The first shop runs smoothly, so the owner opens a second bubble tea location. It sounds light — same menu, same recipes — but the first two weeks are always messy: the new shop keys in every item again, the boba is cooked a little thicker, the selling price is off by five thousand and nobody remembers why, and at month end the owner adds up two revenue sheets by hand. All of that is avoidable if you set up the new shop's data in the right order.
Each location has its own data set — know this up front
In Ordersys, items are declared per branch. That sounds like extra work, but it is why the shop near the university can carry a few drinks students like while the shop in the office district does not have to. Stock, staff and label printers are also kept separate by location, because they genuinely differ.
What should be identical, do not retype. The items screen can import products from a file: download the template, fill it in or export from the shop already running, then import it into the new one. Item names, groups, codes and prices go in one pass — nobody clicks thirty times, and you avoid one shop writing "Boba milk tea" while the other writes "BMT brown sugar", which later shows up as two different lines in a combined report.
Four option groups and the recipe: identical, not up to the person
A cup of bubble tea is one item plus four customer decisions: size, sugar level, ice level, toppings. Set those four groups up as buttons and a new hire can take orders the day they start instead of typing notes by hand — and topping prices are added to the cup automatically, so one shop cannot charge for them while the other forgets.
Keeping the taste identical comes down to the recipe. Declare it per cup: how much tea, how much milk, how much sugar, how much boba. Each cup sold deducts exactly that amount from that location's stock. The benefit is twofold: the taste does not drift with whoever is making it, and at month end comparing the quantity that should have been used against what was actually received shows immediately which location is running higher waste than normal.
Prices can differ between locations — declare them in a price list
Two shops, two leases; if rent differs, selling prices do not have to match. Instead of editing the price on each item, use a price list: declare one list and set which branch it applies to, over which date range, which days of the week, which time slots. Off-peak discounts at one shop while the other stays as is — declared once, with nobody having to remember to change it back.
- Keep the base price on the item and the location difference in the price list — later you can still trace how much was discounted.
- Declare promotions per location; do not declare them chain-wide and then tell staff "at our shop, don't press that".
- Every price change goes in the price list, not the base price, otherwise earlier reports stop matching.
See the whole chain, drill down to one shop
This is what a chain owner needs most. The product report has a branch column and a branch filter: view it combined to see which drinks carry the whole system, filter one shop to see what that shop sells. The overview page has a revenue ranking by branch; pick a date range and it is there.
| What the chain owner asks | Where to look |
|---|---|
| Which shop sold more? | Revenue ranking by branch, over the same date range |
| Did the new drink land at any shop? | Product report, filter each shop and compare cups sold |
| Which shop has unusual ingredient waste? | Each location's stock, against the amount deducted by recipe |
| Which shift at which shop is busy? | Sales report by time slot, filtered by branch |
One note when comparing: the shop with higher revenue is not necessarily the better shop. With different premises, opening hours and headcount, an absolute figure says nothing. Revenue per opening hour, or cups per staff member per shift, is what shows which location is genuinely running well.
Three things to do before the new shop opens
First, finish the menu and option groups at least three days ahead, then ring up a few orders to check that the cup labels print the right size and sugar level. Second, declare recipes from day one — declare them later and you spend the first month not knowing where ingredients went. Third, one account per staff member; do not let the whole shop share one, or you will not be able to separate who sold what.
Per-branch menus, option groups, drink recipes, per-location price lists and reports split by branch are part of Ordersys coffee and bubble tea shop management software, with a free 7-day trial. Read more: size, sugar, ice and topping options for a bubble tea shop and managing a chain of stores: which numbers to watch.
Checkout in a few taps, print cup labels with toppings, send drinks to the bar screen and issue e-invoices from the POS.
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