Sift & More

Production plan — auto-drafted at 1 AM · review & approve

Step 1 — Item stock settings. Open Menu & Prices. For every item, fill the Stock settings and tap Save: Shelf life (days) = how many days after production it expires; Target level = how many pieces we want in stock at the store — production tops up to this; Reorder level = when stock falls to this, production is triggered. Leave Reorder blank to use half the target automatically. Items without a target will not appear in production plans. Pcs / batch — how many pieces come in one standard batch — is not set here: the production team maintains batch sizes in the Kitchen tool (Production tab → Batch sizes).

Base items, Derived items and Made to order. Most items are Base items — made in the kitchen and produced through Production. A Derived item is made from a base item instead of being produced (e.g. Nutella Brownie is derived from Classic Brownie; Kunafa Brownie is a base item, made directly). To set one up, change its Type to Derived item and choose what it is Derived from. Derived items don't need shelf-life, batch, target or reorder settings — their stock comes from converting base stock (Part 2, Step 3). Made to order items — the drinks — are prepared when ordered: they keep no stock at all, never appear in production plans or the kitchen's log, and can always be billed. An item's type can only be changed while it holds no stock.

Step 2 — Online prices. On the same screen, check the Online ₹ column. These prices were pre-filled from your live Swiggy and Zomato listings — one price per item, used by both platforms. A blank Online price means the item is not sold online. If a platform price changes, update it here.

Step 3 — Starting stock. Count what is physically in the store right now. Open the Admin tab → Starting stock (one-time setup). Enter it batch by batch: the same item made on different days is a separate batch, each with its real expiry date. Take your time and get the expiry dates right. After this one-time setup, daily stock arrives only through Production — never add fresh stock here.

Step 4 — Team logins. In the Admin tab, create one staff login for the counter and one for the production lead. Managers keep the admin login. One login can be used on many phones at the same time. If someone leaves the team, delete their login in the same place (Users → Delete) — they are signed out immediately; their past orders and stock entries keep their name. You cannot delete your own account, and the app will not delete the last admin account.

Step 5 — Practise, then go live. Practise freely first: place test orders, log test production (in the Kitchen tool), confirm a test delivery, damage a test batch, generate a test plan. When the whole team has tried everything, open the Admin tab → Clear all test data. That wipes all orders, stock, production logs and plans (a backup is saved on the server first) and keeps the menu, prices, stock settings, users, events and spots. Then enter the real starting stock (Step 3) and you are live.

Step 6 — Install the app on every phone (one time). On each phone: Android (Chrome) — open orders.siftandmore.in, tap the ⋮ menu → Install app → Install (if the menu says Add to Home screen instead, tap that, then Add); iPhone (Safari) — open the site, tap the Share button → Add to Home Screen → Add. The app then sits on the home screen as Sift Orders (the rose tile with the cream &) and opens full-screen, like a normal app — no browser bars, no hunting for the page. Everyone signs in with their own login.

Tip: the top of the Stock tab has shortcuts — Confirm a delivery · Send stock out · Convert base stock · Record damage · Bring unsold stock back — tap one to jump straight to that section.

1. Morning — production (in the Kitchen tool). The production lead works in the Kitchen tool (kitchen.siftandmore.in — same login). First she reads yesterday's store feedback there and acknowledges it — yesterday's feedback must be acknowledged before today's production can be logged. The day's plan — auto-drafted at 1:00 AM and approved by an admin here — is her work order: exactly what to make, in batches (e.g. “2 batches × 9 = 18”). She accepts the plan in the Kitchen tool, which locks it against further changes here. After producing, she submits the production log there with what was actually made — and if what was made differs from the plan, the log cannot be sent until she writes a short note for each differing item saying why; those notes appear on the delivery card below, so you see the reason while receiving. Each batch is its own box, pre-filled with the standard batch size; a smaller batch is fine — partial batches are not damage, and production damage is recorded only when the lead enters a count in the row's damaged box. The delivery then appears in THIS tool (Stock tab) for confirmation. In this tool's Production tab you can see today's approved plan and the day's deliveries, but production itself is only logged in the Kitchen tool. When a delivery arrives, confirm only the lines that physically arrived (tick Receive now on those); the rest stay open on the same delivery — cheesecake made today and sent tomorrow is received against the same log, keeping its production day and expiry.

