Coffee shops and cafés
A coffee shop makes coffee and food on site, with prep lists and recipes. It sells its beans online.
Corner shops and newsagents
Magpie schedules your fridge and freezer checks and starts each wholesaler's order. It counts the stock and plans the rota too.
The shop, its part-timers and the family who help out work in one Magpie team.
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This combination of five Magpie areas fits a corner shop.
- Daily Operations
- Daily Operations runs the opening and closing checklists, and records the fridge and freezer temperatures.
- Inventory
- Inventory keeps each wholesaler's list, starts its orders and counts what is on the shelves.
- Staff Scheduling
- Staff Scheduling plans the rota for part-timers and family, and checks it against their availability.
- Hiring
- Hiring puts a job for the counter on your own job board.
- Websites
- Websites puts your opening hours and address on a site you change yourself.
Your staff check the fridges and freezers at opening, and again at 3 pm.
Daily Operations gives the shop starter routines for grocery and food retail. Opening covers the chilled display and freezer temperatures, and anything past its use-by date. The temperatures are taken again at 3 pm. Closing covers rotating the stock and counting what was thrown away.
Each fridge and freezer has the limits you set. A reading out of range will open an incident with the steps to take. One outside a critical limit will alert you, the shift leads and the managers.
Inventory starts each wholesaler's order, and keeps each delivery's expiry dates.
Inventory keeps each wholesaler's list in its cases and prices. Anything below its minimum is listed as running low. From that list, you start an order for each supplier. You email it from Magpie, or mark it as sent by phone or on its website.
Receiving a delivery records what arrived, with each lot's expiry date. Anything short or refused is listed under Differences. You can count all the shop's stock, or one category such as soft drinks.
You plan the rota around your part-timers' availability, and Magpie checks every shift.
Staff Scheduling plans the shop's rota. Each person sets their usual week and the dates that differ. Magpie can propose people for open shifts from their availability and preferred hours. Every shift is checked against time off, availability and your limits on rest and hours.
Shifts stay drafts until you publish the week. Staff can swap shifts, ask for cover and ask for time off. When a request is settled, Magpie will change the published rota and tell everyone involved.
Hiring gives a job for the counter its own page and application form.
Hiring gives each job a public page with its description, pay, location and closing date. Applicants apply on the job's own form, without signing up first. Publishing the job lists it on your job board.
You move applicants through the job's stages, and schedule interviews when every interviewer is free. Once you hire someone, you can put them on the rota's staff list.
The shop's website shows its opening hours and address, and you change it yourself.
Websites is Magpie's site editor. The shop's website is built from sections, with a header, footer and navigation every page shares. You can write the hours, the address and what the shop stocks.
Publishing will put every page online at once. You can put the website at a domain the shop owns. A QR code on the door can open it.
Deliveries, waste and counts all change one stock, and the next order starts from it.
The shop's checklists and its orders work from one stock.
The delivery is checked
The delivery checklist asks whether everything arrived, and for the chilled items' temperature. Your staff check the packaging and dates, and photograph the delivery note.
It goes into stock
You receive it on the supplier's order, with each lot's expiry date. It will be added to the shop's stock. Its price will move each item's average cost.
Out-of-date stock comes off the shelf
The opening checklist asks for anything past its use-by date to be removed. You log it as waste with a reason, and it will come out of stock.
A count corrects the rest
Counting a category corrects each line to what was found. A large difference changes the stock only once you approve it.
What is low goes on the next order
Magpie lists the packs to order from each item's usual supplier. It allows for what is already on order.
Four more areas cover paper-round bills, the books, email and push-to-talk.
- Invoicing
- Invoicing emails each paper-round customer an invoice with the same lines every month, with its PDF. You record cash or a cheque when they pay.
- Accounting
- Accounting keeps the books, with your bank statements imported as CSV files. You enter suppliers' bills, pay them and reconcile the books against the bank.
- Mail gives the shop an address such as hello@ at its own domain. The team shares the mailboxes and reads them in the browser.
- Walkie Talkie
- Walkie Talkie gives the counter and the stockroom a push-to-talk channel in the browser. Every message is kept as a recording.
Setting up takes four steps.
