Article Contents
Introduction
Commissary Kitchens are venues that are internal distributors in multi-venue setups.
The Commissary Kitchen carries items they prepare in house and from external suppliers to be ordered by venues within the organization.
Items prepared in house are created through the Batches feature to get accurate costing, and are set as inventory items that can be counted and ordered.
All steps of the ordering and transfer process are tracked in the system:
Requesting Venues generate and send purchase orders / transfer requests with required items to the Commissary Kitchen
The Commissary Kitchen receives the orders / requests and can accept or reject them
If accepted, the Commissary Kitchen prepares the order and can make modifications if needed
When ready, completed orders are sent to the Requesting Venues
The Requesting Venues process a draft invoice and the items are added to their venue. The order is now closed.
This process is outlined in detail in the Venue Transfer Requests article.
This is the basic flow between Commissary Kitchens and Requesting Venues, but there are many factors to consider that determine the best setup for your organization.
Choosing the Right Setup
In every setup, you have the Commissary Kitchen(s), and the venues that place orders to them.
The Commissary Kitchen has its own items, which are a combination of base ingredients (for example, tomatoes), and the items they create to be ordered(for example, tomato sauce).
However, every organization is different, and the structure of your venues, and your POS System(s) determine the best multi-venue setup.
In your organization, you may have:
a single concept with multiple locations (for example, a chain of cafes)
multiple concepts, all with one or more locations
A mix of corporate and franchise locations
These questions help us determine the best configuration:
Are the ordering venues all the same concept, or are there multiple concepts?
Do all the venues have the same owners, or are there franchisees?
Do the venues carry all the same inventory items?
What Point of Sale (POS) systems do the venues use?
Is the same POS used across all venues?
Are the POS / Menu Item codes the same between venues?
When you add a POS Item, is it pushed to all venues?
With your answers, we’ll see if it makes sense to have a centralized list of inventory items for each concept. If the POS system is the same across all venues in a concept, it may also be possible to have a centralized list of POS Items.
We call this “Shared Items” and “Shared POS Items”, and they simplify the setup process for new venues. You only need to add your items and recipes to a concept once, and they get applied to all venues / locations within the same concept.
Maintenance is simple. If you get new inventory items, create a new menu item in your POS, or modify an existing recipe, it’s pushed to all venues.
Shared Items
As mentioned above, “Shared Items” allows you to have a centralized item list for each concept.
When you add or remove an item, it applies to all venues / locations.
Because of this, it’s best managed by designated people within your organization. With custom user roles, you can restrict who is able to add or edit items to keep your data clean.
By having this centralized item list, it makes it easier to set up new locations, and makes it possible to have Shared POS Items.
Shared POS Items
With Shared POS Items, when you add the recipe / ingredients to a POS Item, the mapping is applied to every venue within a concept. That way you only need to enter your recipes once, and not in each venue.
To have Shared POS Items, you need the following:
The venues have a Shared Item List
The venues are using the same POS system
POS Item codes are the same in each venue
This allows recipes to be copied to each venue without issue. Recipe mapping in WISK is tied to the POS Item Code, and having a Shared Item list ensures that the same ingredients are being used across all venues.
Despite the recipes being shared, all sales and costing data is unique to the venue. Based on the venue’s item costs and selling price, it will calculate the cost percentage.
For example, if one venue sells an item for $7.50 and another sells the same for $6.50, it calculates the costing based on the selling price and the cost of ingredients in those locations.
To learn more about Shared Items and Shared POS Items please see:
Benefits of POS Integration
At a minimum, the Commissary Kitchen feature tracks the ordering process from start to finish. The requesting venues take inventories, place orders to the kitchen, and add invoices for orders received.
By integrating your POS, you get insight into your recipe costing, and can see the “real-time” stock estimate in venues that order from the Commissary Kitchen.
When an item is sold in the POS, it depletes the ingredients mapped to it from stock. Based on the sales since the last inventory count, it provides an estimate of how much remains.
From this, you can see which items are running low and will need to be ordered. This allows you to get ahead of any surprises and make sure you always have enough inventory to operate.
Example Setups
Every organization is different, and we’ve outlined a few examples below of what a Commissary Kitchen configuration could look like.
Some setups require more effort from the WISK implementation team, the largest factors being the number of concepts, and whether Shared POS Items are possible.
One Concept - Multiple Locations
In this example, the Commissary Kitchen supplies baked goods and prepared sandwiches / wraps to a chain of cafes. The cafes are all the same concept and corporate owned.
At a high level:
Each cafe is responsible for taking inventory counts and submitting orders to the Commissary Kitchen
Each cafe has the exact same menu and inventory items
All cafes are on the same POS system, and the POS Item Codes are universal
Based on the points above, the venues are identical and would have both Shared Items and Shared POS Items.
This setup is very easy to scale because you just need to add a new venue, integrate the POS, and all inventory and menu items appear in the new account.
