Stop guessing when to pull dough from the cold box. Know your exact fermentation window down to the hour.
Schedule fermented dough production around actual fermentation timelines, not guesswork — so you're not pulling cold dough at 2 AM or over-fermenting bread on the shelf.
Schedule a week of fermented dough production in 20 minutes, not 2 hours of back-and-forth texts and spreadsheet updates.
You're baking sourdough or long-fermentation bread. Your dough goes into the cold box Wednesday night, and you need it shaped and proofed by Thursday morning — but you have 40 pounds of bulk dough in a different stage of fermentation in the retarder. You're tracking timelines in a notebook, texting your baker at 6 AM asking if the dough is ready, and sometimes you're pulling bread too early or too late. A fermented dough production scheduling software sounds like overkill until you realize you're losing 8 hours a week to this guessing game. BakeOnyx lets you schedule fermented dough batches with actual fermentation timelines built in — so you know exactly when to pull, shape, and bake.
Free 14-day trial. No credit card required.
Sound Familiar?
“You're tracking fermentation timelines in a notebook or your head, and sometimes dough sits too long or gets shaped too early.”
Wednesday you mix a 15 kg batch of sourdough. You write down '48-hour cold ferment' on a sticky note. Thursday morning you're not sure if it's been 42 hours or 48 hours. You pull it anyway, shape it, and the crumb is tighter than it should be. By Friday you're wondering if the problem was the fermentation time or the flour or something else. You have no record of what actually happened. You're not optimizing fermentation — you're hoping it works out.
“Your cold box holds three different batches at three different stages, and you can't see which one is ready without opening the door and checking.”
You have 12 kg of dough on day 1 of a 3-day ferment, 8 kg on day 2, and 10 kg ready to shape today. Your baker opens the cold box three times looking for the right batch. Each time the temperature drops. You're losing fermentation time and spending 5 minutes hunting for dough. On Saturday when you have a walk-in order for 20 loaves, you can't tell your team which batch to pull because the batches aren't labeled with fermentation dates — just 'sourdough' and 'rye.'
“You schedule production around your oven, not around fermentation timelines, so you're rushing dough that needs more time or holding dough that's already ready.”
Your oven opens at 6 AM. You need 30 loaves baked by 10 AM. But your dough isn't ready until 7:30 AM because you mixed it late yesterday. You either rush the final proof (and the bread is dense) or you miss your 10 AM deadline. You're building your production schedule around oven capacity, not around the actual fermentation window. This means you're either over-fermenting bread that sits waiting for oven space, or under-fermenting bread you pull too early because the oven is free.
“When you get a custom order for 50 loaves with a specific delivery time, you have no way to calculate backwards from delivery to figure out when to mix and ferment.”
A restaurant calls Friday asking for 50 loaves of sourdough delivered Monday at 2 PM. You have no system to work backwards: 2 PM delivery means bake Sunday night, final proof Sunday afternoon, shape Sunday morning, cold ferment Saturday night, mix Friday night. You're guessing whether you have enough cold box space and whether your timeline is realistic. You say yes, then realize Saturday morning you're out of space and the dough is fermenting faster than planned because the retarder is overstuffed.
“Your staff doesn't know what to prep without calling you, so you're the bottleneck for every batch that moves through the schedule.”
Your baker arrives at 4 AM and doesn't know if today's job is to mix new dough, shape yesterday's batch, or pull cold dough from the retarder. They text you. You're still asleep. They start mixing because they're not sure, and now you have three batches in progress when you only needed one. By the time you arrive, the timeline is scrambled and you're improvising.
Build your production schedule around actual fermentation timelines, not guesswork.
With BakeOnyx, you enter your fermentation recipe once — bulk ferment time, cold ferment window, final proof duration — and the system calculates exactly when each batch needs to move to the next stage. You schedule a batch for Monday delivery, and BakeOnyx tells you: mix Friday 6 PM, cold ferment until Sunday 8 AM, shape Sunday 8:30 AM, final proof until Sunday 5 PM, bake Sunday 6 PM. Your staff sees a bake list every morning that shows which batches to pull and when. You stop losing dough to over-fermentation and stop rushing batches that aren't ready.
