Bakeries and home bakers

Magpie takes your bakery's pre-orders and custom cake orders. It records each bake from your recipes and keeps the fridge readings.

A home baker can take orders and record each bake alone. A bakery with staff works in one Magpie team.

Get started free
Choosing a design for Larkspur Bakery’s Store: five designs, each drawn with its layout and colours in the bakery’s rust accent, with Editorial as the current design.

This combination of five Magpie areas fits a bakery.

Store
Store takes orders for loaves and pastries before they are baked, for pickup or local delivery.
Forms
Forms takes custom cake orders, with the date, the flavours and an inspiration photo.
Daily Operations
Daily Operations records each bake from your recipes, and keeps the walk-in and freezer readings.
Inventory
Inventory counts the flour, butter, eggs and boxes, and lists what to reorder.
Social Media
Social Media posts the week's bakes, and starts each post from the product's photos.

Customers pre-order for your pickup and local delivery days.

Store gives the bakery an online shop for pre-orders. A loaf or a box of pastries can sell before it is baked. Customers see its expected date on the product page and in their emails. The week's menu can go live at a set time.

You deliver on the days you choose, to the postal codes you list. Buyers pick one of those days at checkout. For pickup, they see the bakery's address and pickup times. A required Date field asks which day they will collect.

Customers order a custom cake with a photo of what they want.

Forms gives the bakery a custom cake Form. It asks for the date, the servings and the flavours. A customer can attach one inspiration photo of up to 10 MB. The tier questions can show only when someone chooses a tiered cake.

You will get an email for each new enquiry. Once you agree the price, you record the order and send a payment link. The link works for 24 hours.

Larkspur Bakery’s Custom cake order Form in the Form builder: questions for the pickup date, the number of servings, an inspiration photo and the cake’s size, each with its answer type and reorder controls.

You plan each bake from your recipes, and Magpie keeps the fridge readings.

Daily Operations holds your recipes, with their ingredients, allergens and how long each keeps. You plan the day's production from them. Recording a batch takes its ingredients out of stock. The loaves are added with a batch code and a use-by time.

A bakery starts with routines for the ovens and proofers, the walk-in fridge and the freezer. The closing routine counts the unsold bakes you throw away. A reading outside your limits will open an incident with the steps to fix it.

Today’s prep at Larkspur Bakery, Dundas Street: sourdough and croissants baked, cinnamon buns under way, seeded rye, lemon tarts and sponge layers planned with who makes each, and the ingredients they need, with butter short.

Inventory counts your flour and butter, and drafts each supplier's order.

Inventory counts what you bake with, by weight, by volume or one by one. It counts packs too, such as a 25 kg sack or a tray of eggs. You can also record each delivery's lot and expiry date.

You give each item a minimum. What runs low is listed with the packs to order from its usual supplier. From that list, you draft an order for each supplier.

You schedule a post of the week's bakes for the morning pre-orders open.

Social Media starts a post from a live product, with its name, link and photos. You can queue it for the next posting time. You can also schedule it for the morning pre-orders open.

Posts to Bluesky, Mastodon and LinkedIn will be published at their time. For Instagram, Magpie will email you a reminder and crop each photo to the account's shape. You post it by hand from your phone.

Four more areas cover the menu email, wedding cakes, the rota and the books.

Newsletter
Newsletter emails this week's menu to your subscribers, now or at a time you set. Customers subscribe at checkout or on the signup page.
Proposals
Proposals sends the couple a wedding cake quote, with options to choose from. They sign it online and pay a deposit by card. The rest is invoiced later.
Staff Scheduling
Staff Scheduling puts early baking shifts and counter shifts on a weekly rota. Staff see their shifts on the website and swap with each other.
Accounting
Accounting adds each paid order and its Stripe fee to the books. You enter supplier bills in the same books.

Pre-orders, the bake and what is left at closing all change the same stock.

  1. The order comes in

    A customer orders a sourdough for Saturday. It sells on back order, and the order is listed with your pre-orders.

  2. The bake is planned

    A shift lead plans Saturday's batches. The ingredients they need are listed, and anything short is marked.

  3. The loaves come out of the oven

    You record the batch, and the flour comes out of stock. The loaves are added to the same stock the online shop sells from.

  4. Ready to collect

    When you mark the order ready, Magpie will email the customer the address, times and instructions. You mark it collected when they take it.

  5. What is left

    You log what did not sell as waste, with the reason Made too much. It will come out of stock, and the waste page totals it by reason and item.

  6. In the books

    Each paid order will be added to the books, with Stripe's fee.

Setting up takes five steps.

  1. Set up Daily Operations as a bakery

    You choose Bakery and give the bakery its hours. Then you keep the starter routines you want and confirm the fridge limits. Help: Run each day's opening, closing and checks.