2. The store confirms the delivery. When the items reach the store, open the Stock tab. The delivery waits under Deliveries awaiting store confirmation. Count what physically arrived, batch by batch:
· The Received boxes start at the amount to receive for each item — what production made minus any damage the kitchen already reported (shown above the batches, e.g. “produced 18 · damaged in kitchen 3 · to receive 15”). Leave each Received at the count that actually arrived in sellable condition.
· If some pieces arrived but are damaged, enter them under Damaged in transit on that batch (reduce Received by the same number). Whatever is still short after that is counted as missing — the screen shows it live as you type. Damaged-in-transit and missing go back to the production team as feedback, each under its own name.
· If production logged the wrong item, fix it with the Item dropdown on that batch — the stock is booked under the correct item, and the correction stays recorded on the delivery.
· If the expiry date was logged wrong, correct it in the Expiry box.
· A note is compulsory only when more arrived than the amount to receive, or when you correct the item or expiry. An ordinary shortfall needs no note — the damaged and missing counts explain it, and they are saved with the delivery and shown in the damage report.
Then tap Confirm delivery. Only after this step can the items be sold. Your confirmation — received quantities, damage, corrections and notes — automatically becomes feedback in the Kitchen tool, where the production team reads it and must acknowledge it before they can log the next day's production; each delivery in the Production tab shows whether it has been acknowledged yet. You can also tap Share summary on WhatsApp and send the ready-made summary to the production group — it lists what was received, the damage and any corrections, with the notes. On the phone, tapping it opens the sharing screen — choose WhatsApp, then the production group, and send. If the sharing screen does not appear, the summary is copied instead — just paste it into the group chat. (The same button stays on the delivery in the Production tab, so it can be re-sent later.)

3. Convert base stock into Derived items (as needed). Derived items are not produced — they are made from a base item. The team usually converts some in the morning, and more whenever needed: Stock tab → Convert base stock — pick the location, the Derived item and the quantity. The app takes base pieces (earliest-expiry first) and turns them into a batch of the Derived item with the same expiry date. Converted items have their own counts and can be sold, sent out and damaged like any other item. And if a customer orders a Derived item when none is ready, the app converts from the base automatically as the order is completed — the tile shows ready pieces plus how many can still be made.

4. Selling — New Order tab.
· First pick where you are selling: Store, an Event, or Sift on Wheels (and its parking spot).
· Tap items to add them to the bill. Use + / − on a bill line to change quantity. A brownie with an ice-cream scoop adds ₹40 — tick the scoop on the bill line.
· Converting on the bill: if a customer changes their mind — say Classic Brownie is on the bill and they want Nutella instead — use the “Make it a…” dropdown on the Classic Brownie bill line and pick the Derived item. The line converts at the Derived item's price, same quantity, and the stock still comes out of the base item when the order completes. You can also simply tap the Derived item's tile directly — both do the same thing.
· Each item tile shows its stock at this location in the top-right corner — the number is how many can be sold here, and you cannot bill more than that. A Derived item shows its ready pieces plus a smaller +number for how many more can still be made from its base item here; billing it uses ready stock first and converts the rest automatically. A red pill in the corner shows how many units of that item expire today or tomorrow — sell those first. At the Store, stock arrives when a production delivery is confirmed. At an event or on Sift on Wheels, it is the stock you sent out before leaving (Part 3). OUT OF STOCK means none is left here. SOLD OUT (press and hold an item) means we have the item but it must not be sold, e.g. a display piece — press and hold again to make it available. Sold out applies only at this location, and clears by itself the next morning.
· Choose the order type — it is required. At the store there are more types (Dine In, Take Away, Swiggy, Zomato, Toing, Donation, Family, Staff, Whatsapp); at events and on Sift on Wheels only Dine In and Take Away.
· Take payment: Cash and S&M UPI are the two big buttons; Aapatite UPI, Card, Swiggy and Zomato are under Other payment options.
· Discount only when approved: percentage (− / + around 10%) or a flat ₹ amount.
· If the customer wants the bill, enter their mobile number on the bill, then after completing the order use WhatsApp to send the receipt, or Print (choose 58mm or 80mm paper). Tap Complete order. The order number shows where it was sold: STO-001 (store), VAL-003 (event), SW·SA-002 (Sift on Wheels). The receipt pops up on its own the moment the order completes — tap 🖨 Print to print it (the pop-up closes by itself once printing is done), WhatsApp to send it to the customer, or Close to move on to the next customer. There is no need to refresh the page.