- ✓Enter fermentation timelines once per recipe — bulk ferment duration, cold ferment window, final proof time — and BakeOnyx schedules every batch automatically
- ✓Schedule a custom order backwards from delivery time — tell the system 'deliver Monday 2 PM' and it calculates mix time, ferment time, and shape time for you
- ✓See your cold box inventory by fermentation stage — 'day 1 of 3-day ferment: 12 kg', 'day 3 ready to shape: 10 kg' — without opening the door
- ✓Print a daily bake list that tells your staff exactly which batch to pull and when — no texts, no guessing, no calling you at 5 AM
- ✓Track actual fermentation times against planned times — so you learn which recipes over-ferment or under-ferment in your specific environment
How It Works
Enter your fermentation recipe with actual timelines.
You go to BakeOnyx and add your sourdough recipe: 500g flour, 350g water, 100g starter, 10g salt. You add the fermentation schedule: 'Bulk ferment 4 hours at 75°F, then cold ferment 48 hours at 38°F, then final proof 2 hours at room temperature.' You save it. BakeOnyx now knows the total time from mix to bake for this recipe.
Schedule a batch by entering the mix time or desired delivery time.
You get an order for 20 loaves due Monday 2 PM. You click 'New Batch' and enter: recipe (sourdough), quantity (20 loaves), desired delivery (Monday 2 PM). BakeOnyx calculates backwards: mix Friday 6 PM, bulk ferment until Friday 10 PM, cold ferment until Sunday 8 AM, shape Sunday 8:30 AM, final proof until Sunday 5 PM, bake Sunday 6 PM. It shows you whether you have cold box space for this batch on the days you need it.
See your cold box calendar — what's fermenting when, and when it's ready.
You open the Cold Box view. It shows: Saturday batch (day 2 of 3, ready Sunday 4 PM), Monday batch (day 1 of 3, ready Wednesday 4 PM), Wednesday batch (ready to shape today). You see at a glance that you have space for one more batch starting tomorrow, and that the Saturday batch will be done before the Monday batch needs cold box space.
Your staff gets a morning bake list with fermentation timelines.
Your baker clocks in at 4 AM. They pull up the bake list on their phone. It says: 'Pull Saturday batch from cold box at 4:30 AM (day 3 of 3, ready to shape). Shape by 5:15 AM. Move to final proof bench, ready to bake at 6:30 AM.' No ambiguity. No phone calls.
Track what actually happened so you optimize fermentation over time.
Your baker notes the actual shape time and bake time. BakeOnyx compares it to the plan: planned cold ferment was 48 hours, actual was 47.5 hours. You're learning whether your retarder runs 2°F warmer than you think, or whether your dough ferments faster in summer. Over three months, you have data on whether to adjust your fermentation times by 30 minutes for seasonal changes.
Start scheduling fermented dough by fermentation timelines, not guesswork.
Try BakeOnyx free for 14 days — no credit card required — and schedule your first week of fermented dough production.
Before & After BakeOnyx
Scheduling a custom order for 50 loaves with a specific delivery time
Before
Customer calls Friday asking for 50 loaves delivered Monday 2 PM. You have no system to work backwards. You think: 'Mix Friday night, ferment over the weekend, shape Monday morning, bake Monday afternoon.' But you're not sure if you have cold box space. You're not sure if your oven can handle 50 loaves Monday afternoon. You say 'I'll call you back' and spend 30 minutes sketching a timeline on paper, checking your retarder, asking your baker if they can come in early Monday. You call the customer back 45 minutes later and quote a price that might not cover your labor because you don't know your actual fermentation timeline.
After
Customer calls Friday. You open BakeOnyx, enter: 50 loaves, delivery Monday 2 PM. BakeOnyx calculates: mix Friday 6 PM, cold ferment until Sunday 8 AM, shape Sunday 8:30 AM, final proof until Sunday 5 PM, bake Sunday 6 PM. You see that you have cold box space Friday-Sunday and oven time Sunday evening. You quote the customer in 90 seconds with confidence. You accept the order. On Friday night, your staff sees the bake list and knows exactly what to prep. You deliver Monday on time.
Managing three batches in your cold box at different fermentation stages
Before
You have 12 kg of sourdough on day 1 of a 3-day ferment, 10 kg on day 2, and 8 kg ready to shape. Your baker opens the cold box looking for the batch that's ready. They're not sure which one it is. They open the door, let temperature drop, look at the dough, close the door. They do this three times. They finally find the right batch, but they've lost 5 minutes and the cold box temperature is 2°F warmer than it should be. Later in the week, you're not sure if the tight crumb in one loaf was because of under-fermentation or because the retarder got too warm.
