Restaurants, cafes and cloud kitchens

The trade

How this trade really works

From the factory to the customer, each person in the chain wants something different. Most of what goes wrong comes from the gaps between them.

The vendors

The vegetable man comes every morning. The dairy brings paneer, curd, cream and butter. Chicken and mutton come from a fixed shop. Oil, rice, flour and spices come from a trader, often on credit. Each vendor wants regular orders and to be paid on time. Some quietly raise prices and hope nobody notices.

The store or central kitchen

In a group with outlets, a central kitchen often makes base gravies, marinades and sweets and sends them out every morning. The store keeper issues paneer, oil and cream to the cooks. Whatever he does not record, nobody can check.

The kitchen at each outlet

The head cook preps in the morning for the day he expects: chopped onions, boiled gravies, marinated chicken, cut paneer. He would rather throw away a little than run short in the rush, because running short is what he gets shouted at for.

The counter and the delivery apps

Dine-in guests pay at the counter. Delivery orders come through apps that take a large cut of every order and push discounts. A cloud kitchen may have no counter at all, only a tablet and a packing table.

The guest

At the table, she orders a paneer dish, a dal, rotis and a cold drink. On the app, she chooses by rating, by delivery time and by the discount on the screen. She does not care how much butter went in. She cares if it tastes the same as last time.

A few ingredients carry most of your cost

In a North Indian kitchen, paneer, butter, cream, ghee, oil, cashew paste and chicken make up a large part of what you spend on food. Onions and tomatoes swing with the season. Control the costly few and you control the kitchen. Lose track of them and no amount of busy tables will save the month.

Wastage hides inside the morning prep

The cook preps for a busy day every day. On a quiet Tuesday, the extra gravy, cut paneer and marinated chicken sit in the cold room. Some is used tomorrow, tasting a little tired. Some is thrown away. None of it is written down as a loss.

Oil and butter leak quietly

Frying oil is used longer than it should be to save money, or changed too often by a careless cook. Butter goes on a dish by the spoonful, not by the plate. A tin of ghee walks out of the store now and then. Each one is small. Across a year and several outlets, they are a large part of your profit.

Delivery orders feel like sales but earn far less

A delivery order goes out with its packing, the app's cut and often a discount you agreed to so you stay near the top of the list. The same dish at a table, with a cold drink and a dessert added, earns far more. Many cloud kitchens are busy all day and still struggle to pay rent.

Every outlet's kitchen is different

The outlet near the offices sells thalis and quick lunches at noon and is empty by evening. The outlet in the residential area sells paneer dishes and biryani on weekend nights. The cloud kitchen sells late at night. When all of them order the same paneer and cream, some are short and some are throwing it away.

Vendors' prices creep up

The paneer supplier raises his rate a little before the festival season and does not bring it down after. The oil trader adds a small amount on every tin. Nobody compares one month's bills to the last, because the kitchen is too busy to look.

The rush and the slow days are known, but not used

Every owner knows that Navratri brings fasting thalis, that cricket match nights bring delivery orders, that rainy evenings bring pakoras and chai, and that exam weeks quieten the college cafe. But the order for paneer and cream is placed the same way every week, regardless.

Where the money quietly goes

What you cannot see today, and what it costs you

You do not put what went in beside what came out

You know how much paneer you bought this month. You know how many paneer dishes were billed. Nobody puts them side by side for each kitchen. So you cannot tell which outlet uses far more paneer than its dishes need.

You cannot compare outlets item by item

You compare outlets by their total sales. You do not see which outlet sells cold drinks and desserts with its meals and which sells only the main dish. You do not see which kitchen buys far more cream for the same dishes.

You do not know which items earn and which lose

Bottled water, cold drinks, packed desserts and ice cream are bought in and sold as they are. Some of them earn well. Some lose money once the supplier's price rises and the menu price does not. You find out at the year end, if at all.

Stock sent from the central kitchen is not recorded

Gravies, marinades and sweets go out from the central kitchen in containers, with a slip or no slip. When an outlet runs short, nobody can say how much was sent. When an outlet throws food away, nobody can say how much came.

Stock lying in the cold room is only seen when it smells

Cheese, cream, frozen items and sauces bought in bulk sit in the back of the cold room. Nobody knows what has been lying for weeks until it is thrown out on cleaning day.

A season, the way it usually goes

The story you already know

It is a Saturday in Pune. A restaurant group has outlets in Kothrud and Baner and a cloud kitchen in Wakad. The owner's day starts with a call from the Baner manager: the paneer ran out late last night, in the middle of the rush. The kitchen sent a boy to buy some from a shop at a high price. The owner tells the store to send more paneer to every outlet from now on.

In Kothrud, the extra paneer arrives on a quiet week. It sits in the cold room. By Wednesday, the cook uses some of it in a dish that comes back from a table because it tastes sour. The rest goes in the bin. The Wakad cloud kitchen, meanwhile, has run through more butter and cream than its orders seem to need. Nobody can say for sure, because nobody has ever put them side by side.

At the month end, the owner looks at the sales. The tables were full. The delivery bags never stopped. The profit is thinner than last month. The paneer supplier's bill has gone up, though the owner did not agree to a new rate. The bottled water and cold drinks have been sold below their new cost for weeks. He decides the cloud kitchen needs more discounts on the apps to bring in more orders.

