The menu is where you get to the various features of the app.
Menu items with a down caret will expand to give more options, while those without a caret take you directly to that option.
shows information about your business at a glance. You can even click on some of the cards to go to more information, such as the Active pre-orders.
gives basic point of sale functionality. You can add customers to sales and view or search your product library to add items to a sale simply by clicking the item.
Use the push pin icon on an item to add it to your popular items tab to make them easier to find:
You can also just type in a dollar amount and select whether or not it has sales tax built in, and the tax rate to apply to it.
Clicking on Payment Methods in the upper right lets you customize the payment options you accept.
Check or uncheck items to determine if they should show up in the POS as options for payment.
You can enable other options, such as Venmo, Cash App, or Paypal. If you enable these last three,
the app will generate a QR code for the customer to scan and complete payment. Venmo will even
prefill the transaction total on the customer's device! If you have credit card processing configured
(currently only Stripe is supported), you can accept credit cards via manual entry or a scan to pay
feature that generates a QR code for the customer to scan and complete payment.
Clicking on Sales History on the main POS screen gives you the following screen.
From here, you can see your most recent transactions and send or resend emails to a customer provided
email address.
After you add items to a sale, you can click View Sale to finalize it. On this screen, you'll see which items
are currently in the cart and you can adjust the quantity.
Click Tender to finalize the sale and you'll get your choice of payment method. Click the customer's selected
method of payment and you're all done!
Once the payment is tendered, you get a confirmation that the transaction has completed and an option to
email the customer a receipt. Email the receipt or click New sale to start another transaction.
where you fill out your business' information. The business name is the only mandatory
bit of information, but if you want to accept credit cards, you do have to provide a valid email address. Here, you
can add a logo, set the business name, select your business type (Farmers Market, Farm Stand, Cottage Baker, Food Truck), and add information about your business.
You can select "Use my current location" or manually move the map to your exact location to set a marker for where you are located. If you don't want to use your exact address, just pin your nearest town. The Description and Products offered will show up on your business page on the customer app (cottageand.farm), if enabled. Tell a little bit about yourself and what products you have for sale.
Here is where you determine what customers can see about you.
"Show recalls on site?" - if enabled, if you do a recall on a product, it will show on the customer app so that customers are aware of the recall.
"Show email in Contact Info on the public site?" - if this is enabled, customers will be able to see your email address and email you directly. There is a messaging feature in the app, so you don't have to give out your email address for customers to contact you.
"Send recall to customer app?" - (not yet enabled) This feature will send an actual alert to the customer app as well as showing it on the site.
"Show on website and map?" - If you don't want customers to be able to find you via cottageand.farm, uncheck this and your information will only be viewable by you in this app.
"Time display" - Select either 12-hour or 24-hour time (this only affects how the app looks to you. Customers can specify their own preference)
Pre-orders: If you want to receive pre-orders via the app, check this box. The lead-time is how far in advance a customer must order, allowing you to make sure you have plenty of time to complete the order.
Email when a new pre-order comes in - select this if you wish your email address on file to receive an email whenever you receive a pre-order. (if you choose not to receive emails, you'll want to check the app regularly to make sure you don't miss them.)
Messages: Email when a customer sends a message - Do you want the system to email you when you receive a message in the app?
Cottage-food revenue cap. Since laws vary by state and some states have income caps on how much can be sold from farm stands or cottage bakeries, if your state has a cap, you can enter it here and the system will track how close to the limit you are.
Here you set your hours of operation. You can set different hours for different months by selecting or unselecting months, then setting the hours.
You can preview a month to see what your currently set hours are for that month:
You can also set holidays that you are closed (I've included the 6 main US holidays, but you can add other custom holidays). You can also set vacation mode to show when your store is closed.
If you sell at multiple locations, you can add them here to keep track of sales by location in the POS and manual Sales entry.
This is where you manage your subscription to CottageCraft or configure your Stripe account to accept credit cards (clicking Set up payment acceptance takes you to Stripe's site. CottageCraft does not store any of your financial information or credit card information.)
Here, you can add the suppliers you get ingredients and supplies from. These can be used when you enter purchases to track how much you spend with a supplier.
Here's where you can add regular customers to add them to sales to make sending receipts easier. Reports (to come) will also allow seeing profitability by customer.
Add your ingredients here, or let them add as you enter receipts. You can also import formatted CSV files if you have a lot of ingredients already in another file or app or export your ingredients from here. You can do a quick-edit of ingredients (name/category/unit/cost), add custom conversions (1 stick = .5 cup) or set the Allergens. Allergens added to an ingredient will automatically apply to any product or recipe that uses that ingredient.
Track supplies you use in your business (still a work in progress). Add information about the supply. If you select "Usable in recipes", then you can add the supply to a recipe to account for its cost in the recipe's cost.
Here is where you add your recipes. Give a name, yield quantity, yield unit (ie 6 and "loaves"). Add your instructions and a description if you'd like, then add your ingredients. You can add allergens below, but if you have them set on your ingredients, they will automatically add to the recipe when you save.