After
You open the Cold Box view in BakeOnyx. You see: 'Saturday batch (day 3 of 3, ready to shape at 5 AM)', 'Monday batch (day 1 of 3, ready Sunday 8 AM)', 'Wednesday batch (day 2 of 3, ready Monday 10 AM).' Your baker knows exactly which batch to pull without opening the door. The retarder stays at the right temperature. You have data on actual fermentation times, so you can adjust recipes for seasonal changes.
Your staff arriving at 4 AM not knowing what to do first
Before
Your baker arrives at 4 AM. They don't know if the job today is to mix new dough, shape yesterday's batch, or pull cold dough from the retarder. They text you. You're asleep. They make a guess and start mixing. By the time you arrive at 5:30 AM, there are three batches in progress and the timeline is scrambled. You're improvising. You're stressed. Your baker is frustrated because they didn't know what you needed. You lose 45 minutes of production time to confusion.
After
Your baker clocks in at 4 AM and pulls up the bake list on their phone. It says: 'Pull Saturday batch from cold box at 4:30 AM (day 3 of 3). Shape by 5:15 AM. Move to final proof bench, ready to bake at 6:30 AM.' They start the right task immediately. No texts. No guessing. By the time you arrive, the batch is already shaped and in final proof. You're on schedule.
Figuring out whether to adjust fermentation times for summer heat or winter cold
Before
You've been using a 48-hour cold ferment for sourdough all year. In summer, the bread seems slightly over-fermented. In winter, it seems slightly under-fermented. You're not sure if the problem is your retarder temperature, seasonal changes, or the flour. You adjust the fermentation time by guessing — maybe 46 hours in summer, maybe 50 hours in winter. But you have no data to back this up. You're not optimizing, you're just reacting.
After
BakeOnyx tracks actual fermentation times for every batch. After three weeks, you see: planned cold ferment 48 hours, actual average 46.5 hours. You realize your retarder runs 2°F warmer than you think. You adjust the recipe to 50 hours. You track the next batch: actual 49.8 hours. You've optimized fermentation for your specific equipment. Your crumb consistency improves. You're not guessing anymore.
What Changes for You
Eliminate cold box guessing — know exactly what's fermenting and when it's ready, without opening the door.
You stop losing 15 minutes a day to dough-hunting and temperature drops. Your retarder maintains temperature better because you're not opening it to check fermentation stage. You save 90 minutes a week and your fermentation consistency improves because the cold box stays at the right temperature.
Schedule custom orders backwards from delivery time — so you never promise delivery you can't meet.
A customer asks for 30 loaves Wednesday morning. Instead of guessing, you enter the delivery time into BakeOnyx. It tells you whether you have cold box space and oven time for a Monday mix. You give an accurate quote in 60 seconds instead of saying 'let me check and call you back.' You land 3-4 more orders a month because you can commit immediately.
Your staff knows what to prep every morning without calling you — so you're not the bottleneck at 4 AM.
Your baker pulls up the daily bake list and starts the right task immediately. No texts. No waiting. You save 30 minutes of morning coordination and eliminate the scrambled batches that happen when staff guess wrong. Your production starts on time, every day.
Optimize fermentation times based on actual data — so you stop losing bread to over-fermentation or rushing batches that aren't ready.
After three weeks, BakeOnyx shows you that your 48-hour cold ferment actually takes 46 hours in your retarder. You adjust the recipe. You stop pulling dough that's slightly under-fermented. Your crumb improves. You're also not over-fermenting bread that sits waiting for oven space. Better bread = higher prices = $200-400 more revenue per month from the same production.
Handle multiple fermentation stages at once without losing track of which batch is which.
You go from managing 2-3 batches in the cold box to managing 5-6 because you can see exactly which batch is on day 1, day 2, or day 3 of fermentation. You're not hunting for dough or mixing up batches. Your cold box utilization goes up 40%, so you're producing more bread without a bigger retarder.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Start scheduling fermented dough by fermentation timelines, not guesswork.
Try BakeOnyx free for 14 days — no credit card required — and schedule your first week of fermented dough production.
Free 14-day trial. No credit card required. Plans from $29/month.