What is the best software for a home bakery in the UK?
A UK home bakery needs software that keeps the allergen record behind every bake (full PPDS labels for anything you box before it is ordered), takes payment in pounds, and shows your turnover against the £90,000 VAT threshold. ibakepro is bakery management software for UK bakers from a home kitchen to a shop with staff, from £13 a month, with UK accounts held in a London data region.
The useful way to choose is by what you need at each stage of a UK home bakery, because the rules arrive in order.
Before your first sale
Register with your council at least 28 days before you trade. That applies to home kitchens and online sellers as much as to shops, and your council may then inspect your kitchen. The home baking laws table has the details for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Build your allergen record from the ingredients up. The inspector will ask how you know what is in each product. In ibakepro each ingredient carries its allergens, marked as contains, processed in or may contain, and they flow through every recipe into each product, so the answer comes from one record. See allergen management.
Cost your menu. Price each loaf, traybake or cake from what you paid at the cash and carry, including the box. Recipe costing does it in grams and kilos and recosts when a price moves.
Your first months of orders
Know which allergen rule applies to each sale. The FSA splits your sales in two:
| How you sell it | Rule | What you must give |
|---|---|---|
| Made after the customer orders (a birthday cake, a box of brownies for Saturday) | Non-prepacked | Allergen information, which can be given in writing or verbally |
| Boxed or bagged before anyone orders it and sold by you (cookies bagged for a market stall, a traybake slice in a sealed box) | Prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) | A label with the name of the food and a full ingredients list, with the 14 allergens emphasised |
Most home bakers sell both ways, often at the same market. Your ingredient record is what makes the PPDS ingredients list correct, and ibakepro shows the same allergens on the order and on your shop as customers pick a flavour.
Take the money up front. Custom work is held with a booking fee paid by card through your own Stripe account, and the balance is chased on a schedule until it is paid. Regular bakes sell as pre-orders on your own shop for a date you can do, paid at checkout. See payment schedules and deposits.
When you grow
Watch the VAT line. You must register once taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in any rolling 12 months, or is expected to in the next 30 days. Most cakes and plain bread are zero-rated, so registering may change less than you fear; the detail is in do I charge VAT on cakes in the UK. When you register, VAT is one of the tax types you can set, with a rate per product category.
Add a second pair of hands. Growth gives you two users and food safety records (fridge temperatures, cleaning, incidents) that print for any period when the environmental health officer visits.
Which plan fits
| Plan | GBP per month | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| Essentials | £13 | One person, up to 100 orders in the life of the account |
| Growth | £17 | Two users, unlimited orders, an online shop and Compliance for food safety records |
| Business | £47 | Unlimited users, wholesale to cafes and delivery routing |
Start on Essentials while orders arrive by message, and move to Growth when you want an online shop or pass 100 orders. Every plan is billed in pounds and UK accounts stay in London. The UK setup is on bakery software for UK bakers, and for custom cake work specifically, see the best software for a cake decorator in the UK.