Help & Tutorials

Head to mybaristatrainer.com and click Get Started Free. You can register with your email and a password, or use Sign up with Google for one-tap setup. Google sign-in skips the email verification step entirely. If you register with email, enter your name, email, a password, and your shop name, then confirm you’re 16 or older and agree to the terms. You’ll get a verification email to confirm your address, and you can start using the app right away while you wait for it.

Once logged in, click Dashboard in the top navigation to manage your shop. The Overview tab shows your team’s recent activity, accuracy trends, your hardest drinks, and checklist completion stats. From here you can reach everything: your menu, your baristas, analytics, checklists, My Shop customization, and billing.

Go to Menu → Drinks → Add New Drink. Give it a name and choose a type (hot, cold, blended, or room temp). Check which cup sizes it comes in, then add ingredients: pick from the dropdown or type a new name and add it on the spot. For measured ingredients (shots, pumps, scoops), enable the Measured checkbox on the ingredient, then set exact quantities per size. Baristas will learn the specific amounts, not just the ingredient names. Drag ingredients to set the order baristas see them in on flashcards. Use the Notes field for anything extra baristas should know. Every recipe needs at least one size and one ingredient to save.

Milk Prep controls whether a drink’s milk is steamed or cold. Foam Style is now two separate settings (one for steamed drinks, one for iced) since a drink’s foam works differently depending on how the milk’s prepared.

Clarifying questions make orders feel real. When editing a recipe, expand the Clarifying Questions section. Type a question a barista might ask (like “Would you like any flavor in that?”) and add an answer for each option, adjusting the ingredients each answer adds or removes. One latte recipe can cover Vanilla, Caramel, and Toffee Nut just by adding an answer per flavor.

Toggle Barista asks to Customer asks for things the customer brings up themselves, like “Can I get that iced?” Baristas have to listen for those in the opening order. Each question needs at least two answers.

Example, barista asks: Question: “Would you like any flavor in that?” → Answer: “Yes, vanilla please” (adds Vanilla Syrup)

Example, customer asks: Question: “Can I get that iced?” → Answer: “Sure, iced is no problem!” (adds Ice, removes Hot Water)

In Menu → Ingredients, type a name, choose a category, and click Add. You can also add ingredients on the fly while building a recipe. Check Measured for ingredients where quantity matters: shots, pumps, scoops, ml, g, or any custom unit you define. Measured ingredients support per-size quantity settings on each recipe, which appear on study flashcards and can be graded during Take Orders.

Renaming an ingredient updates it everywhere it’s used. You can’t delete an ingredient that’s still part of a recipe. Free plans include up to 15 ingredients.

Categories group your ingredients in the builder and on the Take Orders screen. They keep things organized but don’t affect grading directly. Add, rename, or delete categories in Menu → Categories. Renaming a category updates every ingredient using it. Default categories can’t be deleted, and a category in use can’t be removed until its ingredients are moved. Free plans include up to 5 categories.

Milk and whip work automatically once they’re part of a recipe: sometimes the customer states their preference, sometimes the barista has to ask. In Menu → Milk Types, add each milk your shop offers. The active checkbox controls whether it shows up in orders. “Whip friendly” controls how often whip is requested with that milk: leave it on for dairy, turn it off for non-dairy options like oat or almond.

Drag to reorder how milks appear during Take Orders. You can also lock a specific milk or whip preference to a single recipe, perfect for a regular who always orders the same thing, so new hires are ready on day one. Free plans include up to 4 milk types.

Study mode is a flashcard view of your menu. Each card flips to show ingredients, sizes, and your notes. It’s read-only, great for baristas to review before practicing, and useful for you to see exactly what your team studies. Mastery is earned in Take Orders, not Study.

The dashboard has everything in one place. Overview for team activity, accuracy trends, and checklist stats. Invite to add your team, approve pending join requests, and track individual progress. Click any barista to see their accuracy, weak spots, and mastery. Menu to manage recipes, ingredients, milk types, and categories. Analytics for per-barista accuracy curves and team-wide insights (paid plans). Checklists to create and manage opening, closing, and mid-shift checklists (paid plans). Challenges to create owner challenges and award baristas: the system auto-detects milestones from game data, or you can create manual awards yourself (paid plans). Register to configure and enable Register Training scenarios for your team (paid plans). My Shop to add your logo and accent color (paid plans). Billing to manage your subscription. The bell icon in the top right of the dashboard header is your Notification Center. Click it to see recent activity and manage email preferences.

There are two ways to bring a barista aboard. Share your six-character join code: they enter it when signing up, and you approve them in the Invite tab under Pending Requests. Or send an email invite directly from the Invite tab, which skips the approval step since you initiated it.

Once they’re in, sort your barista list by XP, accuracy, last active, or name. Click a barista to see their detailed stats, including a “Needs Practice” panel that automatically flags drinks they’re struggling with. Free plans include up to 2 baristas; paid plans support up to 15.

On a trial or paid plan, the My Shop tab lets you upload your logo (PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, or SVG, up to 2MB), set your shop name, and choose an accent color. Your baristas see your shop’s identity while they train, making the experience feel like yours.

