Data Files samples / Takeaway

Saffron Lane Pizza and Curry

Phone, walk-in and online orders, delivery zones and drivers, the menu with sizes, extras and meal deals, and the night's takings for a takeaway.

Download 481 KB14 tables, 15 queries, 11 reports, 4 print templates and 24,720 invented records, dated back from 2026-10-22.

Rutba Data Files with Saffron Lane Pizza and Curry, the takeaway sample, open at its print template Customer receipt: a page laid out with the business's own name and address at the head and one of its records filled in, beside the list of the database's tables and how many records each holds — Saffron Lane Pizza and Curry in Rutba Data Files, made with its invented records and open at its print template Customer receipt.

Overview

For the owner of a takeaway who wants to see tonight's orders as they come in, how long deliveries take in each zone, which channel brings the money, what sells, what each driver is owed, which regulars have gone quiet, and how much of each ingredient the kitchen gets through.

Saffron Lane Pizza and Curry is an invented takeaway in south London. It cooks pizzas in three sizes, burgers and curries, with rice, breads, sides, desserts and drinks, and four meal deals. Customers order by phone, at the counter or on its own website, and either collect or have it delivered by one of its five drivers, who use their own cars and are paid a fee for each drop. Three delivery zones each have a delivery charge, a minimum order, a target time and the driver's fee for a drop there. It opens every evening from five until eleven, and from twelve until half past two on Saturday and Sunday.

The records cover the last fourteen months: a night sheet for every night with the takings by channel, the VAT, the kitchen's wages and the drivers' pay. The orders themselves are kept line by line for the last twelve weeks, about four thousand of them, with a pay sheet for each driver for each finished week in that time. Friday and Saturday nights are about twice as busy as the rest; wet and cold nights and the winter months are busier, the summer quieter. Some customers have stopped ordering, and a few orders are booked ahead for tonight and the next two nights.

Prices include VAT, as a takeaway's prices to the public do. Hot food, drinks, ice cream and the delivery charge carry the standard rate of 20%; the cold desserts and the coleslaw, sold cold, carry none. The real rules have more cases than that, so set each dish's VAT Rate to what applies to you. The documents are a customer receipt, a kitchen ticket and a delivery slip for every order, numbered ORD-2026-00042, and a weekly pay sheet for each driver, numbered DRV-2026-0042.

In Rutba Data Files, choose Takeaway on the start screen, then With sample records to look around, or Empty for the same design with nothing in it.

It suits, with small changes

A pizza shop or kebab house
A fish and chip shop that delivers
A Chinese or Indian takeaway
A burger or chicken shop
A cafe or restaurant with its own delivery
A bakery or caterer taking orders for collection

Read on

Tutorial: the everyday tasks: 8 everyday tasks, step by step, each naming what to open.
Tables, fields and relationships: every field of 14 tables, and how they are related.
Queries, forms, reports and print templates: what each one shows, its criteria and calculated columns, and when to print it.

Things you should know

Everything in a sample's records is invented: the business, the people, their addresses, e-mail addresses on example domains that reach nobody, and phone numbers from the ranges kept for drama and fiction. Tax, company and bank numbers are placeholders of zeros.
The dates count back from the day the file was made, and some run on into the weeks after it, as real bookings and due dates do. Made from the Data Files start screen, a sample is dated from that day. Queries that compare with today (overdue, due this week) show more as a downloaded file gets older.
To start empty, choose the same business on the start screen and then Empty: the same tables, queries, forms, reports and print templates, with nothing in them but the Start Here guide.
Your records live in one file on your computer. Keep copies: File, Save As makes one, and a copy on another drive or in your own cloud storage keeps it safe if this computer is lost. Close the database before copying the file by hand.
Every change to the design (a new field, a renamed table) is a numbered step that Data Files keeps, so you can see what was changed and when.
The orders are kept line by line for the last twelve weeks; the night sheets go back fourteen months and are where the monthly figures come from. The driver pay sheets cover the finished weeks of those twenty.
Goods, Total, Tax and Net on an order, and Drops and Drop Pay on a pay sheet, are stored figures typed when the record is made, not added up by the form. The sample's own are exactly the sums of their lines.
A meal deal is a line at the deal's price followed by each thing chosen at nought, so best sellers count the pizzas and curries in deals as sold, and the money stays with the deal.
Recipes are written for one item, and for the smallest pizza; the Portion on each order line scales them for the size. Extras have recipes of their own. Ingredient use is worked out from these, not counted, so check it against a stock count now and then.
Every order prints from each of the three order templates. A collection has a delivery slip with no address, and a cancelled order still has a receipt, so choose the orders you mean before pressing Print.
Time is kept to the minute in Placed, Due, Ready, Out and Handed Over, and the delivery times are worked out from them. Leave Handed Over empty until the customer has the food.
The VAT is kept simple: 20% on hot food, drinks, ice cream and delivery, nought on the cold desserts and coleslaw. Have yours checked by an accountant for your own country.
A few orders are booked ahead for tonight and the next two nights, so Tonight's orders and Orders still to go out have something on them whenever the sample is made. Orders taken today before the time it was made are there too, with their status at that time.

