Details: Please share the date, error message, or screenshots/videos for issue verification.
It started 4/10. No errors on screen to report
Issues:
The employees never follow the tasks given to them in the Business Employee management section. They bake when their task is to make coffee, or they make coffee when their task is to clean and bake. It’s highly frustrating.
Whenever the display stands are full, they will still bake and continue to fill them with nothing but cakes instead of other items on the menu.
When cleaning out the stands, if they have an item in their hand they will complete the action with the current item they are holding or cooking and remove the new item as well
Zois waste money by starting a task and then they just wander and eventually put the food down or throw it away. This creates more loss than profit.
Having a zoi continue making an item results in her wandering at times.
The blender hardly ever works to make drinks. You have to replace it for it to become usable again.
Difficult to stop an action you don’t want them to do. You have to wait until they reach their destination or item and then click the x on the interaction queue .
1 more - If you stop a cooking action to clear a stand, the zoi cannot resume cooking. The mixing bowl is just on the counter and you have to go to build mode to remove it.
This is really the game annoying to deal with. I was excited to run a cafe, but it’s getting to the point I don’t even want to play this game anymore. There are too many things still missing that should have been available by now and too many bugs.
Unfortunately, this is a very common bug that has been reported a lot of times in the forums, but it doesn’t seem to be getting any attention from the devs and it hasn’t been added to know issues yet. You can see some of the examples here, here, here and here. I really hope we get some acknowledgement about this issue soon. Business realy have a lot of issues and employees are a big part of them.
Thanks for letting me know. Even updating and editing here is just as disappointing as knowing this has been reported a lot and they won’t move it to known issues. I kept getting an error trying to post here. This might be my first and last bug report.
What error are you getting when you tried to post? Do not give up on it. Even though sometimes it is frustrating, and some bugs take time to get noticed but many of them have been fixed in the past months, so what we do here is important.
Let me know if I can help you with the issue when posting!
Thank you for extending your help It said somethin g about failing to post and when I posted again, the comment was there. I deleted and it was still there. I did realize I was having connection issues later in the day. I will try to hang in there. I don’t get to play as soon as updates go out, so I am usually late to the party when issues are discovered to the point I never post. However, this upset me so much cause I was looking forward to all the fixes and changes that my “I want to fix everything” nerves got flipped and I regurgitated without checking (aside from the 2 reports I saw that didn’t really highlight everything). Long comment short… thank you lol
No problem! And I’m glad to see that you are sticking around the forums. Even if it had been posted before, is good to chime in and give share your own opinion with a certain bug. Bugs related to business are the ones that bother me the most, because it’s currently my second favourite game feature, and nearly everything about it is not working as intended. But let’s be hopeful for a hotfix soon! Have a good day
The issue related to employees not following assigned tasks has been resolved in v0.8.0 update.
To help us track issues more effectively, we kindly ask that you report one issue per topic.
Moreover, thank you for your feedback on the business system. We truly appreciate your input and will continue working to improve and expand it moving forward.
Hi everyone, I’m new here, but I’m running into the same issues despite this thread stating it’s been fixed with the last patch.
I’ve also observed consistent revenue loss when the business owner is off-lot. Behavior appears tied to employee task assignment failures, production logic errors, and inconsistent “autopilot” simulation when the owner is not present. Let me list all the issues I’ve recorded so it’s useful for the team. I last observed these issues yesterday, May 2, 2026.
Key Issues
1) Revenue Drops When Owner Is Absent
Businesses lose significant money daily when switching to another household.
No equivalent “autopilot” performance compared to when the owner is present.
2) Employees Ignore Assigned Roles
Staff perform tasks outside their assigned responsibilities.
Example: Cleaning staff (max housework skill) cook/bake instead of cleaning.
Results:
Lower product quality (wrong skill used)
Reduced customer satisfaction
Likely contributing to revenue loss
3) Incorrect Recipe Production
Restaurant configured to sell seafood-only recipes
Employees instead produce unlisted items (e.g., baked goods)
Occurs even when:
Correct recipes are selected
Qualified staff are assigned (e.g., cooking expert)
4) Restocking Logic Failure
Employees do not follow the intended restocking setup:
Business configured to prioritize family-size meals for efficiency
NPCs repeatedly produce single servings instead
Behavior changed after the business reached Level 3:
Initially correct → later inconsistent
Employees start cooking, then it disappears and counts as a loss.
