Question 1

Who is ibakepro for?

Accepted Answer

ibakepro is for anyone selling what they bake - home bakers and cottage food operators, custom cake decorators, cookie and dessert businesses and commercial bakeries with a team. The plans differ in how many users and orders they cover and which sales channels are included, so you pick the one that matches how you sell today.

Question 2

Is ibakepro suitable for a home bakery or cottage food business?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Essentials is the plan built for it: one user, up to 100 orders over the life of the account and the parts you need to run a small operation - products with real ingredient costs, pantry and allergen tracking, a website and branded quotes and invoices. If you outgrow the order limit or need a public storefront, you move up to Growth.

Question 3

Is there a free trial?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every plan starts with a 14-day free trial, with everything that plan includes unlocked from day one. A credit card is required at signup. This gives you time to set up your products, import your customer list and test ibakepro in your daily workflow before you are charged. You can switch plans or cancel at any point during the trial.

Question 4

How easy is it to switch from spreadsheets to ibakepro?

Accepted Answer

Import your customers, orders and pantry items from CSV. The import tool maps your columns and shows you anything it couldn't read before saving. How long it takes depends on how much you're bringing across and how tidy it is. Your data stays yours and you can export all of it whenever you want.

Question 5

Can you help me with my domain name?

Accepted Answer

Yes. On the Growth or Business plan you can search for and register a new domain directly inside ibakepro, and we'll configure the DNS for your storefront automatically. If you already own a domain, you can connect it instead and we'll guide you through the setup. Domain registration is charged separately from your subscription.

Question 6

What's the difference between the plans?

Accepted Answer

We offer three plans - Essentials, Growth and Business - each designed for a different stage of your bakery.

Essentials is for home bakers just starting out. 1 user, up to 100 lifetime orders and everything you need to run a small operation: Products, Pantry, Allergens, Manual Production & Stock Tracking, Website Builder, Social Media, Calendar, Tasks, Expenses, Analytics and Payment Integrations.

Growth is the upgrade once you've outgrown Essentials. 2 users, unlimited orders, your own Online Storefront with Drops for limited releases, plus the Compliance module, a Custom Domain and Custom Email for your business. Storefronts on Growth carry a small "Powered by ibakepro" credit.

Business is for established bakeries with a team, multiple channels or delivery operations. Unlimited users, plus the extra sales channels and integrations you need to scale: Wholesale Ordering, Shopify, Xero accounting, Route Optimisation, Driver Management, Proof of Delivery, Recurring Production & Auto-Portioning, Webhooks, Public REST API and the ability to remove ibakepro branding everywhere. Point of Sale and courier integrations are in development and will land on this plan.

All plans include Choux Studio (AI design) and Ask Choux (AI analytics) on a pay-as-you-go basis. SMS notifications are also pay-as-you-go across all plans.

Question 7

How do I manage custom orders and quotes?

Accepted Answer

Build an itemised quote and track it from first inquiry through to delivery. You can attach reference photos, design notes and your own custom fields for details like flavours, fillings and sizes.

A single quote can carry several options - for example a 6", 8" and 10" version at different prices - and the customer picks one in the portal before paying their deposit.

Customers approve and pay their deposit online, and the order moves into your calendar once they do.

Question 8

How sophisticated is the Product Builder?

Accepted Answer

It's a bill-of-materials system. Every product is built from components (a tier, a filling, a topping) and components are built from pantry ingredients. That means:

Allergens roll up automatically - tag peanuts on one ingredient and every product containing it inherits the warning.

Costs stay accurate - change a supplier price in the pantry once and every recipe, component and product that uses it picks up the new cost.

Variants are first-class - fondant colours, cake flavours, fillings, sizes, all tracked separately.

Packaging suggestions and labour complexity multipliers feed into your pricing automatically.

Margins, allergens and ingredient traceability follow from the same data, so there is nothing separate to keep updated.

Question 9

Can customers place orders online through my website?

Accepted Answer

Yes. From the Growth plan, your Online Storefront lets customers browse products, select customisation options and choose their pickup or delivery times. Payments are handled securely online. Storefronts on Growth carry a small "Powered by ibakepro" credit, which the Business plan removes.

Question 10

Can I run limited releases or pre-orders?

