Cafe Guide

Published: 2026-10-30 · Reviewed: 2026-11-04

Cafe Opening Checklist: The Complete Document Guide

Why this matters

Cafes look simpler than restaurants, smaller menu, smaller space, smaller team. That’s exactly why their paperwork gets neglected, and why new cafes run into the same expensive problems: a food licence that wasn’t ready, an espresso machine with no service contract, a barista who started with no written agreement. A cafe’s margins are thin and its opening weeks are make-or-break for local reputation. Documents are the cheap insurance that lets you focus on the coffee.

Practical steps

1. Sort licences and premises paperwork early

Same rule as any food business: the licences come before the customers, and some take weeks. Check your local authority’s requirements, typically a food business registration or licence before you open, premises approvals (health, fire, building), and, where relevant, permits for outdoor seating or signage. Outdoor tables are a cafe staple and a common blind spot: the pavement outside your door often needs its own permission.

Keep copies in one folder behind the counter. An inspector’s first question is usually about registration, answering it in ten seconds sets the tone for the whole visit.

2. Lock down your coffee and food suppliers in writing

A cafe runs on a handful of critical suppliers: coffee beans, milk (and milk alternatives), bread and pastries, and cleaning chemicals. Each one deserves written terms:

  • Coffee: agree roast profile, delivery frequency, price per kilo, and what happens if a batch is off. Coffee quality drift is how a cafe slowly loses regulars without knowing why.
  • Milk and alternatives: delivery days, volumes, price. Milk is a daily delivery and a daily cost, small price rises compound fast.
  • Bakery/pastry: who bakes, delivery time (it needs to be before opening, not at), and a returns policy for stale stock.
  • Use a written order form for every order, every time. Cafes order small amounts frequently, which means more chances for errors and more deliveries to check.

3. Document your equipment

A cafe’s biggest single asset is usually the espresso machine, and it’s also the most likely thing to fail on a Saturday morning:

  • Keep a maintenance log from day one: water filter changes, descaling, grinder burr checks, boiler pressure readings. Manufacturer warranties and service contracts usually require proof of routine maintenance, no log, no warranty claim.
  • File the service contract and the emergency repair number where any staff member can find it, not just in your phone.
  • Record equipment serial numbers and purchase dates. If it gets stolen or breaks under warranty, you’ll need them, and you won’t remember them.

4. Build the small-team hiring pack

Cafes often hire part-time and casual staff, exactly the group most likely to have nothing in writing. Every person gets: a simple written agreement (role, pay, hours, notice), an induction checklist (allergen basics, equipment safety, hygiene rules, emergency contacts), and a training log for anything skill-based like the espresso machine. Part-time doesn’t mean paperwork-free.

5. Opening-week cafe checklists

  • Opening: grinder dial-in and first-shot check, milk stock, pastry delivery received and checked, till float, display case temperatures, wifi and music working (yes, these matter, customers notice).
  • Closing: equipment shutdown procedure, cleaning tasks by name, cash-up, perishables stored and dated, security.
  • Keep a feedback form on the counter from day one. Early customers tell you things in week one that they’ll stop mentioning by month two, capture it while they’re still excited to help.

Common mistakes

  1. Assuming the coffee supplier’s training replaces your own records. Roasters often train your baristas, great. But if that training isn’t logged with dates and names, you can’t prove staff competence to an inspector or defend yourself when a customer complaint lands.
  2. No written agreement with the pastry/bakery supplier. Informal daily deliveries work until they don’t, a missed delivery at 7am with no written service standard means no leverage and no backup plan.
  3. Skipping the equipment maintenance log. Descaling doesn’t happen because you meant to do it; it happens because the log says it’s due. Scale kills espresso machines slowly and expensively.
  4. Cash handling with no daily reconciliation. Small transactions, high volume, easy to skim and easy to lose track of. Cash up every single day from day one, the habit is the control.

Templates that help

Bottom line

A cafe is a small machine with a few critical parts: licences in order, suppliers in writing, the espresso machine maintained and logged, every staff member with a signed agreement. Get these four right before opening and the business runs on coffee and routine instead of firefighting.