Overview
BuddyStall is an all-in-one system for running a small store business — handling sales at the counter, tracking stock and expenses, managing staff, and seeing how each store performs. Whether you run a single store or several, this guide explains how it works, with pages for whichever role you hold: owner, manager, or staff.
The big picture
The whole app runs as one continuous cycle. Setup lays the groundwork, Operations records the daily frontline work, Management keeps that work under control, and Analyze turns the results into insight — which shapes the next round of Setup.
Setup
AdminBefore a store can sell, an owner sets up the core data the rest of the app relies on. It is mostly front-loaded work, but also where the cycle closes — owners return to refine this setup based on what Analyze reveals.
Build the Menu
Categories, items, sizes, and addons — what appears in the POS for staff to take orders.
Register Inventory
Register the inventory items you want to track and keep stock levels for.
Configure Recipes
Set how much inventory each menu consumes — enabling automatic stock deduction and cost calculation.
Define Expense Items
Register the expense items involved in running the business, organized by category.
Add Employees
Add the employees at each store and set their hourly rate for payroll.
Plan Shifts
Planned work schedules for the employee at each store.
Operations
StaffThe daily frontline work, handled mostly by staff. Every action here is a transaction the system records as it happens.
Open and Close the Register
Open the register with a starting cash count, and close it with an ending count when the day ends.
Take Orders
Ring up customer orders and complete sales at the POS.
Log Expenses and Waste
Record day-to-day expenses and discarded stock as they happen.
Report Inventory
Count the stock on hand and submit a report so admins can keep inventory accurate.
Clock In and Out
Record the start and end of each shift to track worked hours.
Receive Deliveries
Log incoming stock so inventory levels go up.
Management
AdminThe recurring back-office work, handled by owners and managers. Not daily frontline activity, but the routine checks and admin tasks — reviewing records, ordering, payroll — that keep operations on track.
Reconcile the Register
Check that each session's opening and closing cash counts match its POS sales, with no discrepancies.
Audit Expense History
Review logged expenses to catch incorrect amounts or double-counted entries.
Review Inventory
Check reported stock for loss or shrinkage, and spot items running low.
Place Purchase Orders
Order stock to replenish inventory — the matching expense is logged automatically.
Run Payroll
Fix invalid clock-ins, auto-calculate pay against planned shifts, and log it as an expense in one click.
Analyze
AdminWhere the accumulated data becomes insight. The owner reviews how the business is really performing and decides what to change.
Monitor Profit Trends
Follow sales, expenses, and profit over time to catch problems early — slowing sales or expenses squeezing margin — and plan improvements.
Analyze Sales by Time
Break sales down by hour and weekday to fine-tune opening hours and shift planning.
Track Menu Performance
See which items drive sales and how new menu items perform, to guide menu strategy.
Spot Ingredient Overuse
Compare actual inventory consumption against recipe expectations to find overuse and improve staff operations.
Compare Stores
Review stores side by side to understand each one's profile and plan store-specific actions.
One catalog, many stores
Set up your catalog once, and every store works from it. A single store works fine this way — but the model pays off most when you run several, since each new store starts from the shared catalog instead of from scratch.
Master
The owner defines each menu item, expense item, and inventory item once, in a single catalog shared across the business.
Per store
Every store starts from the master. To absorb price gaps and slight menu differences between stores, a store can show or hide individual menu and expense items, and override their prices.
The three roles
A role is assigned to each account and decides what it can reach. Owner and Manager accounts are Admins and sign in to the Management Console; a Staff account reaches only the Staff Portal.
Owner
An Admin account with full access — every store and feature, and the one that creates the manager and staff accounts.
Manager
An Admin account too, but scoped by the owner — it reaches only its assigned stores and the permissions the owner grants.
Staff
A Staff Portal account. By design there is one per store, dedicated to that store rather than a person. The people who actually work there are registered as employees tied to the store — not as accounts.
Connecting to a franchise Franchise
BuddyStall also runs franchise stores. Connecting your store to a franchise brand links it to the brand's franchisor — loading their menu, inventory, and recipes into your store so setup is done from day one, and letting you order stock straight from the franchisor. A single, unconnected store can ignore this entirely.
Start from your role
For Admins (Owner / Manager)
Set up and run your stores, step by step.
For Staff
Your first shift, in five steps.
How to read these docs
Two kinds of labels help you pick the right page.
Page types — each link in the sidebar carries a letter badge showing what kind of page it leads to:
- EExplanation — How a concept works
- GGuide — How-to steps
- RReference — Screen-by-screen detail
Role icons — page and section headings carry small icons showing which role(s) they are written for:
OwnerManagerStaff