Restaurants, bistros and diners
A restaurant adds a kitchen with prep lists, table service and more staff on each shift. Private dining enquiries come in through Forms.
Coffee shops and cafés
Magpie schedules your café's checks, plans the rota and counts the stock. It sells your beans and gift cards online too.
The café, its managers and its baristas work in one Magpie team.
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This combination of six Magpie areas fits a café.
- Daily Operations
- Daily Operations times the opening and closing checklists, and records the fridge readings.
- Staff Scheduling
- Staff Scheduling plans the week's shifts and shows each barista their own.
- Inventory
- Inventory counts the milk, beans and cups, and starts the order for each supplier.
- Store
- Store sells your beans and gift cards online, from the same stock.
- Websites
- Websites puts your menu, hours and address on a site you edit yourself.
- Hiring
- Hiring gives a barista job its own page, and lists every applicant.
Your café's opening and closing checks appear when they are due.
Daily Operations gives the café its routines, ready to use. A coffee shop starts with Opening, Closing, a midday temperature round and an espresso machine backflush. You keep the ones you want and change their steps.
Each checklist will appear when it is due, timed from your opening hours. One nobody finishes will be marked late or missed. A milk fridge reading outside your limits will open an incident that says what to do.
You plan the week, and each barista sees their own shifts.
Staff Scheduling gives the café its rota, with positions and shifts ready to use. You type each shift's times as you would say them, or copy last week. Magpie checks every shift against time off, availability and your limits on rest and hours.
Shifts stay drafts until you publish the week. Then each person will see their own shifts. They can swap with a coworker, ask for cover or pick up an open shift.
Inventory counts the stock, and starts each supplier's order from what is running low.
Inventory counts milk in litres, beans in kilos and cups one by one. Each café keeps its own stock. An item is marked Low when it falls below the minimum you set.
From what is running low, you start an order for each supplier, such as the roaster. It is in the supplier's packs and prices, and you email it from Magpie. Receiving the delivery will add it to stock at the price charged.
Store sells your beans and gift cards online, out of the café's own stock.
Store gives the café an online shop for retail bags, merch and gift cards. Buyers pay on Stripe's checkout page, into your own Stripe account. Each sale will come out of the café's stock.
A gift card is emailed on the date the buyer chooses, and it never expires. A buyer can choose to collect their order at the café. When you mark it ready, Magpie will email them the address and times.
The café's website shows the menu and the hours, and you change it yourself.
Websites gives the café a site you change yourself. You can write the menu, the opening hours and the address. One section lists the beans you sell online at their current prices. You'll be able to check each page at phone width before you publish.
Publishing will put every page online at once, and each version is kept. You can put the website at the café's own domain. Email at that domain will keep working.
Hiring gives a barista job its own page, and keeps every applicant in one list.
Hiring handles the job post, the applicants and the interviews. A barista job will have its own public page and application form on your job board. The page carries the details Google for Jobs reads, and applicants apply without signing up first.
You move applicants through the job's stages, with notes and email, and rate them on scorecards. When you hire someone, Magpie will add them to the rota, ready for their first shift.
Five more areas cover the counter, social posts, email, chat and the books.
- QR Codes
- QR Codes makes a Wi-Fi code for the counter and a menu code for each table. A code can point somewhere else later, without reprinting.
- Social Media
- Social Media posts the week's specials to all the café's accounts from one draft. Posts to Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn will be published at the time you choose. For Instagram and X, Magpie will remind you to post from your phone.
- Mail gives the café an address such as hello@ at its own domain. The whole team can open the mailbox.
- Team chat
- Team chat is open to the staff who join the team for their shifts.
- Accounting
- Accounting adds each paid online order and its Stripe fee to the books. Bank statements come in as CSV files.
Deliveries, batches, waste and online sales all change one stock.
Each is recorded once.
The milk delivery arrives
You receive the order in Inventory. What arrived will be added to stock at the price charged.
The morning's batches
You record a batch of cold brew or vanilla syrup. Its ingredients will come out of stock.
The pastry case at closing
You log what did not sell as waste, with a reason. It will come out of stock, and the waste report totals it by reason.
A bag of beans sold online
It will come out of the same stock as the bags on your retail shelf.
Running low
Beans or oat milk below their minimum will be listed for shift leads and managers. From that list you start the next supplier order.
Sales in the books
Each paid online order will be added to the books, with Stripe's fee. It is split into sales, shipping and sales tax.
Setting up takes five steps.
Make a team for the café
You create a team and invite whoever runs the café with you. Help: Create and manage a team.
Set up Daily Operations
You choose Coffee shop and give the café its time zone and opening hours. Then you keep the routines you want and confirm each fridge's limits. Help: Run each day's opening, closing and checks.
Publish a first week
You start the rota from the café starter, add your staff and plan a normal week. Then you publish it. Help: Plan and publish a staff schedule.
Record what is on the shelves
You add milk, beans and cups to Inventory, each with a minimum. Then you record what is in stock now. Help: Keep track of stock.
Open the online shop
You connect Stripe, then add your beans and a gift card to the shop. Help: Connect Stripe to receive money.
Plans
A café with staff is a team. The Team plan is one price for the whole team. It has 25 member places and mailboxes at the café's domain. A staff member who is only on the rota takes no member place.
A free team has 3 member places, counting you, and 1 website. Magpie adds no fee to online sales. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each payment.