Add, edit, or view products here. You can make products using recipes or leave the recipe blank to create an item not from a recipe (such as goat milk soap). Give the product a name, sell price (check whether or not the price includes sales tax for tracking sales tax collection), SKU, select recipe, and select category. If you want a variable product (such as small, medium, or large or maybe different flavors), select the product group (create these under customization). If you are using a product group, give the product a variant name. You can also assign a description of the product here.
Allow preorder: check this if you want customers to be able to pre-order this product.
Show in POS: check this if you want this product available in your POS
Additional Lead-time, you set a business-wide lead time in your business settings, but some items can take longer to make. Here's where you can set additional lead-time (for example, if you have set 4 days at the site level, then set 3 days here, pre-orders will require this item be scheduled at least 7 days out).
Low stock alert threshold - if you want an alert if stock drops below a certain number, set that number here.
Taxes that apply to this product - a list of all configured taxes. Each one you check will be added to the item. If you say the price includes tax, then it will back the taxes out of the set price for reporting.
Allergens - If you set allergens at the ingredient or recipe level, they will automatically apply to the product, but not be checked here. You can add any allergens you may need to in addition.
In the existing products list, you can edit products or manually adjust inventory.
Batches can be used to track product based on when it was made. If you want to allow recall options, you have to use batches, as recalls are based on batches. Select a product, its production date, then give it a batch code (or use the suggested one), how many items are in the batch, and optionally, an expiration date.
This can be especially handy if you bake multiple times per day or milk multiple times per day. You can assign each milking or baking a batch number to keep track of them.
Plan out your baking. Select a recipe and the date back, then add how many batches of the recipe you'll be making (this is not the same as tracking batches, this is simply how many of the recipe you'll be making). Add notes, such as "For Saturday" or "No Nuts in the Muffins" Click add to calendar and the baking will be scheduled on the calendar. Below the calendar will be your shopping list. Set the date range and it will tell you how much of each ingredient you need for that period so you can make sure you have it on hand.
This is the feature that hopefully gets little use, but it's better to have than not. If you realize you need to recall a batch (maybe you accidentally used an allergen in it you didn't catch at the time, or an ingredient you use had a recall from its manufacturer so you need to recall anything you used it in). If you click New Recall, you can select the batch you need to recall and give a reason. Set the recall date, if different than the current date, and hit Create Recall. You can see recalls you've had and their status. If you have the option of displaying on the customer site/app enabled, all active recalls will be listed there. Once you are sure you've gotten all of a batch back or it has been properly disposed of, you can click Mark completed. Once completed, the button will change to Mark ongoing (see below). If you click it again, it will reactivate the recall.
Here, you can see all completed sales, either in the POS or manually recorded on this page. You can select a batch or product and then choose how it was removed from inventory (sold/discarded/donated/other) and how many of that item were disposed of in this way and on what date. If the item was sold, you can select the location at which it was sold (if multiple locations set up) and the price per item. Add notes if you would like.
Enter purchases to track expenses. Select the date and supplier. If you don't add individual items to the purchase, you can also select its category (ingredients, supplies, equipment, other) for proper tracking. If you add line items, you can set the category for each.
View or add preorders here. Preorders from the customer app will show up here or you can manually add preorders. Moving through the calendar will show you how many preorders you have for a given day. Once an order is done, you can mark it completed.
If a customer leaves a review for you on the customer app, it will show up here.
You can add posts here that will show up on the Customer App under your business. Let people know about new products coming or news about your business.
If a customer messages you from the Customer App, it will show up here. You can reply to messages; they will be sent to the customer's email.
Use categories to organize your ingredients, recipes, and products. Each item type gets its own list of categories. Select type you wish to add/remove a category for and then add the category. Categories can be nested (ie, you can have a category for "Bread", then under it have "Sweet Breads" and "Savory Breads")
This is how the apps handle products with variations. Create a group for the main product (ie, Cookies) then on the product page, create the variants (Chocolate Chip Cookie, Peanut Butter Cookie, etc).
This starts as an empty list but you have the option of autofilling the most common allergens. You can also add other allergens if you have other concerns (for instance, you might add Alpha Gal if you use lard).
Add custom units that aren't already in the list (for example, add 'stick' if you use butter by the stick instead of measuring volume or weight). You can name the unit, give it an abbreviation, select if it's a count, length, volume, weight, or other. Select if it's imperial or metric (or n/a for neither). You can now use your new unit in recipes and purchases.
The system has several standard conversions built in (pounds to ounces, fluid ounces to gallons, etc.) But if you have custom conversions you need to handle, you can add them here.
If you have to collect sales tax on your sales, you can add the tax rate (or rates) here.
A collection of reports to let you track how your business is doing.
A collection of calculators to help figure out things about your business, such as scaling recipes or how much gas it will use to drive to an event.