How do you create an external customer in tspoonlab and set up the products and prices you sell them?
To sell to an external customer in tspoonlab, first create the customer, then set up what you sell them: product groups for sale, and each ingredient, recipe or dish with its sales format and selling price. Each sale to that customer is then quicker.
This article is for bakeries, central kitchens, caterers and any other business that uses tspoonlab to sell ingredients, recipes or dishes to other businesses. This is B2B (business-to-business) selling, for example to restaurants, shops, hotels or distributors. To follow the steps, you need access to the "Customers" module in "Management".
An external customer is a business that isn't part of your tspoonlab account and has no associated Cost Centre. That's why you need to create the external customer in tspoonlab and set which products you sell them and at what price.
How do you create an external customer in tspoonlab?
To sell to an external customer in tspoonlab, you first need to create them.
You'll find the "Add customer" option in the three-dot menu of the "Customers" module, inside "Management".
In the top menu of tspoonlab, go to "Management" → "Customers".
Click the three-dot menu next to the customer search box.
Select "Add customer". The "Add customer" window opens.
Enter the external customer's name in the "Name" field. This field is required and is highlighted in red while it's empty.
Fill in any other customer details you need. The "Add customer" window has these fields:
Tax and contact details: "NIF/CIF" (tax ID), "Address" (with postcode and city), "Country", "Contacts" (name and phone, with "Add phone"), "Email" (with "Add email"), "CC email" and "Website".
Admin and payment details: "Customer type", "Analysis account", "Code" (tspoonlab suggests one automatically, for example A00002), "Account", "IBAN", "Payment method" and "Expiry" (in days).
Sales and delivery note details: "Comment", "Delivery note", "Number of decimals on the delivery note", "Suggest product quantity as sale quantity" and "Default quantity for sale".
Check the boxes in the "Add customer" window:
"Include in sales", "Deduct from stock" and "Propose associations" are ticked by default. Leave "Deduct from stock" ticked so that sales to this external customer deduct stock from your store.
Tick "Commissary mode" if you sell to the external customer in the same formats you buy from your suppliers, for example a 5 L container of oil. With "Commissary mode", tspoonlab uses your suppliers' purchase formats, so you don't have to create an ingredient for each format.
The import boxes are for imported sales, for example from a POS (Point of Sale) system: "Automatically generate batch number on imports", "Apply additional product discount on import", "Do not deduct from inventory when importing waste", "Update prices when importing sales" and "Do not import sales". For a manual sale to an external customer, you don't need to tick them. Before you turn on any of these boxes, check with your account advisor.
Click "Ok". The external customer is saved and appears in the "Customers" list. If you've assigned a "Customer type", the customer appears under that type, for example "External".
📌 Note: If you send your sales invoices to Holded, fill in the external customer's "NIF/CIF": tspoonlab uses it to identify the customer in Holded.
💡 Tip: You can complete or change the external customer's details later with the "Edit customer" option.
How do you create product groups for an external customer?
You create an external customer's product groups inside the customer itself, in "Products for sale", with the "Add group" option.
Follow the step-by-step guide in Create and configure sale-product groups from the external customer you've just created.
In the "Add group" window, the "Price" field sets how tspoonlab calculates the price of the products in the group: from their cost, the multiplier factor and the "Delta". In the example, the Pastries group has a multiplier factor of 3 and the "Automatically calculate the price" box ticked.
📢 Important: Set the multiplier factor, the "Delta" and the "Automatically calculate the price" box of the "Price" field for the selling price you want to charge the external customer. Then click "Ok". The group is created in the external customer's "Products for sale".
How do you choose the multiplier factor for the selling price you want?
You choose the multiplier factor of a product group from the selling price you want to charge the external customer. To choose it, you first need to know how tspoonlab calculates the price with the multiplier factor and the "Delta" in the "Price" field.
The "Delta" is a fixed amount that tspoonlab adds to the product's cost before applying the multiplier factor. Use the "Delta" to pass a fixed cost per product on to the external customer, for example what it costs you to deliver it. If you don't need it, leave the "Delta" empty.
tspoonlab calculates the theoretical price of each product, excluding VAT (Value Added Tax), with this formula: theoretical price = (cost + "Delta") × multiplier factor. The selling price is that theoretical price plus the product's VAT. Here's how tspoonlab calculates the price of a product that costs you €3.00, with a multiplier factor of 3 and 10% VAT:
Without a "Delta": the theoretical price is 3.00 × 3 = €9.00, and the selling price including VAT is 9.00 × 1.10 = €9.90.
With a "Delta" of €1.00 for delivery: the theoretical price is (3.00 + 1.00) × 3 = €12.00, and the selling price including VAT is 12.00 × 1.10 = €13.20.
To work out the multiplier factor from the selling price you want to charge, take the VAT off the selling price. Then divide the result by the product's cost plus the "Delta". This is the calculation to sell a product that costs you €3.00 at €13.20 including 10% VAT, with a "Delta" of €1.00:
Selling price excluding VAT: 13.20 ÷ 1.10 = €12.00.
Cost plus "Delta": 3.00 + 1.00 = €4.00.
Multiplier factor: 12.00 ÷ 4.00 = 3.
If you'd rather work out the multiplier factor from a target Food Cost, see Create and configure sale-product groups.
💡 Tip: The multiplier factor and the "Delta" apply to every product in the group. If you sell the external customer products with different margins or delivery costs, create a product group for each case.
