Waste-Saver: use up, mark down, track

The big picture

Most bakeries lose money to waste they never see. Waste-Saver gives you three simple tools on one page (Waste-Saver in the sidebar):

1. Ingredients approaching end-of-life — use them before they spoil.
2. Surplus markdown — sell slow-moving stock instead of binning it (for bakers who sell ready stock).
3. A waste log + dashboard — record what happened and see the money you saved.

1. Ingredients approaching end-of-life

For each ingredient you give a shelf life, Waste-Saver works out when the freshest batch you bought will go off, and flags anything within the next week — soonest first — with:

• how many days are left,
• what uses it (the recipes it's in), so you know what to bake or promote, and
• the value still on hand, so you can see what's at stake.

Set a shelf life (once per ingredient)

Under the list, open Set shelf life on ingredients and type the number of days each keeps for. That's all it needs — ingredients with no shelf life set are simply left out (no false alarms).

2. Surplus markdown (for bakers who sell ready stock)

If you sell ready stock through a storefront or the in-store POS, Waste-Saver flags slow movers and near-expiry items and suggests a markdown (20%, 30% or 40%) based on how much is sitting versus how much you've sold, and how close it is to its date. Press Apply and it:

• updates that product's price in Bakeboost, and
• logs the markdown to your dashboard.

If you bake purely to order, there's no shelf stock to discount, so this panel explains that rather than showing an empty list — the ingredient nudges above are your waste lever.

3. Log what happened, and see what you rescued

Use Log waste (or the Log button on a near-expiry item) to record an outcome:

• Donated — with quantity, estimated value and a reason (handy for your records).
• Written off — binned, so you can see what's slipping through.
• Marked down — usually added for you when you Apply a markdown.

The dashboard at the top rolls the month up into $ rescued, donated, marked down and written off. For a markdown, tick Sold in the log once it sells so it counts toward what you rescued.

Tips

• Start with your most perishable ingredients (dairy, cream, fresh fruit) — that's where a shelf life pays off fastest.
• Check it with your morning prep — the near-expiry list doubles as a "bake these today" hint.
• Log donations as you go — a two-second entry now is a clean record at tax time.

Last updated August 6, 2026