Accepted Answer

Yes, that's what Drops are for. Schedule a release with a set quantity, let customers join a waitlist beforehand and they'll be told the moment it opens. Purchases run through a queue with a cap on how much any one cart can take, so a drop can't oversell and anything cancelled goes straight back into the pool. Afterwards you get a breakdown of what sold and to whom, and you can remarket to everyone who missed out. Drops are available on Growth and Business.

Question 11

Can I sell at the counter or at markets?

Accepted Answer

Point of Sale is in active development and is coming to the Business plan. It will share one catalogue, stock pool and set of books with your storefront and admin orders, so a market stall sale draws down the same ingredients as an online order. In the meantime you can record counter and market takings as orders, and take payment through a payment link.

Question 12

Do you support wholesale or stockist customers?

Accepted Answer

Yes, on the Business plan. Wholesale Ordering gives your trade customers a private area separate from the public storefront. They sign in with an emailed code, see the tier pricing attached to their account and can order on net payment terms rather than paying at checkout. Wholesale revenue reports separately from retail so you can see which side of the business is growing.

Question 13

How do I handle deposits and payment plans for large orders?

Accepted Answer

ibakepro supports flexible payment workflows, including deposits, installments and full payments. You can set deposit amounts as a percentage or a fixed fee, and the system tracks the remaining balance automatically.

To ensure you get paid on time, you can:

Automate payment reminders for upcoming balances.

Accept secure online payments via Stripe, PayPal or Square.

Track payment status for every order in your dashboard.

Question 14

What payment methods can my customers use?

Accepted Answer

Through our integrations with Stripe, PayPal and Square, your customers can pay via credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and bank transfer.

You can accept these payments:

Online through your storefront.

Via payment links sent directly to customers.

In person, by recording the sale as an order and sending a payment link. A built-in Point of Sale with card reader support is on the way for the Business plan.

Question 15

Can ibakepro help me price and calculate profit margins?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Our Product Builder allows you to create products with detailed cost breakdowns. By linking the Pantry feature for real-time ingredient costs with our Expenses tracker, you can identify your true overhead and set profitable prices.

For a quick answer you can ask Analytics something like "What is my average profit margin?" across your whole menu.

Question 16

Can I track my ingredients and get low stock alerts?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Pantry feature is a complete ingredient and inventory management system. You can track stock levels for all your supplies, set reorder points and receive automatic alerts when items run low.

This ensures you have the inventory needed for every order-from fondant and buttercream to bulk flour and sugar-without the risk of running out mid-production.

Question 17

Can I store my recipes and calculate recipe costs?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Pantry includes a recipe management system where you can store your entire library and link each recipe to specific ingredients.

The system automatically calculates the cost per recipe based on your current ingredient prices. When your supplier prices change, you only need to update the cost in your Pantry once-ibakepro will automatically update the costs across all your linked recipes and products. This ensures your profit margins stay accurate without manual recalculations.

Question 18

How do I track allergens?

Accepted Answer

Allergens are tagged once on the pantry ingredient - nuts, gluten, dairy, eggs - and from there they flow upward automatically: ingredient → component → product → order. Tag peanuts on one pantry item and every cake, cupcake or batch that uses it inherits the warning without any manual upkeep.

Allergen tagging is available on every plan. For deeper food safety management - temperature logs, incident reports, pest visits, traceability records - see the Compliance module on the Growth and Business plans.

Question 19

Does ibakepro handle food safety and HACCP-style records?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Compliance module is a full food safety management system. On the Growth and Business plans you can log:

Temperature checks: Probe readings against calibrated ranges, with alerts when a reading falls outside.

Pest sightings and visits: Track sightings, follow-up actions and pest control visit logs.

Equipment maintenance: Custom checklists with completion history and overdue reminders.

Cooking and cooling logs: Batch-level temperature records with full ingredient traceability.

Test tag logs: Cold storage verification records.

Incident reports: Severity, investigation status, corrective actions and auto-escalation when items age.

Approved supplier register: Document upload, expiry tracking and verification.

Everything feeds into a Danger Zone PDF report you can hand straight to an inspector, plus full traceability from ingredient batch → component → product → order → delivery.

Question 20

How do I manage my bakery schedule and avoid overbooking?

Accepted Answer

The Calendar provides a visual overview of all your orders, pickups and deliveries in one place. To prevent overbooking, you can:

Block out dates: Mark yourself as unavailable for holidays, personal time or fully booked weekends.

Manage time slots: Control specific windows for pickups and deliveries to stagger customer arrivals.

For added convenience, your ibakepro schedule syncs directly with Google Calendar, so you always know what is coming up on your production list.