Other businesses similar to a café have pages of their own.
Bakeries and home bakers
A bakery takes pre-orders with pickup and local delivery dates, and custom cake orders through Forms.
Bars, breweries and taprooms
A brewery sells bottles online and wholesale to shops, and runs events with RSVPs in Calendar.
Food trucks and market food stalls
A food truck is somewhere new each day. Its spots are on a public calendar and a Link-In-Bio List.
Corner shops and newsagents
A corner shop restocks from several suppliers and checks its fridges and freezers. It has a rota for the counter.
Questions about running a café on Magpie
How do baristas see their shifts?
Each person sees their published shifts on the website. Each shift shows its times, the position and the café's address. They will get a reminder before each shift. A calendar address adds their shifts to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar or Outlook.
Can baristas swap shifts with each other?
Yes. From one of their published shifts, a person picks a coworker's shift they could both work. Once the coworker accepts, the swap will apply. If your settings ask for it, a manager approves it first. A person can also ask for cover, or say they cannot work a shift.
Can staff ask for time off?
Yes, for whole days or part of a day. A manager will see the published shifts it overlaps and who else is off. They approve it, or decline it with a reason. Approved time off stops new shifts in that time.
Can I see what the week's shifts will cost?
Yes. You set hourly pay rates by person, position or location. The week will then show its estimated pay before you publish, using base rates without overtime. Pay rates are hidden from everyone until you turn on Sees pay rates.
Which checklists does a coffee shop start with?
Opening and Closing, with a pastry delivery check and a midday temperature check of both fridges. Daily cleaning covers the steam wands, group heads, counters and floor. There is also an espresso machine backflush, weekly grinder maintenance and reading the previous shift's notes. You untick any you do not need, and can edit, pause or archive the rest.
Can we change the checklists to match how we work?
Yes. You can edit a routine's steps, up to 100 of them. A step can be a tick, yes or no, or pass or fail. It can also be a temperature, a photo or a written answer. A step can ask for a photo or a note when a check fails.
How do fridge temperature checks work?
Each fridge has a target range and critical limits that you set. Staff type readings in °C or °F, on their own or in a checklist. A reading outside the target will open an incident with what to do next. One outside a critical limit will alert you, the shift leads and the managers.
Can my shift leads open and close the café?
Yes. You give someone the Shift lead role at the café. They confirm opening and closing, hand out checklists and resolve incidents below high severity. Managers also edit routines and fridge limits, and resolve high and critical incidents.
What if the opening checklist is not finished?
The shift lead can still confirm opening, but has to give a reason. The reason will be sent to you and the café's managers. A critical incident that is not resolved will stop opening until a manager resolves it.
Can I download our temperature logs?
Yes. Reports cover up to 366 days. Download CSV exports every reading, with who recorded it and the limits that applied.
Can we track milk, beans and cups, and see what to reorder?
Yes. Each item has its unit, its packs and a minimum at each café. When its stock falls below the minimum, it will be marked Low. It is then listed with the packs to order from its usual supplier. A count corrects the stock to what is on the shelves.
Can Magpie send our orders to the roaster and other suppliers?
Yes. Each supplier has the items it sells, in its packs and prices, and an order email. Sending an order will email the supplier each line and the date you need it. Replies will go to whoever sent it. You can also mark an order as sent by phone or on the supplier's website.
Do the beans we sell online come out of the same stock?
Yes, once you link the online product to the beans' Inventory item. Each online sale will then come out of the café's stock. A delivery or count in Inventory will update the stock the shop shows.
Can customers buy gift cards online?
Yes. A gift card can have fixed amounts and, if you choose, a custom amount. The buyer can have it emailed to someone on a date they pick. It pays for anything in your shop, and a bought card never expires. You can also give cards away, or issue store credit.
Can customers order beans online and collect them at the café?
Yes. You add local pickup to the shop. Buyers who choose it will see the café's address instead of a shipping form. When you mark the order ready, Magpie will email them the address and times. Local delivery to the postal codes you list works the same way.
What does it cost to sell online?
Magpie adds no fee to online sales. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each payment. The rest goes to your team's own Stripe account. Each paid order and its Stripe fee are added to Accounting.
Can I put our menu and opening hours on a website?
Yes. You build the website from sections and write the menu, the hours and the address. Then you publish it. A section can list the beans you sell online with their current prices. The website will be at a Magpie address, or at the café's own domain.
Can we have an email address like hello@ at our café's domain?
Yes. You connect the café's domain to Mail and add mailboxes, each with 5 GB of storage. Aliases deliver to one or several mailboxes. A team mailbox opens for every member unless you make it private.
Can I post a job for a barista?
Yes. You write the job in Hiring, with its description, pay, location and closing date. You choose the questions on its application form and publish it to your team's job board. Applicants apply without signing up first, and their resumes are kept private to the team. When you hire someone, Magpie will add them to the rota.
Can we post our specials on Instagram?
Yes. You write the post in Social Media and choose its time. For Instagram and X, Magpie will email you a reminder. On a phone, Magpie copies the text and opens the share sheet with the images. Posts to Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn will be published at the time you choose.
Does it work for more than one café?
Yes. Each café is a location with its own hours, routines and stock. A person's role can cover every café or only some. Reports can cover one café or all of them.
Set up your café.
Create a Magpie account and make a team for the café.