Knowing the true cost of every cup, cake and plate

Tea Social Cafe earns from its café, online delivery platforms, outside catering and party arrangements. We implemented Zoho Books and Zoho Inventory so each income stream, every expense and every platform commission is recorded properly — and so the café knows the exact cost of making each drink, dessert and dish.

The brief

What Tea Social needed

A café’s revenue rarely comes from one place. Tea Social sells over the counter, through online delivery platforms that take a commission on every order, through outside catering and through party arrangements. Lumped together, those streams hide which one is actually making money.

The other half of the question is cost. A menu price is only as good as the owner’s knowledge of what goes into the item — and a tea, a dessert and a plated dish each draw on a different mix of ingredients bought at changing prices.

The system had to

Income recorded separately for the café, delivery platforms, catering and parties
Platform commission captured, so online sales are seen net
Every expense in the books, not in a notebook
The exact cost to make each drink, dessert and dish

How it flows

From the first touch to the final number

Zoho Books answers “where does the money come from and go?”. Zoho Inventory answers “what does each item cost to make?”.

Zoho Books
Zoho Inventory

01
Zoho Books
Sales from four streams
Every sale is recorded against the stream it came from, so revenue can be split by where it was earned.
02
Zoho Books
Platform commission recorded
Commission kept by online delivery platforms is booked separately, so online revenue is seen net of what the platform takes.
03
Zoho Books
Expenses captured
Supplier bills, running costs and event-specific spend are recorded as they happen.
04
Zoho Inventory
Ingredients stocked
Ingredients go into Zoho Inventory at the price actually paid.
05
Zoho Inventory
Recipes mapped
Each drink, dessert and dish is set up with the ingredients and quantities that go into it.
06
Zoho Inventory
Cost per item
The cost of making one serving is worked out from the recipe, so prices and margins rest on real numbers.

What we built

App by app, the implementation

What was configured, automated and connected in each part of the system.

Income, expenses and commission

Separate income tracking for café sales, delivery platforms, outside catering and party arrangements
Delivery-platform commission recorded against platform sales
Expense categories that match how the café actually runs
Profit and loss that shows each stream, not one blended total