Little Fig Cafe

Menu, recipes and food costs, till orders, rota, deliveries, waste and the nightly cash-up for a small cafe.

Download 433 KB16 tables, 20 queries, 10 reports, 3 print templates and 29,980 invented records, dated back from 2026-10-22.

The everyday tasks of Little Fig Cafe, a step at a time. Each step names the table, form, query, report or print template to open. Inside the database, the Start Here report holds the same steps. Every table has a form of the same name under Forms.

1. Ring up a bill and print the receipt

Open the Orders form and press New. Type the next receipt number in Number, one on from the last (RCP-2026-00042 after RCP-2026-00041), and the date and time in When.
Set Service to Dine in or Takeaway. For a table, type the Table No and the Covers; for a takeaway leave Table No empty and Covers at nought. Choose who took it in Staff and how it was paid in Payment.
In the Order Lines below, choose each dish in Menu Item, type the Quantity and its menu price in Unit Price. Set Tax Rate to 0.2 eaten in, or the dish's Takeaway VAT Rate (on the Menu Items form) when it is taken away.
Type the bill's Total, the VAT within it in Tax and the rest in Net. A form does not add the lines up by itself, so check the Total against the lines.
Open the print template Receipt from Print templates, choose the bill, and press Print. The receipt prints the stored Total, Net and VAT under the lines.

2. Order from the suppliers in the morning

Run the query Ingredients to order, or print the report Order list for suppliers: what is at or below its reorder level with nothing on order, a section for each supplier with its delivery days and the usual amount.
For each supplier on the list, open the Purchases form and press New. Type the next number in Number (PO-2026-0042), choose the Supplier, type today in Ordered On and the next delivery day in Due On.
In the Purchase Lines below, choose each Ingredient and type the Quantity in its unit and the Unit Cost from the last bill.
Open the Ingredients form and type the same amount in On Order for each ingredient ordered, so it leaves the order list.
Open the print template Purchase order from Print templates, choose today's purchases, and print them or press Save as PDF and e-mail each to the address on its Suppliers record.

3. Book in a delivery and pay the bill

When the delivery comes, open the Purchases form, find it by its Number (the query Deliveries due lists the ones expected), and type today in Received On and the supplier's bill number in Invoice Number.
Check the goods against the printed purchase order and sign it. Open the Ingredients form and add what came to In Stock for each line, and set its On Order back to nought.
Each week, run the query Bills to pay or print the report Bills to pay: the bills not yet paid, with the days left to pay; below nought is overdue.
When you pay one, type the day in Paid On on the Purchases form, and it leaves the list.

4. Plan the rota and pay the week

Open the Shifts form and press New for each shift in the coming weeks: choose the Staff, type Start and End, the Break Minutes, the Paid Hours (end less start less the break) and the Station, and leave Status at Rota. Print the report Rota to pin up.
After each day, change each shift's Status to Worked, Holiday or Sick, and its End if someone stayed on. A sick day has Paid Hours of nought.
When the week is over (Monday to Sunday), run the query Hours and wages by staff, last 28 days to see the hours. Open the Payslips form and press New for each person: the next Number (PAY-2026-0042), the Staff, the Week Beginning and Week Ending, the Pay Date, their Hourly Rate, and the week's Hours and Gross Pay.
Open the Shifts form as a datasheet and set Payslip to the new payslip on each of that person's shifts in the week: they are the payslip's lines.
Open the print template Payslip from Print templates, choose the week's payslips, and print them. Give them out with the payroll's statement of net pay, which has the tax and deductions.

5. Cash up at close

Take the till's end of day reading. Open the Cash Ups form and press New: the Date, who closed in Closed By, the Weather, the Orders and Covers, Card Takings, Cash Takings and the VAT from the reading.
Count the cash in the drawer less the float and type it in Cash Counted. Type the day's Wage Cost from the rota, and anything worth remembering in Notes.
Run the query Cash over or short now and then: the days the cash counted did not match the reading.
On Monday, print the report Weekly takings and wages to see last week's takings against the wages.

6. Cost the menu when a price goes up

When a supplier's bill shows a new price, open the Ingredients form and change Cost per Unit. Every dish that uses it costs more at once.
Print the report Menu costing sheet: each dish's price, food cost and margin by section. Most cafes aim to keep the food cost under about 30% of the price.
To change a price, open the Menu Items form and change Price. Old bills keep the price they were sold at, so past takings do not change.
For a new dish, press New on the Menu Items form, then add its Recipe Lines from Line 1, one ingredient each. Print the report Recipe cards for the kitchen.

7. Close the month

Print the report Monthly takings: each month's takings, the VAT within them, the takings less VAT and the wages. Add the VAT of the three months of your VAT quarter for the return.
Count the stock in each store, put the counts in In Stock on the Ingredients form, and run the query Stock value by storage for the accounts.
Print the report Waste report for the kitchen meeting, and run Waste by ingredient, last 90 days to see what to order less of.
Run Spend by supplier by month to see what each supplier was paid.

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