To maintain the account, you’ll just need to map new items in the POS, and create any new items to be ordered from the Commissary Kitchen.
Example Implementation
Phase 1 - Setup Commissary Kitchen
Add inventory items via scanning / uploading invoices
Create items to be ordered via the Batches feature
Phase 2 - Setup Venues
Build item database - Add items via invoices, as well as the items that are ordered from the Commissary Kitchen
Integrate POS and start adding recipes to POS Items
Setup Roles and Permissions for users to manage who can edit Shared Items & POS Items
Phase 3 - Inventory & Ordering
Review inventory, ordering, and adding invoices for venues
Commissary Kitchen begins fulfilling orders
Multiple Concepts - One Location Each
In this example, the Commissary Kitchen supplies sauces and other prepared items to multiple concepts. Each concept only has 1 location.
At a high level:
Each venue/concept is responsible for taking inventory counts and submitting orders to the Commissary Kitchen
Each venue/concept has a unique menu and inventory items
They all use different POS systems
Each venue / concept stands alone and each needs its item database created, and recipes added to POS Items.
Shared Items and Shared POS Items would not be compatible with this setup.
If a new concept is added, it would go through the same process of adding items and mapping POS Items.
This configuration requires the most setup and maintenance because changes aren’t automatically applied to other venues.
Example Implementation
Phase 1 - Setup Commissary Kitchen
Add inventory items via scanning / uploading invoices
Create items to be ordered via the Batches feature
Phase 2 - Setup Venues
Build item database for each venue/concept - Add items via invoices, as well as the items that are ordered from the Commissary Kitchen
Integrate POS in each venue/concept and start adding recipes to POS Items
Setup Roles and Permissions for users (optional)
Phase 3 - Inventory & Ordering
Review Inventory, Ordering, and Adding invoices for venues
Commissary Kitchen begins fulfilling orders
Multiple Concepts - More than 1 Location
In this example, the Commissary Kitchen supplies sauces and other prepared items to multiple concepts. Each concept has more than 1 location.
At a high level, each venue within a concept:
Is responsible for taking inventory counts and submitting orders to the Commissary Kitchen
Has the same menu and inventory items
Has the same POS System, and the POS Item Codes are universal
Based on the points above, each concept (#1 and #2) would have their own set of Shared Items and Shared POS Items.
This setup is very easy to scale because for either concept you just need to add a new venue, integrate the POS, and all inventory and menu items will appear in the new account.
To maintain the account, you’ll just need to map new items in the POS at each concept, and create any new items to be ordered from the Commissary Kitchen.
Example Implementation
Phase 1 - Setup Commissary Kitchen
Add inventory items via scanning / uploading invoices
Create items to be ordered via the Batches feature
Phase 2 - Setup Venues
Build item database for each concept - Add items via invoices, as well as the items that are ordered from the Commissary Kitchen
Integrate POS in all venues and start adding recipes to POS Items for each concept
Setup Roles and Permissions for users to manage Shared Items within each concept
Phase 3 - Inventory & Ordering
Review Inventory, Ordering, and Adding invoices for venues
Commissary Kitchen begins fulfilling orders
One Concept - Corporate & Franchise Venues
In this example, the Commissary Kitchen supplies prepared items to multiple locations within the same concept. The locations are a mix of both corporate and franchise owned.
What this setup looks like depends on the relationship between the franchise venues and the organization as a whole.
In most cases, the corporate stores typically:
Have the same menu and inventory items
Have the same POS System, and the POS Item Codes are universal
At a minimum, the corporate stores will have Shared Items and Shared POS Items.
If the points above apply to the franchise stores, they can be on the same Shared Items and Shared POS Items list as well.
If the franchise venues use different POS systems, or POS Item Codes are not universal, then they won’t be able to have Shared POS Items.
The amount of setup required will depend on whether the franchise venues are eligible for Shared Items / Shared POS Item, or whether they will need to be standalone.
Example Implementation
In this example, we’d prioritize setting up the corporate locations before rolling out to the franchises.
Phase 1 - Setup Commissary Kitchen
Add inventory items via scanning / uploading invoices
Create items to be ordered via the Batches feature
Phase 2 - Setup Corporate Venues
Build item database for corporate venues - Add items via invoices, as well as the items that are ordered from the Commissary Kitchen
Integrate POS in each corporate venue and start adding recipes to POS Items
Setup Roles and Permissions for users to manage who can edit Shared Items & POS Items
Phase 3 - Inventory & Ordering
Review inventory, ordering, and adding invoices for corporate venues
Commissary Kitchen begins fulfilling orders
Phase 4 - Setup Franchise Venues
Either add the franchise venues to the existing Shared Item and Shared POS Item list, or go through setup for each franchise (add inventory items, integrate POS)
Go through inventory, ordering, and adding invoices for franchise venues