Paid plans can bulk-import recipes. In Menu → Drinks, click Import CSV, download the blank template to see the format, fill it in, and upload. Duplicates and anything over your plan limit are skipped, and you’ll see a summary of what imported.

Manage your plan in Dashboard → Billing. Start your one 7-day free trial whenever you’re ready: no charge until it ends, cancel anytime. Plans are $29.99/month or $299.99/year. Click “Manage Billing” to open the secure Stripe portal where you can update your card, view invoices, or cancel.

If you cancel, your subscription runs through the end of the current paid period (no immediate cutoff). After it ends your data is never deleted, but if you have more than five recipes you’ll see the extras locked until you resubscribe.

Need a break instead of canceling? Pause your subscription for 1–3 months and resume early anytime: your account works like the free plan while paused.

Checklists let you create task lists for any shift: opening, closing, mid-shift, or custom. Go to Dashboard → Checklists to create a new checklist. Start from a built-in template or build one from scratch, then assign it a shift type and add your tasks.

When a barista opens the app during an assigned shift, their checklist appears in the queue. They check off each task and can leave a note on any item to flag an issue or pass along context. Once submitted, you see the completed checklist under Submitted Checklists with timestamps and all notes.

Checklists come in four modes: Individual (everyone completes their own copy), Team (one shared list, shows who checked what), Owner-only (private to you), and Assigned (visible only to specific people you choose, good for onboarding a new hire). Unfinished checklists save automatically at your shop’s daily reset instead of losing progress, and clicking a completion notification takes you straight to it.

Checklists are available on trial and paid plans.

For recipes where exact amounts matter (espresso shots, syrup pumps, matcha scoops) you can set per-size quantities on each ingredient. First, go to Menu → Ingredients and check Measured on any ingredient where quantity matters.

Then, in the recipe editor, a quantity stepper appears next to each measured ingredient for every size. Set the correct amount (for example: Small: 1 shot, Medium: 2 shots, Large: 3 shots) and save. Those amounts appear on study flashcards so baristas can learn the exact numbers before they practice.

When ingredient quantity grading is enabled for your shop, baristas must also enter the correct quantity during Take Orders, not just the ingredient name. Entering the wrong amount is treated as an incorrect order.

Register Training lets your baristas practice real register scenarios: cash counting, card handling (including declined cards and alternative payment), punch card management, and cash discount conversations. Enable it from the Register tab in your Dashboard.

In the settings panel you control which scenario types are active for your shop. Enable or disable cash counting, card scenarios, and punch card scenarios independently to match how your register actually works. Changes take effect on the next scenario a barista starts.

Register Training is available on paid plans.

Challenges give baristas goals to work toward and let you recognize standout performance. There are two types.

Auto-detected challenges are generated automatically from game data. The nine tracked condition types are: drink count milestones, streak targets, daily streak goals, full menu mastery, three-star order counts, Register Training correct-answer count, level reached, certificate earned, and a specific achievement unlocked. When a barista meets the criteria, the challenge is marked complete on their profile without any action from you.

Manual awards are created by you. Go to Dashboard → Challenges, click New Challenge, type a title and description, select one or more baristas, and click Award. Use these for real-world recognition: first solo shift, most improved, fastest at cold drinks, or anything you want to call out.

Don’t want to write one from scratch? Click Browse Challenge Templates to pick from a library of pre-built challenges and add them to your shop in a couple of taps, the same idea as the recipe template system in your Menu.

XP and bonus fact card rewards (where configured) grant automatically the moment a challenge completes, no action needed on your end unless the reward is something you hand over yourself.

Both types appear on each barista’s Collection profile. Challenges are available on paid plans.

The bell icon in the top right of your Dashboard header is your Notification Center. A badge shows the count of unread notifications. Click the bell to open a dropdown of recent activity.

You’ll be notified when: a barista joins your shop, a barista leaves your shop, a barista submits a checklist note, or a barista completes a challenge.

Each notification type also has an optional email. Open the bell dropdown and click Email preferences to toggle email on or off for each type independently. In-app notifications are always on regardless of your email settings.

Any shop with at least two baristas gets a shop leaderboard, ranking everyone by XP. It’s opt-in (each person, including owners, turns it on or off for themselves from Settings) so nobody who’d rather not compete has to appear on it.

Baristas have always seen the leaderboard on their own Profile; now owners can see the same standings too, right alongside the rest of your team’s activity.

Doyle is a built-in guide available to every role: owners, baristas, and individual accounts. He’s context-aware: the Q&A he shows is specific to whichever screen you’re on, so you get relevant answers without having to search a help page.

Look for the Doyle icon in the corner of any screen. Tap it to open a panel of questions and answers about exactly what you’re looking at: how a feature works, what a stat means, what a setting does. Different questions appear on different screens, and the answers reflect your role, so owners and baristas see content tailored to what they can actually do from that page.

You’ll be invited one of two ways. If you got an email invite, click “Accept Invite,” create your account, and you can start training right away. If you got a join code, go to app.mybaristatrainer.com, click “Join a shop with a code,” enter your details and the code, then request to join. The shop owner approves your request, you’ll get an email, and then you’re in. Either way, you can sign up with Google for one-tap account creation: no password or verification email needed.

