Morning food safety, counter and front of house checks for company-owned cafes.
A cafe daily opening checklist is the set of checks a cafe manager completes before the doors open, so food is safe, the counter is ready and the front of house looks the way the brand intends. It covers front of house, the counter and menu boards, kitchen equipment and temperatures, food date labels, hygiene, washrooms and compliance, including the FSSAI licence on display. The Cafe Manager fills it on the phone during the opening hour, with live photos stamped with GPS and time, and the Area Manager reviews it the same morning. Chiller temperatures, date labels and the FSSAI licence are fatal, so a fail stops service on that item and raises a ticket at once.
Free. No form. The workbook has the same columns as the table below, with the score formula and a fatal-item check in place.
Score = weight of items answered Yes ÷ weight of items not marked N/A, out of 100. Pass mark 90. A failed fatal item caps the score at zero and raises a ticket to the area manager.
| # | Item | Audit question | Answer | Photo | Weight | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Facade and signage | Is the facade clean, the signage lit and the outdoor seating wiped and set out? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 3 | Glass clean, sign fully lit, outdoor chairs wiped and aligned, no bins at the entrance. |
| 2 | Seating area set | Are tables wiped, chairs aligned and menus, napkins and condiments set on every table? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 3 | Every table clean and dry, menu upright, napkin holder full, no crumbs on seats. |
| 3 | Music and AC | Is the brand playlist on at the set volume and the AC at the set temperature? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 2 | Approved playlist, volume low enough to talk over, seating area comfortable before opening. |
| 4 | Entrance and floor | Is the entrance mat clean and the floor mopped and dry across the seating area? | Yes / No / N/A | Optional | 2 | Floor dry with no streaks, mat straight, wet floor sign stored away before opening. |
| # | Item | Audit question | Answer | Photo | Weight | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | Counter and display | Is the counter clean, with the display filled, every item labelled and the glass free of smudges? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 4 | Display full as per the layout, name, price and veg or non-veg mark on every item. |
| 6 | Menu boards and prices | Do the menu boards and screens show current items and prices, matching the POS? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 4 | Board prices equal POS prices, seasonal items current, no taped-over or handwritten prices. |
| 7 | POS and payments | Is the POS logged in, receipt printer loaded and the UPI QR and card machine working? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 3 | Test bill printed and voided, UPI QR scans to the outlet account, card machine connected. |
| 8 | Opening cash float | Is the opening cash float counted, matched to last night's handover and signed? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 4 | Float equals the set amount, counted by two people, register signed with time. |
| # | Item | Audit question | Answer | Photo | Weight | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | Chiller and freezer temperaturesFatal | Are all chillers at or below 5 degrees Celsius and freezers at or below minus 18, with readings logged? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 5 | Photo of each thermometer, readings within range and written in the temperature log. |
| 10 | Coffee machine and grinder | Is the coffee machine up to pressure, first shot tested and the grinder set for today's beans? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 3 | Test shot within the brand's time and taste, group heads flushed, grinder hopper clean. |
| 11 | Oven and hot holding | Are the oven and hot-holding unit up to temperature before any food is loaded? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 3 | Oven at the set temperature, hot holding at 63 degrees or above, readings logged. |
| 12 | Food date labelsFatal | Does every prepared and opened item carry a date label, with nothing past its use-by date? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 5 | Every container labelled with prep and use-by date, expired items binned and logged. |
| 13 | Raw and cooked separation | Are raw and cooked items stored apart and covered, with raw kept below cooked in the chiller? | Yes / No / N/A | Optional | 4 | Separate colour-coded containers, lids on, raw on lower racks, no drip onto cooked food. |
| # | Item | Audit question | Answer | Photo | Weight | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | Hand-wash station | Is the hand-wash station stocked with soap, paper towels and running water, with the sign up? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 4 | Soap and towels full, water running, hand-wash sign visible, sink used for nothing else. |
| 15 | Uniforms and hairnets | Is every team member in clean uniform and apron, with hairnet or cap, short nails and no jewellery? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 4 | Clean uniform, hair fully covered, nails short, no rings or watches on food handlers. |
| 16 | Customer washrooms | Are the washrooms clean and stocked, with the cleaning log signed at opening? | Yes / No / N/A | Optional | 3 | Floor dry, soap and tissue stocked, no smell, cleaning log signed with time. |
| 17 | Pest check | Is there no sign of pests in the kitchen, store area or seating, with the last pest control dated? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 4 | No droppings or insects seen, traps intact, pest control card dated within the month. |
| # | Item | Audit question | Answer | Photo | Weight | What good looks like |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 | FSSAI licence displayedFatal | Is the valid FSSAI licence displayed where customers can see it? | Yes / No / N/A | Required | 5 | Licence in date, framed near the counter, licence number readable from the queue. |
| 19 | Fire safety | Are fire extinguishers and the kitchen fire blanket in date, and the fire exit clear and lit? | Yes / No / N/A | Optional | 4 | Extinguisher gauges green, blanket at the kitchen door, exit path free of stock. |
| 20 | Team health check | Has every team member on shift confirmed they are free of fever, cough or stomach illness? | Yes / No / N/A | No | 3 | Health check noted for each person, anyone unwell sent home and the shift covered. |
Loaded into BorentisOps, each required photo is live, GPS and time-stamped, so a photo from yesterday or another store does not pass. Where the brand has a docket or display standard, Drishti scores the photo against it and marks the misses. Every fail raises a ticket with an owner and a deadline, and the area manager sees the store on a heat map before the next visit.
The checklist runs offline and syncs when signal returns, in Hindi, English and Hinglish, and the operations score sits next to the store's selling score from Borentis Floor on one store card. Pricing is per store, so every cafe manager and staff member in the store is on the app.
Both are food safety failures that can make a customer ill, and no amount of good service at the counter makes up for that. Marking them fatal means the item is pulled from sale, the Cafe Manager and Area Manager are alerted, and a ticket is raised with an owner and a deadline. For a chiller running warm, the ticket usually goes to maintenance and the stock inside is checked before it is served.
About 18 minutes for the Cafe Manager, most of it in the kitchen reading thermometers and checking labels. Outlets that open at 8:00 usually start at 7:15, so the coffee machine, oven and display are ready by the time the first customer walks in. During busy weekends it helps to split the list, with the kitchen lead filling the kitchen section and the manager filling the rest.
It takes ten seconds and protects the outlet during a surprise inspection. Licences get taken down during a repaint, covered by a new menu board or left expired after a renewal slips. A daily photo keeps the licence visible and in date, and the checklist history gives the brand a record that it was on display every day of the month.
Yes. The Excel download keeps the same columns BorentisOps uses: section, item, question, answer type, photo rule, weight and fatal flag, so it imports as a checklist without retyping. A Borentis onboarding person maps the roles and stores, sets who fills it and who reviews it, and schedules it so it reaches the right phone at the right time. You can edit, add or remove items before or after the import.