Butchery

A butchery buys carcasses by weight and sells cuts by the kilo, or by the money: “nyama ya mia mbili”. Kila runs it as a shop, with the rules for selling by weight and for food safety, and a cutting room of its own.

What is special

• The till sells by weight. A cut sold by weight opens Weigh: the weight comes from the scale or is typed, the container comes off, and the price comes from the price per kg. See Sell meat by weight, Sell meat by amount and Sell from a scale label.
• Whole shillings. The owner can have lines rounded down to the shilling, the cents coming off as a discount, under Administration › Till and returns rules. Nyama Bora Butchery rounds goods sold by weight.
• Carcass breakdowns. Under Inventory › Carcass breakdowns, a carcass becomes its cuts, each at its share of the carcass’s cost, with the loss and the yield against the cutting spec. See Break down a carcass and How carcass breakdowns and yield work.
• The cold room log and the closing clean. Branch operations has the Cold room log to fill through the day (Record the cold room log) and the Butchery closing clean, ready at the closing warning: knives, blocks, mincer and saw, scales and trays, the waste out, the floor and drains, and the cold room and display doors shut with the meat covered.
• Waste by reason. Trim and fat, bone, drip and the rest are written off as waste with their reason, and the shop manager approves them: Write off waste at closing.
• Fresh meat is not taken back. The returns policy can say Goods sold by weight are not taken back (“Fresh meat, fruit and vegetables.”), as Nyama Bora Butchery’s does.
• Licences and certificates. The Compliance calendar keeps a butchery’s dates: the butchery licence, the meat carrier permit, the health certificate for the premises, the food handlers’ medical certificates and the scales’ verification, each with who is responsible. See Food safety and Selling by weight.

A day in the butchery

1. Dawn. The cold room keeper receives the carcasses and offal by weight, each carcass with its tag.
2. The cutting room. The butchers break the carcasses down against their cutting specs: Break down a carcass.
3. The tills. Each cashier opens a shift (Open a shift) and sells by weight, by amount and from scale labels.
4. Morning, midday and evening. Someone reads the cold room, the display chiller and the freezer: Record the cold room log.
5. Closing. The trim, bone and drip are weighed out and written off (Write off waste at closing), the closing clean is done, and each cashier closes their shift (Close a shift).

The owner’s home page follows all of it: meat sold today in kg and the waste written off (1), the week’s carcass breakdowns with their yield and loss (2), the cold room readings today (3), and the opening, closing and cleaning checks at each branch (4).

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How Kila sets it up

The main screen is Till (scan and sell).

Rules it follows:

• Food safety: Expiry, waste, temperature and hygiene checks
• Weighed goods: Sell by weight from a scale or price-embedded barcodes

Its words:

Kila's standard words: customer, product, sale, receipt and branch.

Its set-up steps

A butchery’s set-up list adds three steps to a shop’s: the scales and PLU codes (1), the cutting specs (2) and the first cold room reading (3). It has no step for the scanner, receipt printer and drawer. To set up a till’s scale, see Set up a receipt printer, drawer or scale.

1. Business details and KRA PIN
2. First branch, opening hours and till
3. Products with prices and VAT
4. Scales, PLU codes and products sold by weight
5. Cutting specs for the carcasses you buy
6. Opening stock
7. First cold room reading
8. Suppliers
9. Reorder levels
10. Staff and roles
11. M-Pesa till or paybill
12. KRA eTIMS and item codes
13. Returns policy and till rules
14. First sale

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Its home page

• Sales today against the same day last week
• Tills open and their takings
• Meat sold today in kg, and waste
• Carcass breakdowns this week: yield and loss
• Cold room readings today
• Opening, closing and cleaning checks
• Top sellers today
• Low or out of stock
• Gross margin and Margin watch
• Payments waiting for confirmation
• Approvals and reviews waiting
• Products without a KRA item code
• Licences, permits and returns due
• Services due and reminders

Roles it starts with

• Till supervisor: Runs the tills on the floor: reviews shifts and counts, approves discounts and voids within limits. No prices, settings or purchasing.
• Merchandiser: Keeps products, prices and shelf labels up to date; suggests prices below the minimum margin. No money or tills.
• Butcher: Breaks carcasses down into cuts, weighs, records waste for approval and completes the cold room checks; sells on their own shift.

At Nyama Bora Butchery the head butcher and the Ruaka butcher have the Butcher role, the shop manager is a branch manager, the outlet supervisor a till supervisor, and the cold room keeper a storekeeper.

Where to go next

• Shops: everything a shop does in Kila, from the till to the reports.
• Selling by weight and Food safety: the rules a butchery follows.
• Butcher: the cutting room, the till and the cold room in a butcher’s day.
• Branch operations and Compliance calendar: the checks and logs at each branch, and the licences and certificates.