Employees and business owners wander around constantly, abandoning the product they were making.
Blender stops working and must be replaced.
5) “Promote” Task Not Functioning Properly
The assigned “Promote” role does not execute autonomously
Even with a max Rhetoric employee assigned exclusively to promotion
The owner must manually perform the promotion every time
Promotion system issues:
Buff lasts 24 hours from activation, not aligned to the in-game day cycle
Does not reset at midnight → creates dead windows where promotion is unavailable
Even after the promotion is active:
Business still loses money if the owner is not physically present
6) Business Lot Fails When Loaded from Another Household
Visiting the business with a different household:
Owner is present (scheduled correctly)
No products available for purchase
The ordering kiosk is non-functional (menu items cannot be ordered)
Expected Behavior
Employee AI should strictly follow assigned roles and skills
Production should respect selected menu items only
Restocking should follow the configured batch strategy
Promotion should:
Execute autonomously when assigned
Reset on a predictable daily cycle (e.g., midnight)
Businesses should maintain baseline profitability or stability when the owner is off-lot
The business lot should remain fully functional when accessed from any household
Actual Behavior
Employees act outside their roles and produce incorrect items
Restocking logic degrades over time (notably after Level 3)
The promotion system requires manual intervention and has inconsistent timing
Business becomes non-functional or unprofitable when the owner is absent
Cross-household visits show broken inventory and ordering systems
Likely Root Areas (for investigation)
Employee task prioritization / AI role enforcement
Recipe filtering and production logic
Restocking algorithm (batch vs single-serve selection)
Promotion system timer + autonomy trigger
Off-lot business simulation (“autopilot”)
Cross-household lot loading/inventory state sync
Impact
Breaks the core business gameplay loop
Prevents passive or multi-household play
Forces constant manual micromanagement
Results in consistent financial loss despite the correct setup
I didn’t want to start a new thread since this one already exists, but let me know if I should.
Having the same exact issue, nothing has been resolved.. especially with the failed command, they begin, then the action fails and then money goes off anyway.. that’s profit loss..
Wow, that is insane. I haven’t had a chance to pop back in and try after I received the notification about the fix, but seeing this (even some things I haven’t experienced) isn’t giving me high hopes. Thank you for reporting back
It’s a shame because business ownership, although rigorous and stressful at points, is one of my favorite things in the game thus far. It’s not as fun as crime (GTA + Sims = Masterpiece), but it’s definitely in my top 3. However, I can’t risk my zoi going broke every time I switch to another family. Here are my losses from the business after playing with another family for a few days:
When the business owner is on-site / micromanaging, the business brings in $1500- $4500 in profit daily and 44+ customers. Material costs explode when the owner isn’t present because of some of the restocking and task assignment issues you, @Deniice, and I mentioned before.
It’s only my fourth day playing, and it seems like the issues are on Inzoi’s radar, so I hope we get a quick fix.
P.S., the employee-only door still lets customers in unless it’s positioned with the arrow pointing into the restricted room… just noting it here in case the team was unaware.
Hello Luna, reporting back that the issues remain with a few other nuances.
Still an issue
Employees are still completing the wrong tasks.
Suddenly throw away what they are making or walk away from it.
Employee still do not make what is on the menu. (results in them also making items above their skill and placing bad quality product)
Profit loss seems even worse. (No cooking or purchases were made but I kept seeing random -41 -5 -80 displaying, about 5 in a row at one point.) Maybe a delay?
Restocking over newly placed items. Zois are still making goods even though they are fully stocked
Observed
After I removed an employee task, they immediately went and performed said task when return to play mode.
Quality of items are now disproportionate to skill level. (e.g. Coffee crafting is maxed, but they can’t make level 7 items above a ‘Bad’ quality) due to this, product quality scoring is taking a hit. (Operator on lot only with correct skill level)
Cannot add items to inventory even though Zoi is on the business property? I don’t recall seeing this before.
