Company: Cybake

Website: https://cybake.com/

Technology Snapshot: Cybake bakery software has added new business intelligence reporting screens to its purchasing module which give its users the edge when dealing with their suppliers.

The new BI screens feature pie charts, bar charts and graphs which give Cybake users a clear, at-a-glance, picture of their purchasing activities and KPIs. This gives a baker the advantage when negotiating with suppliers, as the information the baker needs to make a good deal is right in front of them, at their fingertips, at all times.

Cybake now displays an overview of a bakery business’s net purchasing spend by both supplier and ingredient. It also breaks down ingredient purchases and cost trends, with a view of the latest prices, the last time an ingredient was purchased, from which supplier, at what price, and in which format.

Plus, Cybake now features a service-level report which tells bakeries whether suppliers are fulfilling their orders, as well as purchase order analysis, within which the status and progress of all purchase orders can be queried.

Matt Armitage, the head of bakery consultancy Parallel Purchasing, an Independent Cybake Partner that specializes in this often-overlooked area of the baking business, says that using Cybake’s purchasing module provides a number of benefits.

He says: “Cybake ensures that you are paying the correct price agreed with your supplier and that you are claiming credits for short delivered or damaged stock—confirmed at goods inwards. In fact, the industry average is that 5 percent of supplier invoices require some form of credit. With Cybake, any discrepancies are flagged up, so that you are getting the credits due to you every time.” 

Matt Armitage points to a number of other key advantages.

“Cloud-based access means there is always a clear picture of what has been spent, and what is on order, and that this can be seen by users in the warehouse, the bakery, the office and home office.”

“Also, Cybake maintains an ingredient-cost price history which allows you to work out the effect of cost price changes on margins over time. And it interfaces with accounts software like QuickBooks, Xero, or Sage to avoid the need to double enter purchase invoices, cutting unnecessary labor costs.”

Commenting on Cybake’s new BI report screens for purchasing, Jane Tyler, managing director of Cybake, says: “We first announced the addition of business intelligence reporting screens to Cybake back in August 2020. These showed our users how their bakery was performing in terms of sales, profit, and retail stock, and proved very popular. Retail bakery replenishment, sales and waste BI functions followed. 

“With today’s announcement, a bakery’s purchasing can now be tracked, analyzed, and represented in the same way, giving the upper hand to bakers every time when they are negotiating prices with their suppliers.”