How do you add the products you sell to an external customer?
You add the ingredients, recipes and dishes you sell to an external customer inside each of the customer's product groups, with the "Add products" option.
Choose the product you'll sell to the external customer
You choose the product you sell to the external customer with the group's "Add products" option, on the Customer Page.
In "Management" → "Customers", select the external customer.
In "Products for sale", click the group's three-dot menu.
Select "Add products".
In the group window that opens, for example "External Customer - Pastries", click the "Product/Menu" field.
Choose "Product" to sell an ingredient, recipe or dish, or "Menu" to sell a menu.
In the search window, which covers your whole tspoonlab database, type the product name.
Select the product in the list.
Click "Select".
Set the sales format, VAT and selling price of the product
You set the sales format, VAT and selling price of each product for the external customer on the product's line, in the group window.
Set the sales format in "Quantity" and "Uni". In the example, the sales format is 1 box.
📌 Note: To sell by the box, the ingredient, recipe or dish must have the box set up as a unit of measure. "Uni" only shows the unit set up for the ingredient, recipe or dish.
Check the "POS code". tspoonlab fills in the product's code, in the example CP000002. You can generate the codes automatically to sell with references, or delete the "POS code" if you don't need it.
Check the product's "VAT" and change it if needed. In the example, the "VAT" changes from 7% to 10%.
If the group has "Automatically calculate the price" ticked, check the selling price in "Theoretical price + VAT". tspoonlab calculates the selling price including VAT from the group's multiplier factor, so you don't need to enter it. In the example, the cost is €5.40 and the "Theoretical price" is 5.4 × 3 = €16.20. With 7% "VAT", the "Theoretical price + VAT" is €17.33; with 10% "VAT", it's €17.82.
If the group doesn't have "Automatically calculate the price" ticked, enter the selling price including VAT in "Selling price". The "Theoretical price + VAT" shows the recommended selling price based on the multiplier factor, but you can enter whatever selling price you need. In the example, the recommended selling price is €17.82 and the "Selling price" is €20.
Click "Ok". The product appears in the external customer's product group with its selling price, ready for sales to that customer.
📢 Important: With "Automatically calculate the price" ticked, the product's selling price changes when the purchase price of its ingredients changes. To keep a fixed selling price for the external customer, leave the box unticked when you create or edit the group. Then enter the selling price in "Selling price".
💡 Tip: Add all the products you'll sell to the external customer before you create the first sale, so sales to that customer are quicker. To add several products at once, use the "Add multiple products", "Add from categories" or "Add to menu" buttons in the group window.
How do you know if a product group calculates the price automatically?
On the Customer Page in tspoonlab, the header of each product group shows whether the group calculates the selling price automatically:
Without "Automatically calculate the price": the group header only shows the formula, for example "Price = 3 * Cost", and the product's selling price is the one you entered in "Selling price". In the example, €20: €18.18 plus 10% VAT.
With "Automatically calculate the price": the group header shows a calculator icon before the formula, and the product's selling price is the one tspoonlab calculates. In the example, €17.82: €16.20 plus 10% VAT.
What information does each product for sale show on the external customer's page?
Each product you add to a product group appears on the Customer Page in tspoonlab with its sales format, cost, Food Cost, contribution and prices. In the example, the croissant in the Pastries group has a multiplier factor of 3, automatic price calculation turned on and 10% VAT.
These are the columns tspoonlab shows for each product for sale to the external customer:
"Uni": the product's sales format, the one you set in "Quantity". In the example, 1 box.
"Cost/Discount": the product's cost in tspoonlab, or the discount applied. In the example, the cost is €5.40.
"Food Cost": the cost as a percentage of the selling price excluding VAT. In the example, 5.4 ÷ 16.2 = 33.33%.
"Contribution": what you keep from each unit sold, that is, the difference between the selling price excluding VAT and the cost. In the example, 16.2 − 5.4 = €10.80.
"Theoretical price": the price excluding VAT that tspoonlab calculates with the group's multiplier factor. In the example, 5.4 × 3 = €16.20.
"Selling price": the price including VAT that you charge the external customer for the product. In the example, €17.82. Below the "Selling price" you'll see the breakdown: the price excluding VAT plus the VAT percentage applied ("16.2+10%"). You'll also see the date and time of the last price change.
The "Food Cost" and "Contribution" of a product for sale are calculated with the selling price excluding VAT, not with the "Theoretical price". If the group doesn't calculate the price automatically and you enter the "Selling price" yourself, both values change. For example, with a "Selling price" of €20 and 10% VAT, the price excluding VAT is €18.18. The "Food Cost" is then 5.4 ÷ 18.18 = 29.70% and the "Contribution" is 18.18 − 5.4 = €12.78.
Below the products in each group, the "Average" row shows the averages for the product group: the average "Cost/Discount", "Food Cost", "Contribution", "Theoretical price" and "Selling price" of all the products in the group. In the example, the Pastries group has only one product, so the "Average" row shows the same cost, Food Cost, contribution and theoretical price as the croissant: €5.40, 33.33%, €10.80 and €16.20.
What do you do after setting up the external customer's products?
Once the external customer's products for sale are set up, you can create sales to that customer from "Management" → "Sales" and generate the sales delivery note. You'll find the step-by-step guide in the article Sell to an external customer and generate the sales delivery note.
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