Printing receipts. The shop printer is the TVS RP 3230 connected to the laptop, loaded with an 80mm roll and set as the laptop's default printer. To print any bill, open its receipt — it pops up by itself right after the order completes, and you can reopen it any time with the Receipt button on the order in Sales — make sure the paper selector says 80mm, and tap 🖨 Print. The printed size follows the paper you select (80mm or 58mm) automatically. If a print comes out the wrong size, check the paper selector first, and that the RP 3230 is the printer picked in the print window.

5. Online orders — Swiggy, Zomato & Toing. When a Swiggy, Zomato or Toing order comes in, enter it in this app as well, so the sale and the stock are both recorded. In New Order, set the order type to Swiggy, Zomato or Toing FIRST: the prices on the items switch to the online prices automatically, and the payment is set to match. Items you don't sell online are marked NOT SOLD ONLINE and can't be added — if one appears on a platform order, tell the manager. The items come off the store stock exactly like a counter sale (a Derived item draws its own ready stock first, then converts from its base, as usual). Toing bills through Swiggy — same online prices, and the money is recorded as Swiggy (that is how it settles) — but still tap Toing as the order type, so Toing orders are counted separately in the day's figures. Bill online orders exactly as the platform sent them — the “Make it a…” conversion is not offered on Swiggy/Zomato bills. Enter every online order the same day, even if the shop is busy — a missed entry means wrong stock tomorrow. (Managers set the online prices in Menu & Prices — Part 1, Step 2.)

6. Damage and donations — record them as they happen. Whenever anything is donated, thrown away or damaged — dropped tray, spoiled piece, broken in transit that was found later — record it the same day: open Stock, find the item and the correct batch, enter the quantity, choose Damaged, Donated or Missing, and tap Damage. Watch the two alerts at the top of the Stock tab: the red alert lists anything expired or expiring today, and the amber Low stock alert lists everything at or below its reorder level. Every movement — production, sends, sales, returns, damage and count corrections — is listed under Stock activity today at the bottom of the Stock tab. Dates are a quality guide, not a wall: a piece past its printed date stays sellable until the team has checked it — sell what is still good (the till always sells the oldest-dated stock first) and damage out only what fails the check. Stock counts and the production plan work the same way: a piece leaves the shelf only when it is sold or damaged out.

7. Check the day — Sales tab. See the whole day at a glance: total sales, orders, the payment split and sales by order type. The small grey figures beside the totals are the month to date for the same selection — tap a location under Sales by location and the monthly figures follow it. Tap Sales by location to see the store, each event and each parking spot separately — totals, items and orders all follow your selection. Every order card has a Receipt button (reprint or WhatsApp again) and a Void button. Void only wrong orders: voiding puts the items back into stock at the same place the order was sold — the store, the event, or the vehicle. Voiding always asks why: type the reason (wrong item billed, customer left, duplicate entry…). Your name and the reason are saved on the order and shown on its card, so the day's totals can always be explained. The location badge on each card is colour-coded — brown = Store, teal = an Event, orange = Sift on Wheels — so the three sales points are easy to tell apart at a glance. Past days can be viewed with the date picker at the top. To find a particular order in a long day, use the filters above the Orders list — by order type, payment, status (completed or void), or who took the order — sort by amount, or search by order number, item or the person who took it. The line above the list shows how many orders match and their total; the day's totals at the top always cover the whole view, filtered or not. Clear filters shows everything again.

