How a six-person cafe gathered its catering orders into one sheet and missed none in two months

Orders in three places and a whiteboard

We work with a six-person cafe that also does catering for local offices and events. Catering orders came in by email, by phone, and through a form on the website. Whoever took an order copied it onto a whiteboard in the kitchen.

The whiteboard worked until it got busy. Orders got rubbed out early, copied with the wrong date, or never copied at all, and the kitchen found out when a customer rang to ask where their platters were.

What we set up

The main job was connecting the cafe’s tools (the industry calls these links data pipelines). Email orders from Gmail and website form orders now land in one Google Sheet. The AI reads each order and fills in the items, the number of serves, the date, and the delivery time. Paid orders are matched to the payment in Square.

Each morning, the sheet builds a prep list for the day, with every item and the serves needed. The kitchen works from that instead of the whiteboard.

What didn’t work the first time

Customers write orders in all sorts of ways. Our first version mixed up platters and single serves on a few orders, so the prep list was short on one day and long on another. Every order now records serves, and the kitchen checks the prep list each morning before prep starts.

What changed, and what still needs a person

The cafe missed no catering orders in the first two months after the sheet went live.

Phone orders are still typed in by staff, because they arrive by voice, often mid-service. The kitchen still checks the prep list each morning.

Where this fits

This is connecting your tools, with the AI reading the orders. If your orders live on a whiteboard, get your AI Starter Plan and tell it where your week goes.