Question 21

Do I need technical skills to build my bakery website?

Accepted Answer

No. Our Website Builder is designed specifically for bakers, not developers. You can choose from professionally designed templates tailored for the baking industry and customise them with your own branding, photos and logo-no coding required.

The process is straightforward:

Choose a template that fits your style.

Update the content and upload your images.

Connect your domain (available on the Growth and Business plans) and publish.

You get a clean, professional online presence that works across all devices without needing to hire a web designer.

Question 22

How does the AI Design Studio help with custom orders?

Accepted Answer

Custom work is an art, and the AI Design Studio helps you communicate your vision. By entering a detailed prompt-such as "box of 12 floral-themed macarons in pastel hues"-you receive a realistic mockup that bridges the gap between your imagination and your customer's expectations.

Use it to:

Showcase your creative direction during the initial inquiry.

Confirm specific toppings, colors and textures with the buyer.

Build trust with a polished, visual-first quoting experience.

Question 23

How deep does the analytics go?

Accepted Answer

Further than most bakery software. Out of the box you get revenue trends, order metrics, customer insights, per-product profit margins, labour cost breakdowns, delivery fee analysis, expense categories, inventory turnover and compliance trend reports. All filterable by date range, currency and category and exportable to CSV.

For anything you can't find as a chart, you can just ask Choux in plain English - it queries the same data and explains the answer.

Question 24

What kind of questions can I ask Ask Choux?

Accepted Answer

You can ask anything about your business data in plain language, just as if you were talking to a colleague. This allows you to get instant answers without building manual reports or digging through spreadsheets.

Common questions include:

Sales Trends: "What were my top 5 selling products last month?" or "How does this month's revenue compare to the same time last year?"

Customer Behavior: "Which customers have spent the most in the last six months?" or "What is the average order value for wedding cakes?"

Operational Efficiency: "What's my busiest day of the week for pickups?" or "How many orders do I typically process on a Friday?"

Profitability: "What is my average profit margin on cupcakes vs. custom cakes?" or "Which products have the highest ingredient costs?

Question 25

How does route optimisation work for deliveries?

Accepted Answer

The Route Optimisation feature (available on the Business plan) automatically calculates the most efficient delivery sequence for your orders. It analyses multiple data points to help you plan smarter runs and reduce time spent on the road.

Key factors the system considers include:

Distance and Travel Time: Finds the shortest and fastest paths between your bakery and customers.

Traffic and Tolls: Factors in estimated travel times and toll costs to keep your overhead low.

Fuel Consumption: Optimises for the least amount of driving, saving you money on fuel.

Delivery Windows: Ensures you arrive within the specific time slots your customers selected.

By streamlining your logistics, you can spend less time in traffic and more time in the kitchen-while ensuring your cakes spend the minimum amount of time in transit.

Question 26

Does ibakepro work in my country?

Accepted Answer

Yes. ibakepro is built to support bakeries worldwide. We provide the infrastructure you need to run your business regardless of your location, with specific support for:

Currencies & Timezones: Full support for USD, AUD, GBP, EUR, CAD and NZD, plus any local timezone.

Data Residency: You choose where your data is stored at signup - AU, US or EU. The EU region is hosted in London. The London region serves both UK and EU customers.

SMS Notifications: Automated customer alerts are available in Australia, the USA, the UK and Canada.

Payments: Our integrations with Stripe, PayPal and Square work in any country where those platforms operate.

Question 27

Can I send SMS from a dedicated number?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Dedicated SMS numbers are available on any plan - contact support to configure one for your bakery. By default, SMS is sent from our shared sender pool on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Question 28

Can customers reply to my SMS messages?

Accepted Answer

Yes. If you're using a dedicated SMS number, customer replies come straight back into your ibakepro inbox alongside the original order or conversation - so you can keep the thread in one place without juggling a phone.

Question 29

What can the automations actually do?

Accepted Answer

The automations engine is a workflow builder with conditional logic, triggers and actions.

Triggers include: order status changes, payment received or failed, new customer inquiry, low stock alerts, compliance events (temperature out of range, incident logged) and recurring schedules.

Actions include: send email with custom templates, send SMS, fire a webhook (Business plan) or hand off to Choux to draft content.

You can test a workflow in dry-run mode before turning it on, see the full execution history including retries and chain conditions so one trigger branches into different outcomes.

Question 30

Can I run multiple bakery locations under one account?