Take Orders is the main game. A customer asks for a drink: sometimes they give every detail, sometimes you have to ask. They might also volunteer a request like “Can I get that iced?” which changes what you need to build. Select the right drink, size, milk, whip, and ingredients, then submit. Get it right and you earn XP and stars. Hit your daily goal of five orders for bonus XP, and keep a daily streak going to earn extra rewards.

Study mode lets you flip through flashcards of every drink on the menu any time, and after a wrong order in the game, a direct study link for that drink appears in the retry banner so you can review exactly what tripped you up. Your Profile shows your XP progress, category mastery, streaks, shop leaderboard standing, practice calendar, drinks that need more practice, recent order history, and your achievement collection.

You can switch between Starter and Advanced mode from the Take Orders screen: Advanced adds milk temperature, foam style, and exact quantities, plus bonus XP. You might also serve a Regular, a customer with a set order your shop already knows. If they just say “the usual,” check Study Mode’s Regulars filter if you’re not sure.

My Barista Trainer works in any browser and installs like a real app: no app store needed. On iPhone, open the app in Safari, tap Share, then “Add to Home Screen.” On Android, open it in Chrome, tap the menu, then “Install app.” On desktop, open it in Chrome or Edge and click the install icon in the address bar.

Daily goal: Complete 5 orders in a day to hit your daily goal and earn bonus XP. The goal resets at midnight.

Streak: Practice on consecutive days to build a streak. Your streak is shown on your Profile as a practice calendar. Missing a day breaks it, so even a few quick orders keeps it alive.

Weighted practice: The game automatically prioritizes drinks you haven’t mastered yet, so your practice time goes where it’s needed most. As you get better at a drink, it appears less frequently.

Your Profile: The Profile tab is your personal dashboard. It shows your current XP and level, mastery by drink category, streaks, shop leaderboard standing, your practice calendar, drinks that need more practice, recent order history, and all the achievements you’ve unlocked.

Register Training puts you through real register scenarios: the kinds of situations that trip up new baristas at the actual till. Each session is one scenario: cash counting, a card decline, an alternative payment situation, a punch card, or a cash discount conversation.

You get up to 3 attempts per scenario before it’s marked complete. Get it right on the first try for full XP; later attempts still earn XP but at a reduced amount. Your daily goal is 5 register scenarios: hit it for bonus XP, the same way the regular training game works.

If the Register tab isn’t visible, your shop owner hasn’t enabled Register Training yet, ask them to turn it on from their Dashboard settings.

A curated set of recipes to practice on, plus Achievements & XP: enough to get a real feel for the training before deciding whether to go further. Register Training, Challenges, and the Barista Mastery Certificate require upgrading.

The full recipe library (not just the free sample), Register Training for cash and register scenarios, real Challenges with XP rewards, and the Barista Mastery Certificate.

Not an official industry credential: a real, verifiable record of what you’ve actually practiced. It’s not limited to individual accounts either: any barista or owner at a real shop can earn one too, and it’s branded with that shop’s own name, not a generic template. Something honest to show a hiring manager, not a substitute for on-the-job training.

No, individual accounts train entirely on their own, no employer or shop required.

Click Settings in the header to change your display name, email, or password. Settings is also where you switch between Blonde Roast and Dark Roast themes. If you signed up with Google, there’s no password to manage: your sign-in is handled through your Google account. You can also download all your data as a CSV any time. Baristas can leave their current shop from the Danger Zone, and optionally start their own shop in the same step. Shop owners can permanently delete their account and shop from the same area.

You can sign up and sign in with Google on any account type: owner or barista. Click Sign up with Google on the registration page, or Sign in with Google on the login page. Google sign-in skips the email verification step entirely.

If you already have an account with an email and password, you can link it to your Google account from Settings. Once linked, you can sign in with either method. Accounts created through Google show “Signed in with Google” in Settings. There’s no password to set or manage on those accounts.

Any barista can start their own shop. Go to Settings → Danger Zone → Leave Shop and choose Start My Own Shop. This creates a new shop under your account and converts your role to owner.

Your training progress, XP, and achievements from your current shop don’t carry over. Your new shop starts with a fresh slate. You can then add your own menu and invite your own team.

Can owners offer incentive rewards for training? Yes, performance bonuses and rewards tied to training milestones are generally permitted in the US, EU, and Australia. Owners commonly use XP leaderboards and completion milestones as a basis for incentives.

Is training on My Barista Trainer considered compensable work time? My Barista Trainer is a voluntary training tool. Whether training time must be compensated depends on whether you require it as a condition of employment and the labor laws in your jurisdiction. If you require baristas to use the app, consult an employment lawyer about your obligations.

Consult an employment lawyer in your jurisdiction for specific compliance advice.

After signing up you’ll get a verification email. Click the link to confirm your address. If the link expired, you can request a fresh one from the verification page or the banner inside the app.

Click Support in the header any time. Choose a subject, write your message, and send. It reaches us directly and we respond within 48 hours. You can also email support@mybaristatrainer.com.