Notes for owners · Industry-Specific Software Guides
Which Part of a Food or Consumer Goods Business to Digitise First
Start with the batch record: material lots in, batches made, goods dispatched. It lets you trace a complaint and read yield against the recipe. GullySystem’s production management software holds this for batch makers, and distributor orders, schemes and returns come next. Bakeries and caterers begin from the order book instead.
Ganesh HS, Strategy and Technology, GullySystem · · 3 min read
Why the batch record comes first
Makers of snacks, drinks, personal care and household goods work in batches. A batch has a recipe, a set of material lots and a line that made it. When a complaint arrives, all three are needed together.
Tally holds the invoice. The batch sheet, the supplier lot and the dispatch record usually sit in separate files. Joining them is the first job.
Then stock by batch and expiry
Goods with a shelf life need stock held by batch and by best-before date. Dispatch should show the oldest batch first. Returns are then logged against the batch with a reason.
Without this, older batches sit behind newer ones and come back near expiry. Credit notes follow, and nobody can say which batch caused them.
- Batch code and date on every finished pack
- Oldest batch shown first at dispatch
- Returns logged by batch and reason
- A near-expiry list reviewed before the godown fills
Distributors, schemes and claims
Distributors order by phone or through a salesman, and schemes run for a few weeks. Claims for damage, leakage and expiry arrive on paper afterwards.
Put each scheme in the system with its start and stop dates, and check every claim against it before a credit note is raised. Credit limits belong here too, with an order that crosses one held until a named person releases it.
Orders that change: cakes, events and indents
Bakeries and caterers start elsewhere. A custom cake or an event menu changes several times before it is served, and the kitchen must work from the approved version.
Institutional suppliers start with the daily indent from each mess and the rate in force on that date. In each case the first record is the order, kept in versions, and production follows from it.
What to leave for later
Machine counters, returnable empties and brand-owner views are useful but second. They are built around the production record once it is running.
A single counter or a home kitchen may not need software. A billing app can serve one bakery counter, and a diary can serve a cook with a few orders a month. List your batches and claims for one month before deciding.
One-batch trace sheet
Pick one finished batch and write down its recipe, the material lots issued, the quantity made, what was rejected and where it was dispatched. Note which file held each fact. The gaps show what to record first.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Does production software make a food business compliant?
No. Compliance comes from your process, your licence and your testing. The software keeps batch, lot and test records together, so a question from a buyer or an auditor can be traced.
Can Tally stay for accounts?
Yes. Tally can stay for accounts and GST while batches, stock and orders live in the production and ordering software. There is no built-in link, so a file for your accountant is set up separately.
Is a ready manufacturing ERP better than custom work?
Sometimes. A single plant making one product family with plain registers may be well served by a ready ERP. Custom work makes sense when empties, batch codes or distributor claims are where the money leaks.