Set up the opening and closing checks
You choose Grocery or food retail and enter the opening hours. Then you confirm each fridge's limits. Help: Record temperatures.
Add your wholesalers
You add each supplier with its delivery days and the time to order by. Then you add the items it sells you, in its packs and at its prices. Help: Order from suppliers and receive deliveries.
Record what is on the shelves
You add the items you keep and record the opening stock. Help: Keep track of stock.
Put the staff on the rota
You start the rota from the Shop starter and add each person by name. Then you publish a week. Help: Plan and publish a staff schedule.
Plans
A shop with staff is a team. The Team plan is one price for the whole team. It has 25 member places and mailboxes at the shop's domain. A free team has 3 members and 5 invoices a month, without Mail.
Staff take a member place when they join to see their shifts and checklists. Someone who is only on the rota takes none. Staff who join use only the rota, the checklists and Team chat, unless you choose others.
Other businesses similar to a corner shop have pages of their own.
Thrift and vintage shops
A thrift or vintage shop sells second-hand pieces at the counter and online. Each piece is one of a kind.
Clothing boutiques and gift shops
A boutique sells clothing, gifts and home goods, in the shop and online. Its stock comes in sizes and colours.
Questions corner shops and newsagents ask
What happens when a fridge reading is out of range?
Magpie will open an incident at the shop, with the steps written for that fridge. The incident lists a follow-up reading to take. A reading outside a critical limit will alert you, the shift leads and the managers. If nobody acknowledges it, the alert is sent again after the time you set.
Can we download our temperature records?
Yes. Reports count the readings for each fridge and freezer over up to 366 days. They show the total, how many were out of range and the days with none. Download CSV exports every reading for the same dates, in °C and as typed.
Can we keep track of use-by dates?
Yes. When you turn on Expiry dates for an item, each delivery records when it expires. The item's page lists each lot with its date. The opening checklist asks for anything past its use-by date to be removed. You log it as waste with the reason Expired, and it will come out of stock.
Can we see what we threw away?
Yes. The Waste page lists the shop's waste for a range of days. It shows totals by reason and by item, and downloads as a CSV file. Whoever logged the waste can undo it for 10 minutes. You or a manager can correct it later.
Can we order from several wholesalers?
Yes. Each supplier has its own list, in its packs and at its prices. An item that several suppliers sell is ordered from its usual one. Magpie starts a separate order for each supplier. Its email lists each line with the supplier's product code and your account number.
How do we record what we bought at the cash and carry?
You record it as a delivery, from any supplier or none. You choose each item, the quantity and the total cost. The stock is added at once, and its cost moves each item's average cost.
Can staff count stock without seeing what it should be?
Yes. With Hide the expected quantities turned on, whoever counts sees only the lines to fill in. A count can be saved as often as needed. A line that differs by more than the percentage you set needs your approval. Until then, its stock does not change.
Will I know if something goes wrong when I am not in the shop?
High and critical incidents are emailed to you and the shop's managers. A shift lead can confirm opening or closing with a checklist unfinished. The reason they give is sent to you and the managers. The shop's Today page shows what is done, what is late and what needs a manager.
Can we bill paper-round customers?
Yes. You make an invoice for the customer's papers and make it recurring. The same lines will then be invoiced and emailed every month, with a PDF. The customer can pay by card from the invoice when you take card payments. You can record cash or a cheque too.
Can we see what the rota will cost?
Yes. You give each person or position an hourly rate. Before you publish, the review will show the week's estimated pay. Reports show labour cost, as a CSV file too. The estimates use base rates, and you choose who sees them with Sees pay rates.
We have two shops. Can each have its own checks, stock and rota?
Yes. Each shop is a location with its own hours. Each routine runs at one shop or at both, as you choose. On the rota, people are set up for the shops they work at. Each shop keeps its own stock, and a move takes stock from one to the other.
Can we sell online as well?
Yes. Store sells your products online, and buyers pay on Stripe's checkout page. Buyers can choose local pickup from the shop. Each online product can take its stock from the same item on your shelves. An online sale and a count then change the same number.
Set up your shop.
Create a Magpie account and make a team for the shop.