POS software for bakeries in Pakistan
A bakery bakes in the morning and sells until late at night, takes cake orders days in advance, and throws away what doesn't sell. ArfaPOS keeps the counter billing, the cake advances, the recipes, the flour stock and the tax receipts in one place.
What makes this trade hard to run.
Hundreds of items on the counter
Bread, rusk, biscuits, pastries, cakes in three sizes, nimko, mithai and packed goods. Cashiers forget prices and charge what they remember.
Cake pre-orders on scraps of paper
A birthday cake is booked on Tuesday with Rs 1,000 advance for Saturday pickup. The slip is lost, or the balance is collected twice, or the cake is not made.
Morning production versus evening sales
The baker makes 200 buns based on habit. By 10 pm, 40 are left. Nobody records the wastage, so the same number is baked tomorrow.
Flour, sugar, butter and cream prices change
A 2 lb cake priced last year may now cost far more to make. Without recipe costing you only notice when the month's profit is down.
Built around the way you work.
Every item with its price, image and SKU
Set up items in the packs you sell them, such as a 1 lb or 2 lb cake, or a half-kg or 1 kg box of biscuits. Use variants for sizes and add-ons for extras like a cake message. The cashier picks the item and the price is always right.
Cake advances in the customer ledger
With customer credit on Growth and Business, record the advance against the customer when the cake is booked. At pickup, the ledger shows what was paid and what is due, and a statement can go to the customer on WhatsApp.
Recipes for cakes, bread and pastries
Each product has a recipe of flour, sugar, eggs, butter and cream. Sales deduct those ingredients from stock and give you the cost of each item.
Kitchen and warehouse stock
Track flour bags, sugar, ghee and packaging in kitchen and warehouse sections. Low-stock alerts warn you before the baker runs out at 5 am, and purchase orders go to suppliers from the same screen.
PRA and FBR receipts
Print PRA e-invoice receipts with a QR code and send invoices to FBR from the counter, with no separate FBR machine. Included on Growth and Business.
Branches and pickup orders
On Business, every branch sits under one login with branch reports and stock transfers, and customers can place pickup and delivery orders on your own branded website.
From opening to closing.
Before dawn: baking
The baker makes bread, buns, rusk and the day's pastries. Flour, eggs and butter come out of the store.
Morning: breakfast customers
Bread, eggs, milk and rusk for breakfast. Quick small bills at the counter, many paid by JazzCash or EasyPaisa.
Afternoon: cake orders
Customers book birthday and anniversary cakes. The advance is recorded against their name and number.
Evening: the busiest hours
Families stop for cakes, pastries, patties and nimko. Pre-ordered cakes are picked up and balances collected from the ledger.
Night: close and wastage
Unsold bread and cream items are counted and written off. The owner reviews sales and ingredient use on the Admin App.
Why a bakery needs more than a cash register
A bakery in Gujranwala or Rawalpindi can have 300 items on its shelves. Some are made in-house every morning, some are bought ready, and cakes are made to order. A cash register can total a bill, but it can't tell you that butter usage doubled this week or that a cake order is due tomorrow. ArfaPOS treats each item as a product with a price, and each in-house product as a recipe with ingredients. Packed goods such as juices and biscuits are billed like any shop item, and you can import your product list from a CSV file instead of typing it in.
Worked example: the cost of a 2 lb chocolate cake
| Ingredient | Quantity | Cost (Rs) |
|---|---|---|
| Flour (Rs 150 per kg) | 300 g | 45 |
| Sugar (Rs 170 per kg) | 300 g | 51 |
| Eggs (Rs 30 each) | 6 | 180 |
| Butter (Rs 1,300 per kg) | 200 g | 260 |
| Cocoa (Rs 2,500 per kg) | 50 g | 125 |
| Whipping cream (Rs 900 per litre) | 400 ml | 360 |
| Cake box | 1 | 80 |
| Total | 1,101 |
If the cake sells for Rs 2,600, the ingredient cost is 42.3% of the price. Cream and butter make up more than half of it. If cream goes up to Rs 1,100 a litre, the 400 ml in this cake costs Rs 440, and the total rises to Rs 1,181. That is why a recipe card for every product matters in a bakery.