8. End of day — close out. The plan drafts itself.
· First clear the red expiry alert in the Stock tab: an item expiring today can still be sold today, but whatever is left of today's-expiry batches at closing must be damaged out (Damaged or Donated).
· Then tap 🌙 End of Day at the top of the Sales tab (any login can do this). Step 1: count the stock on the shelf and correct any number that differs — a note is required when a count differs — then Save count & mark checked. Step 2: tick every item on the shop closure checklist (an admin manages the list under Admin → Shop closure checklist). Step 3: tap Close the day — the day report is generated (sales, closing inventory, damage, and tomorrow's production suggestions) and ready to share: Share PDF report — on a phone it opens the share screen with the PDF ready to send to the WhatsApp group; on the laptop it downloads the PDF and opens WhatsApp, where you attach the downloaded file with the 📎 button. WhatsApp summary sends a short text version. Once closed, store billing pauses. Sold one more item after closing? Tap Reopen day (shown on Today's Sales and on the New Order screen) — billing starts again, and the inventory check must be done again before the next close. Past days' reports are on the Sales tab — pick the day and tap Day report.
· The store day runs until 2 AM — sales and closing work before 2 AM still belong to the day that is ending, so the team can finish past midnight. If a close is still missed, an admin can pick that day on the Sales tab and close it from there — the 🌙 End of Day button shows for admins on any unclosed day.
· At 1:00 AM the system drafts the day's production plan automatically from the closing stock. In the morning, an admin opens Production tab → Production plan, checks the draft, ticks the items to include (unticked items are left out), adjusts any line if they know better (a festival day, a big order), then taps Approve selected (or Approve all). Only then does the plan appear in the Kitchen tool. The kitchen taps Accept there when they've seen it — until they accept, an admin can Re-open & edit the plan here (each save bumps the revision the kitchen sees); after acceptance the plan is locked. (Anyone can also generate or refresh a draft by hand here for any date.)
· An item appears in the plan only when the stock on the shelf falls to or below its reorder level — items still comfortably stocked are listed under "Not in this plan" and skipped, so the team is not asked for tiny batches every day. For items in the plan, the app works out: Target − (stock on the shelf + stock still with the kitchen), rounded up to full batches. Pieces the kitchen has made but the store has not received yet count — they are the Kitchen figure shown beside the store stock — so the plan never asks for what is already made, even if it reaches the store a day late. Stock means everything sellable: a passed date does not remove a piece from the count — only a sale or a damage entry does. Need extra production the logic did not pick — for an event or a special order? An admin can add any producible item with the ➕ Add an item box under the plan: set the quantity, add a short reason, and it joins the plan marked Added manually; added items survive draft regeneration and can be removed from the same screen. The plan lives in the shared system, so both tools always show the same plan.

Events and the vehicle do not make their own stock — the store allots stock to them. What is sent out is deducted from the store; what comes back unsold returns to the store. Sales at the location can never exceed what was sent.

Setting up (Manager). Events and parking spots are created in the Admin tab (they can also be added from the location picker while billing). An event needs a name, date, time and place; a parking spot just needs a name. Give each a short code if you can — the code becomes the order-number prefix (VAL-003 for an event, SW·SA-002 for the vehicle).

Before leaving — Send stock out. Open the Stock tab → Send stock out. Pick the destination (the event, or Sift on Wheels), enter how many of each item you are taking, and tap Send stock out. This moves stock to the destination — it does not create new stock. The app takes the store's earliest-expiry batches first and reduces the store stock by what you take; if the shelf does not have enough, it can also take pieces straight from the kitchen (made but not yet received) — the load itself receives those into the destination, and they show on the production delivery as loaded out. Send enough: once you have left, you can only sell what you took. Ready Derived items can be sent just like base items — and if you sent the base item, you can convert more on location (Stock → Convert base stock, choose that location).

