Case Study: Cupcake Queen managed Three Branches with Hulm POS
Client Profile:
Challenge:
Cupcake Queen grew from a single counter to three branches across Doha on the strength of its custom cakes and daily pastry case, but its back-office processes hadn’t scaled with it. Each branch ran its own till with no shared view of stock or sales, and custom orders (birthday cakes, event platters, corporate gifting) were tracked through a mix of WhatsApp messages and a handwritten order book. Three problems stood out:
- No cross-branch visibility: management couldn’t see which branch was low on flour, cream, or packaging until a counter staff member called it in, leading to last-minute supply runs between branches.
- Custom orders fell through the cracks: birthday and event cake orders taken over WhatsApp had no shared calendar or deposit tracking, so double-bookings and missed pickup dates happened during busy periods like Eid and wedding season.
- Perishable stock waste: with no expiry-date tracking on ingredients across branches, unsold stock and near-expiry ingredients weren’t flagged in time, leading to avoidable waste.
- No unified sales reporting: reconciling daily sales across three branches was a manual, end-of-week task pieced together from three separate registers.
Solution:
Aisha selected Hulm POS Solutions to bring all three branches onto one system, with a dedicated module for custom order scheduling and deposit tracking, and inventory tools built around perishable stock while keeping the system VAT-ready ahead of Qatar’s anticipated national VAT rollout.
Implementation Process:
Needs Assessment:
- Mapped stock flow and reorder patterns across all three branches to identify where visibility was breaking down.
- Reviewed how custom cake and event orders were currently booked, deposited, and scheduled for pickup or delivery.
- Assessed multi-currency and future VAT-readiness requirements given Qatar’s GCC VAT Framework commitments.
Customization:
- Centralized, real-time inventory dashboard giving Aisha a single view of stock across all three branches.
- A custom-order calendar module with deposit tracking, pickup/delivery scheduling, and automatic conflict alerts for double-booked dates.
- Expiry-date tagging on perishable ingredients with proactive low-stock and near-expiry alerts.
- QAR-based pricing and reporting configured across all branches, with the tax engine structured to switch on VAT calculation as soon as Qatar’s regime takes effect.
Rollout:
- Phased branch-by-branch go-live starting with the flagship location to validate the workflow before rolling out chain-wide.
- Centralized sales dashboard replacing three separate end-of-day manual reconciliations.
Staff training & go-live:
- Branch-level training on checkout, custom order intake, and reading low-stock/expiry alerts.
- A dedicated session for Aisha and her operations lead on the cross-branch reporting dashboard.
Results
- Single, real-time view of stock across all three branches, replacing phone calls and manual counts.
- Noticeably fewer double-booked or missed custom cake orders once the order calendar replaced WhatsApp-based booking.
- Reduced ingredient waste from perishable stock, thanks to expiry-based alerts across branches.
- End-of-day reconciliation time cut significantly with one dashboard replacing three separate manual processes.
- VAT-ready from day one, positioning Cupcake Queen to switch on tax reporting with minimal disruption whenever Qatar’s VAT regime takes effect.
Client Quote
Conclusion
Cupcake Queen’s growth had outpaced its systems three branches, a growing custom-order business, and perishable stock all needed one coordinated view instead of three disconnected ones. Hulm’s POS rollout gave Aisha that visibility while also future-proofing the business for Qatar’s coming VAT requirements, a pattern Hulm expects to see more often across Qatar’s retail and food & beverage sector as VAT implementation approaches.
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