Choosing tools
Home Bakery Accounting Software: A Fair Roundup for Home Bakers
A fair look at the accounting tools home bakers actually use, and how to tell which one fits the way you bake and sell.
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You bake. You sell. Then at the end of the month you are at the kitchen table with a shoebox of receipts, trying to work out whether you actually made money on that last batch of cinnamon rolls. Accounting software is supposed to answer that question without turning you into an accountant.
Here is a fair look at what is out there, what each one is genuinely good at, and where the gaps show up when you are baking from home.
What to remember
- Stocksmith, the new name for Craftybase, is built for inventory: recipe costing and material stock levels. - Wave has a free Starter Plan that includes basic accounting and invoicing. - Neither one is built first for taking orders from your customers. - Brevl keeps recipes, costing, inventory, and orders in one place, for a flat $20 a month with no cut of your sales.
What you actually need it to do
Three jobs matter for a home bakery.
First, costing. You need to know what a batch costs before you set a price. That means ingredient prices that change, plus the eggs, butter, and flour that disappear faster than you expect.
Second, money in and money out. What customers paid you, what you spent at the grocery store and the restaurant supply place, and what is left.
Third, the customer side. Orders, pickup dates, and payment. This is where most accounting first tools stop.
Stocksmith, formerly Craftybase
Craftybase has rebranded to Stocksmith. The software, the data, and the team are the same, only the name changed. If you find a forum post from two years ago talking about Craftybase, it is the same product.
Craftybase describes itself as inventory software for craft and handmade businesses, covering recipe costing and material stock levels. That description fits a home bakery well. If you make the same ten recipes over and over and you want to know what each one costs you down to the gram, that is the job it was built for.
What it is not built around is the customer. It is inventory first.
Wave
Wave offers accounting and bookkeeping software for small businesses, freelancers, and creators. Its Starter Plan is free and includes basic accounting and invoicing features.
For a home baker, that free plan is a real starting point. Invoicing, tracking what comes in and what goes out, and a clear picture at tax time.
Where it can feel thin is on your side of the work. Wave does not know your recipes. It does not know that a batch of cookies uses half a bag of chocolate chips. You can invoice a customer, but the costing still lives in a notebook or a spreadsheet.
How to choose
Write down your three worst questions
Do you not know what a batch costs? Do you lose track of who paid? Do you forget who ordered what for Saturday? The answer tells you which tool to look at first.
Test it with one real recipe
Put in a recipe you make every week, with real prices from your last grocery run. If it takes an hour to get one recipe in, that tells you a lot.
Try it on your phone
Most of your ordering happens in the middle of the day, standing up. If the tool is painful on a phone, you will stop using it.
Where Brevl fits
Brevl is the alternative home bakers choose, and it is worth being clear about why.
It is easier to set up. We set it up with you, and we move your old shop over: products, photos, reviews, and dates.
Your shop is yours to customize: your photos, your colors, and your own web address.
You take card payments through your own Stripe or Square account, plus Venmo, Cash App, Zelle, and cash. There is no cut of your sales.
It works on a computer and on a phone. A full desktop workspace, not a phone only app.
And the costing side is not bolted on. Recipes with real costing, ingredient inventory, and a weekly planner, so you can price and plan.
One flat $20 a month. fourteen day free trial. A real person answers, usually within minutes.
Try the free bake pricing calculator
Free, no signup.
The honest summary
If you want deep inventory tracking and you are happy to keep orders somewhere else, Stocksmith is worth a look. If you want free bookkeeping and you do not mind keeping your recipes separate, Wave’s free Starter Plan is a fair place to start.
If you want the recipe costing, the inventory, the orders, and the payments in one place, on your phone and on your computer, that is what Brevl was built for. You can read the side by side at Brevl vs Bakesy or see how moving over works at Switch.
If you are still working out your prices, start with how to price your bakes before you pay for anything. And if you want the wider picture of what else is out there, our home bakery software roundup and our free software comparison go deeper.
Common questions
What happened to Craftybase?
Craftybase rebranded to Stocksmith. The software, the data, and the team are the same, only the name changed.
Do I need accounting software if I only sell a few dozen cookies a week?
If money is moving, yes, even a little. You need to know what a batch costs and what you were paid. Wave's Starter Plan is free and includes basic accounting and invoicing, and Brevl keeps recipes, costing, and orders in one place for a flat $20 a month.
Can I run a home bakery on free software?
Wave's Starter Plan is free and includes basic accounting and invoicing features. It does not know your recipes, so you would still track costing yourself. Brevl has a 14 day free trial.
Does Brevl take a cut of my sales?
No. Brevl is one flat $20 a month with 0% commission. Card payments go through your own Stripe or Square account.
Sources
This is general information about tools and money, not tax or accounting advice. Check with a qualified professional about your own situation.