Success Story: Retro Brew Coffe With Daftra
After relying on Excel sheets and handwritten invoices, the accounting team at Retro Brew moved to Daftra. It is now the system they count on to close the books and to track inventory and suppliers, all in one place.
At a glance
| Customer | Retro Brew — Egypt |
| Industry | Coffee roasting and cafés |
| Featured speakers | Shady Mohamed and Abdullah Khaled, General Accountants |
| Users | The accounting team, plus non-accountant staff who log expenses |
| Key features used | Automatic journal entries, reports, inventory and stock counts, expiry dates, average costing, suppliers, returns |
Key results
- ✓No more double work in Excel: entries post to every account automatically.
- ✓At month-end the P&L is already there; only the closing entries are left.
- ✓Every item is tracked from receipt to dispatch, with alerts before it expires.
- ✓Accurate costs based on average price, with an instant alert when a supplier's price changes.
Video in Arabic
About Retro Brew
Retro Brew is an Egyptian coffee brand working in coffee roasting and cafés. It handles a large range of items in high volumes, products with expiry dates, and purchase prices that change all the time.
The story is told by Shady Mohamed and Abdullah Khaled, the company's General Accountants. They handle journal entries, inventory, suppliers and the monthly close.
The challenge: double the effort for accurate numbers
Before Daftra, all the accounting ran on Excel, and getting the numbers right took twice the work in three areas:
Excel and double checking
Every transaction was entered in detail, then reviewed again in total to make sure it was right.
Handwritten invoices
A large invoice written by hand could take a full hour.
Incomplete software
Some programs gave a P&L but not the accounts behind it, and couldn't show what had been paid to a supplier or what was still owed.
“If I did a manual invoice with pen and paper… it would take me an hour.” — Accountant, Retro Brew
The solution: Daftra as a complete accounting system
Retro Brew moved to Daftra to bring accounting, inventory, purchasing, sales and suppliers into one system. Abdullah compares it to the difference between long division on paper and using a calculator: he still understands every step, he just doesn't have to do it by hand.
Automatic entries and a faster month-end close
Every transaction posts to its accounts automatically. At month-end the team no longer gathers and cleans up balances: the P&L is already there, and only the closing entries need adjusting.
“Give it the right inputs and you get the right results… at month-end I don't need to close the P&L.”
Reports instead of line-by-line checks
Reports show the team account activity, stock balances, purchases and sales, without opening each transaction one by one.
Expenses anyone can log
Staff with no accounting background can record a hospitality or transport expense directly, without writing a journal entry or choosing accounts.
Inventory under control
| Feature | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Scanning with the app | Saves time with many items and high volumes |
| Item tracking | From receipt to dispatch, so any shortage or overage can be traced |
| Stock counts | Monthly and periodic counts, plus checkpoints at any time |
| Expiry dates | Recorded on receipt, with an alert as the date approaches |
Accurate costs despite changing prices
With prices shifting constantly, Daftra calculates cost using the average price, and flags it right away if an item with a fixed price arrives at a different one.
Suppliers, returns and corrections
- Track every supplier: what's been paid in cash and what's still owed.
- Issue return invoices easily, with tax applied.
- Correct any human error after review, which Shady picked as his favorite feature of all.
The results: from scattered sheets to a system they rely on
Today the Retro Brew team relies on Daftra for the monthly close: “We depend on the system to close our books.”
| Area | Before Daftra | With Daftra |
|---|---|---|
| Data entry | In detail, then reviewed again in total in Excel | Once, with entries posting automatically |
| Large invoices | Up to an hour by hand | Issued straight from the system |
| Month-end close | Gathering and cleaning up balances | P&L ready; closing entries only |
| Review | Line by line | Through reports |
| Suppliers | Hard to see what was paid and what's owed | A clear balance for each supplier |
| Inventory | — | Tracked from receipt to dispatch, regular counts, expiry alerts |
Easy from day two
The team didn't need a long learning curve:
Quick to learn
By the second day, working in the system felt completely natural.
Daftra's team at the start
Patient, hands-on help until everything was up and running.
“If anything, I found it really easy… by the second day I was completely comfortable with it.”
The bottom line
From daily entries to inventory, suppliers and the monthly close, Retro Brew's team now runs its accounting from one system. And when colleagues ask about the system they use, the answer is always the same:
My colleagues ask me, “Is the system you use easy or complicated?” I tell them, “No, it's really easy.”
Accounting team — Retro Brew
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