Zoi only has a prompt to Cancel Sale, they will stand there holding it until you tell them what to do (no further prompts beforehand i.e. throw away, place in fridge etc.) If you let them be, Zoi will either store it in their bag, or if holding 2 items, will store one and hold the other for over a minute. You have to click on the item and give instruction.
Hard to keep up with demand when there is a rush of customers (takes entirely too long to make goods) Can’t find time to interact with guest to give them a better experience.
Making donuts results in Zoi just holding the plate at times. I have to instruct Zoi to put in display.
Going into build mode after giving a command, removes it.
Setting to Management Only and there is no profit change or business value increase. It’s like the store is no longer running while managing a new business. Created a hair salon and I reviewed complaints about the functionality so will just leave it at, lots of commands are not working right.
Seems Resolved
No longer difficult to stop an action.
Can resume baking.
No longer have to replace the blender to make juice.
Cleaning the display. Zoi puts down what they are holding and then cleans it.
Suggestions:
For making goods, can we have the option to view selected menu items? Instead of selecting each tab to find the item we need.
Can there be a tray item with 4 pieces, instead of individual items. This option will take up less space in the display for baked goods. I understand dishes being singular.
Can the coffee be made to order instead of just making them ahead of time, or have a dedicated space for drinks like a countertop tray that can hold up to 4 drinks each. Leaves more room for baked goods.
I do appreciate the team and other members taking time to address this.
Hey there, thank you for compiling all this helpful information. Just like @Moooody and @AR_Luna wrote in their replies earlier, it’s best to report the bugs separately. This also increases the visibility and engagement for every single issue, so please keep that in mind Thank you
I appreciate the response however, I kept it all together simply because its what I experienced while trying to run the same café style business. These are a lot of issues and some having already been mentioned. I figured there was no need to create an instance for each one (why I didn’t elaborate on the hair salon incident). Constantly opening the same ticket/tracking will also over saturate reports. But I can parse them out. Thanks again.
I completely understand why separate bug reports are easier from a tracking and QA perspective, especially in early access. Individual tickets probably help isolate reproducible issues and prevent unrelated bugs from getting tangled together internally.
That said, from the player side, it can start feeling less like “reporting a bug” and more like taking on part-time QA responsibilities when multiple interconnected issues happen within the same gameplay loop.
From a player perspective, the issues reported in this thread don’t feel like six isolated bugs, they feel like one larger “business system instability” issue presenting itself in multiple ways.
I think that’s where some of the frustration is coming from for players. Not necessarily the request itself, but the amount of repetition involved when systems are heavily interconnected.
Honestly, I think a happy medium could help both sides:
Separate reports for tracking purposes
But with a category/subcategory system (Businesses → Restaurants/Cafés, Crime Career, Social AI, etc.)
Or a form that allows related bugs to be grouped under one gameplay session with individual dropdown entries
That would probably reduce duplicate reports/threads while still giving the team isolated issues to investigate.
Because right now, when a player spends an evening playing one feature and walks away with 8 different bugs, the reporting process itself can start to feel overwhelming.
I really do appreciate the team engaging with reports, though. I know early access is messy by nature, I just think there’s probably room to streamline the player-side reporting experience a bit too.
Yes, I totally get that. Maybe your idea with the subcategory system would be really helpful to find a common ground which makes the whole process easier for the users and also still bearable for the team Did you think about making a Wishlist post about it? I’d really support that idea and maybe other users could add more ideas for even further improvement.
If you have used mods before, please list them: I don’t remember because they never worked
It said somethin g about failing to post and when I posted again, the comment was there. I deleted and it was still there. I did realize I was having connection issues later in the day. I will try to hang in there. I don’t get to play as soon as updates go out, so I am usually late to the party when issues are discovered to the point I never post. However, this upset me so much cause I was looking forward to all the fixes and changes that my “I want to fix everything” nerves got flipped and I regurgitated without checking (aside from the 2 reports I saw that didn’t really highlight everything). Long comment short… thank you lol
Thank you 
Did you think about making a