Starting with your own records

Start with Business: your name, address, phone, VAT number and the words at the foot of a receipt. Then Delivery Zones, with each zone's districts, charges and the drivers' fee; Sizes; Menu Categories; Menu Items; Ingredients; and the Recipe Lines for each item, numbered from 1. Then Staff, the drivers among them. Customers are added as they first order. From then on, each order is an Orders record with its Order Lines, each night a Nights sheet, and each week a Driver Pay sheet for each driver with their drops pointing at it.

Making it yours

Every change to the design is a numbered step in Data Files, so a change can be seen and undone.

Charge by distance rather than zone: add a Miles field to Customers and a calculated delivery charge in a query, such as 1.50 plus 0.50 a mile.
Take orders through a delivery app as well: add App as a Channel, and an App Fee field on Orders for the commission, so Takings by channel shows what each channel leaves you.
Run a loyalty card: add a Stamps field to Customers and a query counting each customer's orders since their last free one.
Pay drivers by the hour as well as per drop: give them an Hourly Rate and add Hours and Hourly Pay to Driver Pay, with a gross pay that adds both.
Keep allergens: add yes/no fields to Ingredients (gluten, milk, egg, nuts, sesame and the rest) and a query listing the menu items using any marked Yes, for the counter and the website.
Add a Table No and Covers to Orders and Eat in as a Method if you have a few tables.
Track stock: add In Stock and Reorder Level to Ingredients and a Deliveries table, and compare the ingredient use with what came in.

Questions people ask

How do I reprint a customer's receipt?: Find the order on the Orders form by its Number or the customer, then open the print template Customer receipt, choose that order and press Print.
Why is a pizza at nought on the receipt?: It is part of a meal deal. The deal is the line above it at the deal's price, and each thing chosen for it follows at nought, with the deal's name in its notes, so the kitchen sees what to make.
Where does the delivery time come from?: From Placed and Handed Over on each order: the minutes between the order going in and the food reaching the door. Delivery times by zone, last 28 days averages them and counts those over the zone's Target Minutes.
How are the drivers paid?: Per drop, at the Drop Fee of the zone each delivery went to, which covers their own fuel and car. Each week's drops are added up on a Driver Pay sheet; tax and National Insurance are worked out by the payroll.
A customer wants their usual delivered somewhere else tonight. What do I change?: Type the other Address, Postcode and Delivery Notes on that order only, and choose the Zone that address is in. Their Customers record stays as it is.
Why is someone missing from the come-back list?: The list shows only customers who have ticked Offers, have not ordered for more than 60 days and have an order within the twelve weeks kept here. Someone who said no to offers is never on it.
How do I change the delivery charge for one zone?: Open the Delivery Zones form and change Charge, Free Over or Minimum Order. Orders already taken keep the charge they were given.
Can I start with my own menu and keep the design?: Yes. Make the sample empty and follow the order under starting empty: your Business details, the zones, the menu with its sizes and recipes, then your staff.

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