Invoice and payment reminders app for food wholesalers

Send polite payment reminders to your restaurant customers and see at a glance which invoices are paid and which are overdue.

Who it's for

For a food or drink wholesaler supplying restaurants, pubs, cafés and takeaways on account. Think a family firm with a few vans, a warehouse, a driver or two and one person in the office doing the paperwork between phone calls. The problem bites at the end of the month, when that person sits down to work out who has paid, who has gone quiet, and who needs chasing before the next delivery goes out on credit.

The problem today

Invoices go out as emailed attachments and get buried in a chef's inbox. The office keeps a spreadsheet of what is owed, but it is only as good as the last time someone opened the bank statement and ticked things off. Chasing means ringing the restaurant at the worst time of day, getting the kitchen instead of the manager, and being told to send it again. Some invoices get paid twice, some get missed entirely, and nobody is sure which. Money that has already been earned sits out there for weeks, while stock still has to be paid for on time.

What the app does, screen by screen

1. Today's deliveries — Staff turn a completed delivery into an invoice without typing the customer's details again.
2. Who owes what — The owner sees every unpaid invoice on one screen, oldest first, with the total owed by each restaurant.
3. Invoice detail — Staff and the owner see one invoice, what was delivered, what has been paid against it, and every reminder already sent.
4. Reminders — The owner sets when a polite reminder goes out before and after the due date, and can hold one back for a customer being handled by phone.
5. My account — The restaurant signs in and sees only its own invoices, downloads a copy, and pays by card if it would rather not wait for the bank run.
6. Payments received — Staff record money that has landed in the bank and match it to the right invoice so the chasing stops.

Who uses it and what it keeps track of

• Customers — Trading name, delivery address, the person who signs for orders, the person who pays, phone and email, agreed payment terms, and whether the account is on hold. Staff and the owner see all of them. Each restaurant sees only itself.
• Invoices — Invoice number, the customer, what was delivered and at what price, VAT, total, date sent and date due, and whether it is unpaid, part paid, paid or written off. Visible to staff and the owner; a restaurant sees only its own.
• Payments — Amount received, the date, how it arrived, which invoice it settles, and who recorded it. Staff and the owner see these; the customer sees them on its own invoices.
• Reminders sent — Which invoice, which customer, when it went out, how it was sent, and whether the owner paused it. Owner and staff only.
• Quotes — Prices offered to a restaurant, when they expire, and whether they became an order. Owner and staff only, until the owner chooses to send one.

What it changes for the business

The office stops rebuilding the spreadsheet every month and stops ringing round in the dark. Reminders go out on their own, in the same polite wording every time, so chasing no longer depends on anyone remembering. Invoices arrive somewhere the restaurant can actually find them, which removes the send-it-again conversation. Money comes in closer to the agreed terms, and the owner knows before loading a van whether that customer is already behind. Fewer arguments about what was delivered, because the invoice sits next to the delivery it came from.

The one decision that matters

The one to settle is whether reminders send automatically or only when someone presses send. Automatic means every overdue invoice gets chased the same way, including the awkward customers nobody wants to ring, but a wrongly recorded payment can send a reminder to someone who has already paid. Manual keeps full control and never embarrasses you, but it quietly stops happening in a busy week, which is the whole problem. Go automatic, with two safeguards: nothing sends until a payment has had time to be recorded, and the owner can pause reminders for one account while a conversation is going on. The point is that chasing continues when the office is flat out.

What to build first, and what can wait

Build invoices, payments received, who owes what, and the reminders. That alone replaces the spreadsheet and the phone chasing. Quotes, card payments and monthly statements can come after, once the chasing works. Leave stock and pricing lists out entirely for now, or you will spend weeks on the warehouse and still not know who owes you. Add the customer sign-in early, though, because that is what stops the send-it-again emails.

How BooDoo builds it

You describe the business and the chasing in plain words and BooDoo builds it. It creates the database and the sign-in behind it, so the owner, the office staff and each restaurant see different screens and no customer sees another customer's invoices. The same request gives a website on its own address, which you can point your own domain at, and an Android app to publish under your own Google Play account. Card payments and reminders come in through ready integrations, with a WhatsApp button so a chef can message the office about an order. Later changes are described, not coded.

How you'll know it works

The end-of-month chase gets shorter. Instead of ringing every account, the office rings the two or three that are genuinely behind, because everyone else paid after a reminder nobody had to remember to send.

Build it

Paste this in and it gets built.

I run a food wholesale business and deliver to restaurants, pubs and cafés on account. I want a phone app with a website behind it where my office staff raise an invoice against a delivery, record payments when the money lands in the bank, and see everyone who owes me on one screen with the oldest unpaid first. Each restaurant should sign in and see only its own invoices, download a copy, and pay by card if it wants to. Polite reminders should go out by email and text a few days before the due date and again when an invoice is overdue, and I want to be able to pause them for one customer while I am talking to them. Put a WhatsApp button on the customer screen so a chef can message the office about an order. Only I should be able to change or write off an invoice, and I want to see the total owed by each account before I send a van out.