Selling there. On the New Order tab, pick the event or Sift on Wheels (and its parking spot). The items now show that location's own counts, and every sale reduces that stock — you cannot sell more than was sent. Billing, payments and receipts work exactly as at the store; the only difference is the order types: Dine In and Take Away only. Press-and-hold sold out works per location, as at the store.

Damage while you are out works the same as at the store: use the Damage control on the item's batch in that location's list in the Stock tab.

When you return — Bring unsold stock back. Open the Stock tab → Stock at events & Sift on Wheels. For each item, the Return quantity is pre-filled with what should be left. Count what actually came back and correct the number if needed. Anything missing or spoiled gets damaged out first, on its own batch row above (Damaged, Donated or Missing) — then set Return to what is actually coming back and tap Bring back to store. The returned stock goes back into the store with its original expiry dates, ready to sell at the store. Returning only part of the stock is fine: whatever is still out stays listed until it is brought back or damaged out.

Ending an event — and End Day on Sift on Wheels. When selling is done, the person at the event taps End event on the New Order screen (next to the event picker), checks the summary, and confirms. The event closes — no more orders — and a report is ready: Share PDF report sends the PDF (sales, items, payments) to the WhatsApp group through the phone's share screen, or use WhatsApp summary for a text version. The leftover stock is parked automatically: it does not go back into store stock until the store team counts what physically arrived and confirms it under Stock → Returns awaiting store approval — anything short is written off with a reason and a note, exactly like a production delivery. Sift on Wheels works the same way with End day (per parking spot, per day). Ended something by mistake? An admin can cancel the pending return on that same Stock card to re-open it — the stock never moved, so nothing else changes. A PDF report for any event is also in Admin → Events.

See how each location did: Sales → Sales by location shows each event and each parking spot separately — sales, items and orders.

Stock count: once a week (and whenever numbers look wrong), open Stock → Stock count & correction. Pick the location, count the physical pieces, type the real counts, and apply. Shortfalls come off the earliest-expiry batches first; extras go onto the freshest batch. Every correction is recorded in Stock activity with your name — never adjust stock any other way.

Damage & loss report (bottom of the Stock tab): pick a date range to see, per item, how much was lost in production, in transit, donated, thrown, damaged or missing — and what share of everything that left the shelf was lost.

Plan vs actual (Production tab): for any date, compare what the plan asked for with what was actually produced and what the store received. Use it in the weekly review — if the team regularly makes more or less than planned, adjust the targets.

• The app will not confirm a delivery and asks for a note → something on that batch differs from the production log (received quantity, item, or expiry). Write the reason in the batch's Note box, then confirm again.
• An item shows OUT OF STOCK but you can see it on the shelf → its delivery was probably not confirmed yet. Check Stock → Deliveries awaiting store confirmation.
• An item shows NOT SOLD ONLINE on a Swiggy/Zomato bill → it has no online price. An admin can set one in Menu & Prices → Online ₹.
• A Derived item shows 0 ready → check whether its base item is in stock at this location. You can still sell it — the app converts from the base when the order completes — or convert ready pieces first in Stock → Convert base stock.
• Stock numbers look wrong → check Stock activity today: every movement is recorded there with who did it.
• A number looks stale → switch to another tab and back. Every screen refreshes when you open it.
• Forgot a password → an admin can reset it in the Admin tab (Reset password next to the user).
• Sold the wrong thing → void the order in Sales (you'll be asked for the reason) and bill it again correctly.
• The production lead says the Kitchen tool will not let her log production → yesterday's feedback has not been acknowledged. She reads it in the Kitchen tool's Feedback tab and taps Acknowledge (any team login can acknowledge; it records who did).
• A delivery you confirmed seems invisible to the kitchen → it is in their Feedback tab automatically, and each delivery in this tool's Production tab shows "Acknowledged by …" or "Awaiting kitchen acknowledgement".