Accepted Answer

Yes. ibakepro supports multi-location operators on every plan. Each location runs as its own data-isolated account (separate orders, customers, inventory and staff), all managed from a single login.

Your primary account is billed at the standard plan rate. Each secondary location receives an automatic 80% discount on its subscription, so you only pay 20% of the plan price per additional location. There's no cap on how many secondary locations you can add.

Question 31

Where is my bakery data stored and is it secure?

Accepted Answer

You choose where your data is stored at signup - AU, US or EU. The EU region is hosted in London and serves both UK and EU customers, so you can keep your business aligned with the Australian Privacy Act, UK GDPR or EU GDPR.

Encryption at rest and in transit: your data is encrypted with AES-256 while stored on our servers and while moving between you and them.

Backups: automated, redundant backups run on a schedule so your data can be restored.

Question 32

Can I export my data if I decide to leave?

Accepted Answer

Absolutely. You retain full ownership of your data and can export your customers, orders and inventory to CSV files at any time.

For more advanced needs:

Manual Exports: Download your data directly from the dashboard for use in Excel or other spreadsheets.

Programmatic Access: On the Business plan, our Public REST API provides full access to your data, making it easy to build custom integrations or migrate to other systems if your needs change.

Question 33

Who builds and supports ibakepro?

Accepted Answer

ibakepro is built and managed by a team with over 10 years of combined experience in software development and the professional baking industry.

Our development and support teams are in-house and based in Australia. When you reach out for help, you're talking directly to the people who build and maintain the platform every day.

Question 34

What if I need help getting started or have questions?

Accepted Answer

Support is included on every plan.

Guides: written step-by-step guides in the dashboard, organised by area.

Direct support: message the team from inside the dashboard. We build ibakepro in-house, so your question goes to the people who wrote it.

Getting started: a setup checklist that walks you through the first run - products, pantry, payments and your website.

Question 35

What's coming next for ibakepro?

Accepted Answer

These are the things we are working on now. We do not publish dates - if something needs longer to get right, it takes longer.

Digital Products & Classes: Sell digital downloads, online baking classes and workshop bookings directly through your storefront.

Expanded AI Insights: forecasting how much of an ingredient to order based on your own past seasons, rather than just reporting what already happened.

Standing Wholesale Orders: let regular wholesale customers set up a repeating order once and have it placed automatically, on top of the agreed pricing and pay-on-invoice already on the Business plan.

Enhanced Customer Portals: Giving your clients more power to manage their own subscriptions, view their order history and download tax invoices.

If there is something you need that is not here, tell us.

Question 36

Can I manage my social media through ibakepro?

Accepted Answer

Social media management is rolling out shortly - we're finalising approvals with Meta and TikTok before we ship it. Once live, you'll be able to connect your Instagram, Facebook and TikTok accounts, schedule posts and reply to DMs from one unified inbox alongside your customer conversations. Google Business Profile is already supported.

Question 37

How does Choux help with my social media?

Accepted Answer

Choux can draft on-brand captions and suggest trending hashtags from a short description of what you've baked - so you can go from "I just finished a hazelnut praline tart" to a ready-to-post caption in seconds. Once scheduled posting is live, Choux will also suggest the best times to publish based on when your followers are most active.

Run your bakerywithout the chaos.

Built end-to-end for bakers.

Built for the way youactually bake.

Expense Tracking

Social Media Hub

AI Design & Insights

Everything your bakery needs -nothing it doesn't.

Choux - your in-house AI

Orders, Customers & Products

Calendar, Tasks & Blocked Dates

Routes, Drivers & Proof of Delivery

Sell Everywhere, Automate the Rest

Drops

Wholesale Ordering

Marketing & Discounts

Loyalty

Recipes & Costing

Suppliers

Pantry & Inventory

Expenses

Analytics

Food Safety & Compliance

Website Builder

Custom Fields

Server Location

Document Storage

Team Members

Proof of Delivery

Developer Access

Blocked Dates

Bake Sheet

Multi-Location

Start where you are, grow from there.

Essentials

Growth

Business

Works wherever you bake

Plays nicely with the toolsyou already use.

What's on the horizon.

Point of Sale

Courier Integrations

Digital Products & Classes

Expanded AI Insights

Standing Wholesale Orders

Enhanced Customer Portals

Frequently askedquestions.

Bake without thepaperwork chaos.

Run your bakery
without the chaos.