Tokora

Case study

Digitizing daily kitchen work orders: from Excel chaos to a single entry

A catering company in Serbia prepares the kitchen schedule for the next day every evening - dozens of clients, different menus, different quantities. Traditionally all of it is done by hand in Excel, one file after another, every evening from scratch.

Problem: one entry, then manual retyping in five places

Every evening the dispatcher enters the next day's menu and portion counts for dozens of different clients - schools and preschools, companies, larger chains with multiple locations. From that one Excel file, the dispatcher then derives by hand: the prep list (what to cook and how much), the butcher's list (what to order and cut), and a separate delivery note for each client. This takes one person up to 3 hours a day, every day, with a high risk of error when copying numbers between sheets. An added complication: some clients have special meals - for allergies or diets, for example - that must be calculated and prepared separately from the main quantity, and that is easy to get wrong when done by hand.

Solution: one entry, the system generates the rest

Tokora built a web app (Next.js + Supabase) where the dispatcher enters the next day's menu and portion counts per client once. The system automatically generates the prep list, the butcher's list, and per-client delivery notes, with export to xlsx and reports on consumption and meals - including special meals that are calculated separately.

Status: first version done, in rollout

All six planned phases have been delivered: the system foundation, recipes and menu plan, orders and allergens, production sheets, export and print, and reporting. The system is currently being rolled into the company's daily work. Actual time savings in production have not yet been measured - what is certain is the starting point (up to 3 hours of manual work a day) and the system's built capability to generate all the needed lists and delivery notes from a single entry.

Questions and answers

Frequently asked questions

Does a system like this have to replace all of Excel at once?

No. The system is designed to first take over the daily entry of menus and orders - the step that repeats every day and carries the most risk of error - while export to xlsx stays available for anyone who wants to keep working with spreadsheets.

What if the manager still wants an Excel report?

Export to xlsx is built into the system - prep lists, butcher's lists, and consumption reports can be downloaded as Excel files whenever needed.

How adaptable is a system like this for a different kind of company (e.g. production instead of a kitchen)?

The core pattern - one structured entry that automatically generates several downstream lists and reports - generalizes to similar dispatching and production-planning flows, not just kitchens. The specific implementation is adapted to that company's terminology and steps, but the principle stays the same.