Handling cake orders and advances
Take the Saturday birthday cake. The customer pays Rs 1,000 advance on Tuesday for a Rs 2,600 cake. In ArfaPOS the advance goes into that customer's account. On Saturday, the cashier opens the customer, sees Rs 1,000 already paid, and collects the Rs 1,600 balance. No slip to lose, no argument at the counter about whether the advance was paid. Keep the order details, such as the message on the cake and pickup time, in the order notes so the kitchen has them. The same customer credit feature handles offices and regular families who buy on udhaar and settle at month end.
Cutting wastage
Bread and cream products have a short life. Record what is thrown out at night as stock adjustments. After two weeks the pattern is clear: maybe plain buns sell out on weekdays but 30% are left on Sundays. Bake less on Sundays. Our guide on reducing food waste has more ways to act on these numbers.
Paying flour and dairy suppliers
Bakeries buy flour by the bag, eggs by the crate and milk every morning, usually on credit. Each purchase is recorded against the supplier, so the supplier ledger shows the running balance. When the flour dealer comes for payment at the end of the week, you can see every delivery and every payment instead of arguing over a register page.
Festival rush and more than one branch
Before Eid, sales of mithai, cake rusk and dry cakes jump. Set up a festival box as a deal, show it on the customer display while people queue, and tell regular customers about it on WhatsApp before the rush. A bakery with branches can see each outlet's sales side by side and transfer stock to the branch where it is selling. On Business at Rs 14,999 a month, each extra branch is Rs 13,000.
The AiroxLab team sets up your item list and recipes and trains the counter staff over WhatsApp and video call. See plans on the ArfaPOS page.
Questions people ask
How do I record a cake advance?
With customer credit on Growth or Business, record the advance in the customer's account when the order is booked. At pickup, the ledger shows the amount paid and the balance to collect.
Can I sell biscuits and nimko by weight?
ArfaPOS does not connect to a weighing scale. Set up the pack sizes you sell, such as half kg and 1 kg, as items or variants with their own prices. This keeps billing quick and prices correct.
Can ArfaPOS cost my cakes and bread?
Yes, from the Growth plan. Each product gets a recipe with ingredient quantities. Sales deduct the ingredients from stock and give you a cost per item.
Does it print PRA e-invoice receipts?
Yes. ArfaPOS prints PRA e-invoice receipts with a QR code and sends invoices to FBR. It is included on Growth and Business, and is a Rs 2,500 a month add-on on Starter.
Does it work for a bakery with two branches?
Yes, on the Business plan. All branches sit under one login with branch reports and stock transfers. Each extra branch on Business is Rs 13,000 a month.
Similar businesses
Cafés and coffee shops
A café sells hundreds of small tickets a day, and the profit sits in grams of coffee and millilitres of milk. ArfaPOS bills fast at the counter, lets seated guests order from a QR code on the table, tracks what each cup uses, and brings regulars back with loyalty points.
Ice cream and dessert shops
An ice cream parlour sells a few grams at a time, from tubs that cost thousands, to queues that are longest on the hottest nights. ArfaPOS costs every scoop, tracks every tub, and keeps the counter moving with QR payments and a ready board when the whole street wants falooda at 11 pm.
Pizza shops
In a pizza shop, cheese is the most expensive thing in the kitchen and the easiest to overuse. ArfaPOS costs every size of every pizza, keeps the oven queue in order on the kitchen screen, tracks every rider on the road, and shows how much mozzarella the day's sales should have used.
Tell us about your business.
We reply with a price, a demo time and the setup that fits your branches, counters and users.