  2. Add your ingredients and recipes

    You add flour, butter and the rest to Inventory. Then you write each recipe from them. Help: Plan prep, keep recipes and log waste.

  3. Set up the shop for pickup and delivery

    You name the online shop, add local pickup and your delivery days, and connect Stripe. Help: Collections and shipping.

  4. Add your breads and cakes

    You turn on Sell when out of stock for what you bake to order. Help: Create products, options, and inventory.

  5. Publish the custom cake Form

    You add the date, flavour and photo questions, then publish the Form. Help: Build, publish, and share a form.

Plans

Store, Daily Operations, Inventory and Forms are on every plan. A home baker can use them alone, and a bakery with staff makes a team. A free team has 3 member places. The Team plan has 25, at one price for the team.

On the Free plan, you can send 5 proposals each month. Magpie adds no fee to your shop's sales or to proposal deposits. Stripe's processing fee is taken from each card payment.

Other businesses similar to a bakery have pages of their own.

Coffee shops and cafés

A coffee shop serves coffee at a counter more than it bakes to order. It has a rota, opening checks and beans sold online.

Caterers and private chefs

A caterer quotes each event's menu and price, and the client signs and pays a deposit. Prep is planned for a set number of guests.

Small food and drink brands

A small food brand makes jars and bottles in production batches. It sells them online and wholesale to shops.

Questions bakers ask

Can customers pre-order for our bake days?

Yes. Once you turn on Sell when out of stock, a product sells before it is baked. Customers can see an Expected to ship date, if you set one. A required Date field on the product asks which day they will collect. Every order with items not yet in stock is listed under Pre-orders.

Can we deliver locally on set days?

Local delivery goes to the postal codes you list, on the days you choose. You set how many days' notice you need and a cutoff time. Orders after the cutoff count from the next day. Buyers choose one of the next 14 delivery days at checkout. Delivery can be free over an order amount.

Can we open pre-orders at a set time?

Yes. You can set a date and time for a product to go live. It will go live then, with the same checks as publishing it by hand. A collection, such as this week's menu, can be published at a set time too.

Can customers order a custom cake?

Yes. You publish a Form that asks for the date, servings and flavours from a list. A File question takes an inspiration photo, and another can ask for a message. Once you agree the price, you record the order. You then send the customer a payment link for the total.

Can we take a deposit on a wedding cake?

Yes. You write the quote in Proposals, with packages or options for the tiers and flavours. The couple signs on their own page, and the deposit invoice is issued on acceptance. They pay it by card, into your Stripe account. The final payment is invoiced when you bill it.

Can customers choose a flavour and add a message?

Yes. An option such as Flavour gives each choice its own price and stock. A personalisation field asks for the message to pipe on the cake. It can be free or add to the price. The order, its emails and the packing slip will show what they wrote.

Can we show allergens on the product page?

Yes. Specifications are name and value pairs shown on the product page. You can add one such as Allergens: wheat, eggs, milk. Each recipe also records its allergens, how long it keeps and how it is stored.

Can we log the walk-in and freezer temperatures?

The Bakery starter reads the walk-in fridge and the freezer at opening. It reads the fridge again at closing. Each reading is checked against target and critical limits you set. One outside them will open an incident with the steps to fix it. A critical one will be sent to you, the shift leads and the managers.

Can we cost our recipes?

Yes. You see each recipe's cost, worked out from its ingredients' average cost or usual supplier's price. Managers who can see costs in Inventory see it too. Employees and shift leads do not see costs on the prep, recipe or waste pages.

Can we record what we throw away at closing?

Yes. You log the item, how much and the reason, such as Made too much or Expired. It will come out of stock. The waste page totals the bakery's waste by reason and item, over a range of days. You can download it as a CSV file.

Can we sell at the counter or a market stall?

Yes. A new order records a sale paid in cash or on your own card terminal. Its items will come out of stock.

Can customers order without signing up first?

Yes. Customers check out on Stripe's checkout page without signing up first. They get a private link to their order by email. A Form is answered without signing up first too. A payment link opens a Stripe payment page.

Can we email customers this week's menu?

Yes. Checkout can show an unticked box for news. Buyers who tick it will become subscribers when the order is paid. You write each email in Markdown, and send it now or at a time you schedule.

Can a home baker use this alone?

Yes. Store, Daily Operations, Inventory and Forms all work in your own account, without a team. A team is for when someone else bakes or serves with you. Then they can have their own checklists or shifts.

Can we label what we make with a use-by date?

Recording a batch adds what was made, with a batch code and a use-by time. The use-by time comes from how long the recipe keeps. The Bakery starter has a step to label prepared items with the date and use-by date.

Open this week's pre-orders.

Create a Magpie account for the bakery.

Create account