pay·e
Start free

Solutions · Cafés & Bakeries

Pre-orders that actually pay.

Wedding cakes. Custom birthday orders. 20-cup corporate coffee runs. The orders that take the most prep are the ones most likely to vanish — until you collect the deposit.

Most cafés and bakeries are built around the walk-in. The phone orders — the ones with custom decoration, dietary notes, the ones an entire afternoon is built around — are the ones the till was never designed for.

The problem

Where the money quietly leaks.

  • PDF invoices ignored

    You email the invoice. The customer reads it on Tuesday. The cake was due Saturday. The ingredients are now on the shelf at a loss.

  • Deposits felt awkward

    Asking for 50% upfront over the phone used to mean reading a card number across a counter — too clunky to ask for under $200, too risky to skip over $200.

  • Office cancellations at 9:55am

    A 20-coffee corporate run that walks at the last second is two baristas standing still for 15 minutes. Every cancellation has a real labour cost.

How Pay-E helps

Money lands first. Prep starts second.

  • Deposit at order capture

    Send a 50% deposit paylink as soon as you take the booking. The cake goes into the oven schedule the moment the deposit lands.

  • Apple Pay / Google Pay friendly

    Office customers tap once on their phone — no card details typed, no fumbling. Faster than walking to the till.

  • Branded receipt on success

    The customer's confirmation page carries your shop name and logo. It feels like a checkout, not a generic invoice.

A story like yours

What real shops do with Pay-E.

Composite stories grounded in operator interviews. Names and figures are illustrative.

No-shows recoveredWedding & birthday cake pre-orders · Carlton VIC

Verde Bakery

Cake pre-orders booked a week ahead. PDF invoices got ignored. Twelve cancellations a month, often after the ingredients were already bought.

Verde takes 30+ cake pre-orders for weddings, birthdays and corporate events every weekend. The old workflow was emailing a PDF invoice with a NET-7 term — by which point the cake was already in the oven schedule and ingredients were on the shelf.

Maria, the owner, switched to Pay-E for any pre-order requiring a 50% deposit. The deposit paylink is sent at order capture; only when it pays does the cake go into the oven schedule.

Cancellations dropped from 12 a month to 1 — and the one that did cancel had paid the deposit, so there was no out-of-pocket loss.

“I used to dread checking the inbox on Monday morning — you'd see the cancellation emails and know which Saturdays were a write-off. The deposit changes that completely.”

— Maria, owner — Verde Bakery

Couldn't take payment remotelyCorporate coffee runs · Surry Hills NSW

Saudade Coffee Roasters

Office managers calling 20-cup coffee orders for 10am meetings. The cafe had no fast way to take payment short of the customer walking in — orders cancelled at 9:55 when the meeting moved.

Surry Hills offices order coffee in batches. The barista would take the order over the phone, and the customer would walk in twenty minutes later to pay before grabbing the tray. Except — they'd often cancel at 9:55, after the espresso was already pulled, because the meeting had moved or the participants ran late.

Saudade now sends a Pay-E paylink for any order over $40. The customer pays through Apple Pay or Google Pay before they leave the office. The grinder doesn't run until the link is paid.

Average phone-order capture time went from 4:30 to 0:45 — most of the savings came from not chasing card numbers.

See more stories on the Customer stories page.

Try it on this Friday's rush.

Start freeBook a demo