With Vyavora

What you see, once every shop bills on Vyavora

Each outlet's and each kitchen's stock on its own, and all of them together, with one switch between them.
Paneer, butter, cream, oil and chicken bought for each kitchen, beside the dishes that kitchen sold, side by side, kitchen by kitchen.
Every container sent from the central kitchen to an outlet, recorded as a stock move.
How long each item has been lying in each outlet's store, so the cheese and cream at the back of the cold room are seen before cleaning day.
Profit on each item you buy and sell as it is, such as bottled water, cold drinks and packed desserts, and which of these lose money.
Outlets side by side, item by item: which outlet sells drinks and desserts with its meals and which does not.
Every purchase from each vendor stamped with the outlet it went to, so a rising paneer or oil rate stands out against last month.
The cloud kitchen kept as its own place, so its sales and purchases never mix with the dine-in outlets.

What you can now decide

Decisions you could not make before

Find the kitchen that uses too much

When paneer, cream and butter bought for each kitchen sit beside the dishes it sold, the kitchen that uses far more than its dishes need stands out. You do not need to accuse anyone. You need to watch that kitchen's store, its portion sizes and its morning prep for a few weeks.

Send each outlet what its kitchen really uses

When you see what each outlet sells, the office-area outlet gets less paneer and cream on weekends and the residential outlet gets more. Less is thrown away in one place and less is bought in a hurry in the other.

Move stock between outlets, not to the bin

When cream or cheese is lying in one outlet's cold room while another is running short, send it across the same day and record the move. Move it, do not buy it. Same goods, no new cost.

Question the vendor's rate

When this month's paneer and oil rates sit beside last month's, the slow rise is plain. You call the vendor with his own bills in hand, or you ask another vendor for a rate. On your costliest items, a small correction is real money every month.

Fix the items that lose money

When bottled water or a packed dessert is selling below what it now costs you, change its menu price or stop stocking it. These are easy fixes once you can see them.

See whether the cloud kitchen pays its way

With the cloud kitchen kept as its own place, its sales and purchases are separate from the dine-in outlets. You can see whether it earns enough to justify its rent and its discounts, before you spend more on bringing it orders.

Clear the cold room before it spoils

When you see that cheese, sauces or frozen items have been lying for weeks, use them in a daily special or a staff meal while they are still good. Then buy less of them next time.

Where you get ahead

Where your competitor keeps losing

Your food tastes the same everywhere

When each kitchen gets the right amount of fresh paneer and cream, nothing is left over from a quiet week. The dish tastes as good on Wednesday as on Saturday. Guests notice that, and so do the ratings on the delivery apps.

You keep money that others throw away

Most restaurants in your area treat wastage and creeping vendor rates as part of the trade. When you see them, kitchen by kitchen, you keep that money. In a business where the margin is thin, that is often the difference between opening the next outlet and closing one.

Your counter keeps billing when the line goes down

On a Saturday night, the internet can fail. Billing on Vyavora carries on without it and catches up when the connection returns. Tables are cleared and bills are paid while the place next door is writing slips by hand.

The same season, with Vyavora

The story, told again

A few months later, it is a Saturday again in Pune. The owner opens one screen before the weekend. He switches between Kothrud, Baner and Wakad. Baner's paneer is low and its weekend nights have been busy. Kothrud still has a good amount left from the week. A boy takes it across in the afternoon, and the move is recorded at both places. That night, Baner does not run out.

On Monday, the owner puts the cloud kitchen's butter and cream purchases beside its dishes sold, side by side with the other kitchens. Wakad stands out. He does not shout at anyone. He watches its store and its portions for a few weeks. The butter used per dish comes back in line with the other kitchens, and the dishes still taste right.

At the month end, he sees the paneer vendor's rate has risen against last month's bills. He calls the vendor with the bills in hand, and the rate comes back down. The bottled water and cold drinks now show their profit, and the ones that were losing money have new menu prices. The tables were just as full as before. This time, the month's profit looks like it.

Why the others agree to it

Everyone in the chain is better off

For the outlet manager

He sees his own outlet's stock, sales and store, and his staff see only his outlet. When stock comes from the central kitchen or goes to another outlet, the move is recorded, so he is not blamed for a shortage he did not cause.

For the head cook

He can see what his kitchen really sold through the week, and prep for that instead of preparing for a rush every morning. When something runs short, the figures show it was a truly busy night, not his mistake.

For the owner's accountant

Every sale and purchase is stamped with its outlet or kitchen. GST is kept outlet by outlet and added up for filing. Vendor bills are recorded as they come. Old records are read from the files you already keep, not typed in again.

What this does not do

Vyavora does not work out how much paneer, butter or oil goes into each dish. You can put what each kitchen bought beside what it sold, side by side, kitchen by kitchen, and judge for yourself. It does not connect to the delivery apps or read their orders on its own; orders billed at your own counter are in your sales like any other bill. It does not track the date on each packet in your cold room; it shows how long each item has been lying. It does not tell you how busy next weekend will be. It shows you what went into each kitchen, what came out, and where the money leaks, and the decision is yours.

Straight answers

Questions people in this trade ask

Will it tell me the cost of each dish on my menu?

No. It does not work out what goes into each dish. It puts each kitchen's purchases of paneer, butter, cream and oil beside the dishes that kitchen sold, so you can see where use is out of line.

Can I keep my cloud kitchen separate from my dine-in outlets?

Yes. Each outlet and each kitchen is kept as its own place, with its own stock and sales. You can see each one alone or all together.

Does it take orders from the delivery apps?

No. It does not connect to the delivery apps. Orders you bill at your own counter are in your sales like any other bill.

Can my staff at one outlet see the others?

No. Staff are tied to one outlet and see only that outlet.

Can we pick the portion size at the counter?

Yes. Item details such as a small or large portion can be picked at the billing counter.

What if the internet fails on a busy night?

Billing carries on without internet and catches up when the connection returns.

Your full tables are not your profit. Your cold room is.