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Use this when one kitchen supplies other locations. Without it, commissary ordering is texts, phone calls, and a whiteboard, and nobody knows what production owes whom. With it: stores order from a controlled list, the commissary works one queue, and every transfer lands in the books at the right location. Store staff place their orders from the Garde app or the ordering flow; the commissary team runs everything here.
Ordering from a commissary as a store? See the step-by-step guide in the Operating Guide.

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Set up who can order what

Do this once, before any orders flow:
  1. Ordering Locations: choose which stores are allowed to order from this commissary.
  2. Order Guides: build the item list each store can order from. Keep it to what the commissary actually produces. A tight guide means fewer junk orders.
    • Different stores can get different guides. The dessert bar doesn’t need the savory prep list.
    • Item on the guide but never produced anymore? Remove it before someone orders it.

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Handle incoming orders

Incoming Orders is the commissary’s work queue.
  1. Check it every morning before production starts.
  2. Open each order, confirm items and quantities. Push back on obviously wrong quantities now, not at delivery.
  3. Fulfill and mark it as handled.
Orders you haven’t seen are prep you haven’t planned.

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Watch the product mix

Product Mix shows what each location orders and how much. Use it to:
  • Plan production around real demand, not guesses.
  • Spot a store whose ordering suddenly dropped (are they buying elsewhere, or did sales dip?).
  • Kill low-volume items that clog production. An item ordered twice a month doesn’t deserve a weekly batch.

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Keep the accounting clean

Transfers between commissary and stores need mapping so costs land at the right location: commissary food shows up as its own COGS category at the receiving store (you can see it on Inventory Home). Set the mapping under Accounting → Setup → Commissary (details).

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Know-how

  • Set an order cutoff time with your stores and hold it. Orders after cutoff go to the next production day. A cutoff you don’t enforce isn’t a cutoff.
  • Short a store on an item? Adjust the order at fulfillment so the transfer records what actually shipped, not what was asked for.
  • The commissary is a location too: count its inventory and approve its invoices like any store, or its COGS becomes everyone’s mystery.