Small-business operations

The Happy Cookie Ops

A two-sided operations system for a Manila bakery: an ops application the owner runs the business from, and a customer storefront that feeds it orders directly.

Client context Back to selected work

Context

What the work needed to solve.

The business ran on message threads, screenshots of payment receipts, and separate spreadsheets. Orders arrived as free text, stock was counted by memory, and the weekly bake was planned by hand. The work was to bring ordering, payment review, production, stock, purchasing, and money into one system without making the owner learn accounting software.

My contribution

Built the customer storefront: a weekly drop menu, checkout with collection slots, and an order status page the buyer can return to.
Built the ops application: orders and payment review, a form queue that turns free-text messages into structured orders, bake planning, four-stage inventory, grocery planning, drops, products and recipes, and profit and loss.
Made the grocery list a computed output rather than a typed one, deriving what to buy from committed orders, stock on hand, and the owner's chosen levels, priced against a budget.
Designed the system to work offline on one phone, with scheduled backup, sync, and a full data export so the business is never locked in.
Wrote the client-facing requirements document and the instruction manual, so the system can be operated and handed over without me.

Engineering decisions

Choices that can be explained.

The grocery list is derived, never typed

Need, on-hand, and the owner's target level produce the top-up quantity and its cost. A shopping list that is calculated cannot drift from the stock it is meant to replenish.

Free text is a queue, not an order

Messages land in a form queue and stay there until they are read and accepted. Nothing becomes an order, and nothing touches stock or money, until a person confirms it.

Offline first, with stated invariants

The system runs on-device with scheduled backup and sync. It continuously checks that the books balance against recorded revenue and expenses and that no item has been deducted below zero, and it surfaces those checks to the owner in plain language.

Export is a feature, not an escape hatch

Orders, inventory, ledger, and expenses export as a spreadsheet at any time. A small business should be able to leave the software it depends on.

Selected visual

Evidence from the project.

Three screens of the operations application: the daily home dashboard, the full tool list, and the notifications feed — The ops application. Sample data from the client review document.

Order list showing payment review states, filters, and totals — Orders and payment review. Sample data.

Bake plan listing how many of each flavour still need mixing and baking — The bake plan, computed from confirmed orders. Sample data.

Grocery list deriving top-up quantities from need, stock on hand, and target level, priced against a budget — Purchasing derived from stock and commitments. Sample data.

Profit and loss view showing revenue, expenses, margin, and an amount set aside for tax — Profit and loss, with tax set aside. Sample data.

Customer-facing storefront showing the week's drop with flavours, prices, and allergen notes — The customer storefront that feeds the ops queue. Sample data.

Evidence

What supports this account.

Client requirements confirmation
A client-issued scope and requirements document covering the full feature set, prepared for and reviewed by the owner.
Operating manual
A written instruction manual covering day-to-day operation of the delivered system.
Client engagement
Delivered through Keth AI for The Happy Cookie, Metro Manila.