredient stock. |
| 2. Send | Kitchen | Send Stock | The stock leaves the kitchen at once, as a stock transfer. |
| 3. Receive | Outlet | Receive Stock | The outlet's stock goes up by what arrived. |
The outlets then sell from their own stock. A sale there takes no ingredients: the kitchen took them when it made the batch.
Set up
Do these once, in the admin.
1. The kitchen and its stock counts
The kitchen must be one of your outlets. Add it if it is not one yet.
Then give every product the kitchen makes its own stock count at the kitchen and at each outlet it is sent to: in the product's Outlet stock panel, turn on Control inventory and Track quantity for each of those outlets. See Inventory by outlet. A transfer is refused for a product without its own count at both ends.
2. Recipes, with Ingredient tracking off
- Add the ingredients, and set the kitchen's stock of each under Stock Control → Ingredient Inventory. See Ingredients & Recipes. Stock orders to the kitchen top it up when they are received.
- Make a recipe for one unit of the product, and choose it in the product's Cost & Recipe section. Products made the same way can share one recipe.
- Leave Ingredient tracking off, and leave Track unticked if you link products from the recipe's Assign Products screen. Off, the recipe comes off the kitchen's stock when a batch is made. On, it would come off the selling outlet's stock at each sale instead.
When a batch uses whole packs, divide by the batch size: if 28 units use 1 pack, type 0.0357142857 (1 ÷ 28), and 28 units take exactly 1 pack. A shorter figure such as 0.0357 leaves a small remainder on every batch. Packaging works the same way: one cup per unit is 1.
3. Logins for kitchen staff (optional)
Staff who only make, send and receive can have a login that shows only the Inventory tab. In POS Users, leave Can Access Inventory on and switch Sell, Orders and Shift off. Switch Can Sign In off as well if they should not open the admin website.
Every day
At the kitchen
- In Make Stock, add each product made, type how many under Units, and tap Add to stock.
- In Send Stock, choose the outlet under Send to, add the products and quantities, and tap Send.
At each outlet
- In Receive Stock, tap the transfer from the kitchen.
- Check Arrived against what came, and tap the Receive button.
Transfers can also be sent and received in the admin, under Stock Control → Stock Orders. See Stock Transfers.
Fixing mistakes
| What went wrong | What to do |
|---|---|
| A batch was typed wrong | Tap Cancel entry on it under Made. Its stock is taken back out and its ingredients are returned. See Cancelling an entry. |
| A transfer was sent wrong | Cancel it in the admin before any of it is received. All of its stock goes back to the kitchen. See Cancel a transfer. |
| Less arrived than was sent | Enter what arrived, then say whether the rest is still on the way, was returned to the kitchen, or was lost. See When not everything arrives. |
Where to see it
| What | In the admin |
|---|---|
| Each batch | Stock Control → Stock Orders, as a Received order from the supplier In-house kitchen |
| Each transfer | Stock Control → Stock Orders, as Transfer from the kitchen |
| Every product movement | Stock Control → Inventory, with the reasons Made in-house and Stock transfer |
| What each batch took | Stock Control → Ingredient Transactions, noted Made in-house with the batch number |
| Totals for a period | Stock Movement Report: the kitchen's Received and Transferred out, and each outlet's Received |
Needs a recent POS app
Make Stock and Send Stock need a recent version of the POS app. Update the app if a tablet does not show them.
Related
- Inventory (on the POS) — every screen on the POS Inventory tab.
- Stock Transfers — transfers in the admin.
- Ingredients & Recipes — ingredients, recipes and their stock.
- POS Users — what each login sees on the POS.