How to Effectively Track Income and Expenses for Your Bakery Business?

Let’s start with the story of an entrepreneur

Saima Zaman, an entrepreneur from Dhaka, recently started her own live bakery business. Her bakery produces a variety of food items daily, including cakes, pastries, and different types of cookies. Customers are highly satisfied with her products, with almost everyone leaving positive reviews.Initially, Saima believed she could manage all her accounts using a handwritten notebook. She tried to keep track of everything manually. However, within a short time, she realized—

• the stock of raw materials kept running out repeatedly.
• Some product sales records were not matching.
• Calculating employee salaries or daily expenses was also taking a lot of time.
• Managing the remaining dues was becoming quite challenging. 
• Due to the absence of invoices or bills, there were mistakes and discrepancies in transactions.

Due to these problems, Saima became mentally overwhelmed. However, she couldn't figure out what the solution might be. This story, just like Saima's, could be the reality for many bakery owners. So, the question is, how can these problems be solved? Before we look for the solution, let's understand the main challenges of running a live bakery business.

Main challenges of managing a live bakery business

Live bakery owners face certain specific challenges every day, such as:

• Inventory of various customized products: Naturally, the list of bakery products tends to be large and diverse, with new items being added every day. Managing this list can be time-consuming.
• Accurately tracking every sale: In a live bakery business, transactions can occur through various platforms, such as direct sales from the store, online orders and deliveries, supply to different events or occasions, regular supply to institutions or offices, and more. It is crucial to accurately track each of these sales. However, often, these records are not maintained correctly.
• Tracking expenses and profits: Accurate records must be kept for daily raw material purchases, employee salaries, office or store operational costs, packaging expenses, marketing and sales management costs, branding expenses, and other costs. Negligence in maintaining these records can lead to severe losses for the business. In the case of bakery businesses, this mistake is one of the most common.
• Stock and inventory management: Keeping accurate records of raw materials and product stock is crucial for any business. Currently, there is always a risk of sudden stock shortages or running out of products. This is because, when taking online orders, there is often no opportunity to instantly check stock levels.
• Managing cash flow: To run a live bakery business, it is crucial to maintain proper cash flow. Keeping this cash flow intact can become one of the most challenging aspects of business management, especially when daily raw material purchases are involved, and you have to rely on daily product sales for these expenses.

Solutions to the challenges of managing a live bakery business

1. Bakery product list management

In a live bakery business, new products are created every day, making it challenging to manage or update the product list. The task becomes easier if there is a system in place to update the bakery product list on a central platform. 

The HishabPati app will allow you to keep the list of all products on a central dashboard. The stock, price, and sales data for each product will be stored separately. Adding new products or removing old ones can be done quickly and easily. Additionally, the HishabPati app offers the advantage of adding unlimited products and parties.

2. Business stock and inventory management

If raw materials are not tracked properly, stock may either run out or unnecessary stock may accumulate. This issue is critical for bakery businesses because most raw materials and products are perishable, making it essential to manage stock and inventory effectively.  

With the HishabPati app, you can accurately track your business's stock. You'll receive notifications in advance about when a product will run out. You’ll also have access to the correct data to avoid taking excessive orders. Additionally, you can set alerts for product expiration dates! To learn more about this, read further-

Easy and affordable stock management software: HishabPati

3. Accurately tracking daily sales

Keeping accurate records of sales from both online and offline channels can often become complicated. This is especially true when invoices are not provided to customers, leading to more difficulties. 

With the HishabPati app, you can generate invoices for each transaction. Additionally, the app can create automated reports for daily sales, showing details such as the location, time, and amount of each sale along with customer information. Not only can you view daily reports, but you can also generate weekly, monthly, and annual reports.

4. Keeping track of income and expenses to maintain cash flow

Due to handwritten records, it is often difficult to get an accurate picture of profit and loss. This is because we sometimes forget to record accounts or make mistakes while doing so. Keeping daily records in a notebook can be quite a challenging task.

With the HishabPati app, you can accurately store all income and expense records. You can keep detailed records of raw material purchase costs, employee salaries, and other expenses. Tracking profits, losses, outstanding balances, and capital will be very easy. As a result, your business's cash flow will remain on track. To learn more about business cash flow management, read further- 

What is cash flow management and how does it impact a business?

5. Reducing complexities in employee management

Paying bakery shop employees, tracking working hours, and evaluating performance can often become cumbersome. To simplify this, you can use an easy and cost-effective employee management app. The best solution for this could be: Hazira.

Hazira app makes employee management easier. You can maintain clear records of employees' working hours, attendance, and salaries. Choose Hazira to easily track employees' working hours and attendance.

Let's end with the success story of Sayma!

After using the HishabPati app, Sayma experienced several benefits that helped make her business successful:

• Savings time: Previously, where 2-3 hours were spent daily on accounting, now everything is completed in just 30 minutes.
• Increase of profit: By having accurate sales data, Sayma was able to identify which products were selling the most and started stocking raw materials accordingly. As a result, her profit increased!
• Data Analysis: At the end of each month, Sayma receives a comprehensive report, which helps guide her future planning.
• Customer Satisfaction: Ensuring timely stock and providing transaction invoices is one of the key reasons for customer satisfaction. This enables Sayma to accurately meet the needs of her customers.

Running a live bakery business requires proper planning, accounting, and the use of technology. The correct application of these can set your business apart from others. By using the HishabPati app, you can make your live bakery business even more successful!

Start your journey with HishabPati in three simple steps!

• Sign up on HishabPati: 

First, visit the HishabPati website and create an account for your business. Alternatively, download hisabpati app from google play store and register. Registration in HishabPati is quite easy & complete free.

• Set up your company: 

After signing up, first set up your business profile by providing the necessary information as the owner. Then, set up essential business aspects such as inventory, units, purchases and sales, outstanding balances, invoices, and transactions. After that, start updating daily transactions.

• Enjoy the various features of HishabPati: 

Once you start managing your business accounts with HishabPati, make sure to utilize the necessary and unique features, such as invoicing, barcode scanning, units, and expense management. To understand how to use HishabPati and its features in detail, watch demo videos in Bengali on YouTube. 

Digital ledger for income and expenses – HishabPati demo.

HishabPati's subscription fee starts at just 99 Taka!

HishabPati is Bangladesh's easiest and most affordable accounting app. Its subscription fee is divided into monthly and annual terms, with three budget-friendly packages available.

• 01. Basic Package: The Basic package is completely free! This means you can try out the app without purchasing a subscription.
• 02. Premium Package: The monthly subscription fee for the premium package is just BDT.99. And there's a 17% discount on annual subscriptions! It will cost only 999 taka in a year!
• 03. Business Package: The monthly subscription fee for the Business package is just 199 Taka. Like the Premium package, the annual subscription also comes with a 17% discount, making the yearly cost only 1990 Taka.

Know about all features of packages today in details & choose your desired package. Good luck with your business!