Blog
Insights on running your cafe on your own numbers.
The Best Cafe Inventory Apps That Work With Square
Every app on this list connects to Square. Three questions separate the ones that can count a cafe's milk swaps from the ones that quietly cannot.
Sep 2, 2026·7 min read
Why Big Restaurant Inventory Tools Don't Fit Cafes
Invoice scanning and month-end close are priced for kitchens with real invoice volume. Here is how to tell if your cafe pays for machinery it never fires.
Sep 2, 2026·6 min read
Square Recipes and Modifiers: The Tracking Gap
Square Recipes deducts the base recipe and stops there. Every milk swap rides in as a modifier, uncounted, and my own oat order shows what that does.
Sep 2, 2026·6 min read
Square Variations Not Tracking Inventory: A Fix
Your item tracks stock and its variations sit at zero. Four checks that find the cause, in the order they take, plus the catalog trap I walked into.
Sep 2, 2026·6 min read
Does a Cafe Need Inventory Software Beyond Square?
Square records the sale, not the milk that left the fridge. An honest test for whether your cafe has outgrown it, and when the answer is still no.
Jul 24, 2026·7 min read
Square Recipes Limitations for a Coffee Shop
You turned on Square Recipes and the numbers still drift. Here is where the beta stops for a cafe: modifiers, hot and iced, and the syrup you batch yourself.
Jul 24, 2026·7 min read
The Owner's Monday Morning: 5 Minutes Instead of an Hour
The best Monday mornings start with answers, not questions. Here is the 5-minute briefing that replaces an hour of digging.
Apr 15, 2026·7 min read
Five Reports Every Cafe Owner Should Run Weekly
You do not need twenty dashboards. You need five reports, reviewed weekly, to run a smarter cafe.
Feb 9, 2026·7 min read
Why I Built Parly
I built Parly because cafes deserve better than spreadsheets. Here is what it does and why I made it.
Feb 6, 2026·6 min read