Catering Events

A catering event is an order for a specific day and time: a lunch for 40, a wedding, an office party. It is an ordinary sales order with an event attached, so credit limits, tax, invoicing and delivery all work as they do for any order. What the event adds is the date and time, the guest count, notes for the client and for your kitchen, and the checks a caterer needs: how much notice the kitchen has, and whether the order is big enough.

Turn catering on first

Go to Settings → Modules and switch on Catering. You can also set the setup time before the event there. See Menus.

Creating an event order

1. Select New Order and choose a customer.
2. Tick Catering event. If you add items from a catering menu, the order becomes a catering event on its own.
3. Enter the event date and time. It is read in your business's time zone. Add the guest count, event type (corporate lunch, wedding), service style, an on-site contact, and notes.
4. Add the items. Use From menu to bring in menu items at their menu prices.

There are two notes fields, and the difference matters:

• Event notes are for the client and are printed on their event documents.
• Kitchen notes are internal. They are never shown to the client.

You can add or change the event details on a draft order from the Catering event card on the order page. After the order is confirmed, the event is part of what the customer agreed to and is no longer edited there.

Guest count and quantities

When an item is priced per person, its quantity starts at the guest count. When an item serves a number of people (a tray that serves 10), the quantity starts at the guests divided by that number, rounded up.

These are only suggestions:

• If you change the guest count, lines you haven't touched follow it.
• A quantity you typed yourself is never changed. The line shows the new suggestion instead, with a Use it link if you want it.
• Changing the guest count on the event card never changes any line.

Notice and minimums

Two checks protect your kitchen. Both are asked when you create the order and again when you confirm it, because time passes and orders change.

Lead time. The event must be far enough away for the longest lead time among its items (an item's own lead time, otherwise its menu's). An event inside that window is refused, and the message says what the kitchen needs and the earliest time that works.

Minimums. A catering menu can set a minimum number of guests and a minimum order. These are checked when you confirm. A draft below them is fine while you are still building it.

You can go ahead anyway. Tick the override, give a reason, and the order goes through. The reason is saved on the order's activity, so anyone looking later can see who decided and why. A lead time override and a minimum override are separate decisions, each with its own reason, and one never covers the other.

A reason given for an event time also covers confirming the same event later, but if you move the event, or add an item that needs more notice than the reason covered, you will be asked again.

Customers ordering through the portal can't override either check. If an event is too soon, they see the message and choose a later date.

Delivery to the event

A catering delivery isn't a delivery window customers book. It is "arrive by 11:15 for a noon lunch". When a catering order goes out by local delivery:

• The arrival window is set from the event time and your setup time (45 minutes by default): it opens 30 minutes before the arrive-by time and closes at it. A noon event with 45 minutes of setup gives an arrival window of 10:45 to 11:15.
• No delivery window is booked, so catering never uses up the capacity your regular customers book.
• You can edit the window on the order's Local delivery card.
• If you move the event on a draft, the window moves with it.

On the dispatch board, a catering stop is planned inside its window. If the route can't reach it in time, the stop is marked Late for its window, the same as any other stop.

Adding a service charge

Caterers often add a service charge or gratuity of 18–22%. On the New Order dialog, with Catering event ticked, type the percentage into Service charge (%). Iraca works out the amount from the items on the order, shows it as its own Service charge row, and adds it to the total. Change the items or the percentage while the order is a draft and the amount follows; once you confirm, it's fixed.

Whether the charge is taxed is your call, set in the Sales tax card on the Settings page (Charge sales tax on service charges). Most US states tax a mandatory service charge, so it's on by default. Like the rate, it's locked in when you confirm.

The charge counts as ordinary income, not as a separate line of business. It appears on the customer's confirmation, event confirmation and invoice as Service charge. The kitchen sheet never shows it, because it never shows prices. Service charges only apply to sales orders you create yourself; a quote doesn't carry one yet.

Quoting an event

Most catering is sold by quote first. On a sales quote, tick Catering event and fill in the date and time, guest count, occasion, service style, the contact on the day and any notes for the client. There are no kitchen notes on a quote, because the client reads it.

The client's quote page shows the event, the menu items with their photos and dietary tags, and your allergen statement. When the quote is converted to an order, the event comes with it, so you don't type it twice. Kitchen notes, lead time and minimums are asked on the order, as for any event.

A quote that has a service charge, a discount or other charges still can't be converted to an order. Move those onto the lines, or convert the quote to an invoice.

Taking a deposit

Caterers usually take a deposit at booking. On a catering order, the Deposit card on the order screen asks for an amount (the 25% and 50% buttons fill it in from the order total) and Issue deposit invoice creates an invoice for it. This needs the Invoicing add-on, and an owner or admin raises it.

The deposit invoice starts as a draft. Finalize it and send it from the invoice page, and record the payment against it like any other invoice. While it is unpaid it is a normal receivable.

Once it is paid, the money is held for the customer. It isn't income yet. Your books show it as Customer Deposits, a liability, until the order is delivered.

When the order has been fulfilled, create its final invoice as usual. A Deposit received line takes the deposit off the bill, so the customer is asked only for the balance, and the held deposit is applied to it. The Deposit card then shows which invoice it was applied to.

• Raise the final invoice only after the deposit is paid. If the deposit invoice is still unpaid, Iraca asks you to record its payment or void it first, so the customer isn't asked for it twice.
• One order has one deposit invoice at a time. Void an unpaid one to raise a different amount.
• A deposit can't be more than the order total.
• If an event is cancelled, refunding or keeping the deposit is your decision. Do it with a credit memo on the deposit invoice.
• The customer pays the deposit however you normally collect payment, and you record it. Online payment is not part of this yet.

Finding catering orders

The orders list shows a Catering badge on event orders, and the Catering filter narrows the list to events, or to everything that isn't one.

Event documents

An event order has two documents, both on the Catering event card of the order screen.

Client confirmation is what the client keeps: the event (date, time, guests, address, on-site contact), the menu by section with dietary tags and any allergen statement you've entered, prices, delivery and tax, the deposit and what's left to pay, your allergen disclaimer and your catering terms. It's written in the client's language (the customer's own setting first, your business default after). Email confirmation sends it with the PDF attached; replies go to your business email, and the order's activity records that it was sent. Client confirmation downloads the same PDF so you can read it first. Owners and admins only.

Set your catering terms in Settings → Modules. They're printed at the bottom of the confirmation.

Event sheet is for the kitchen and crew. It carries the event, a timeline (when the route leaves the kitchen, the arrival window, when service starts; a row is left out when its time isn't known), your kitchen notes, and every line with its quantity, dietary tags and allergens per line. Each product's recipe is scaled to this order, for example 25 bowls from a 10-bowl recipe lists 2.5 times the ingredients. It never shows prices, deposits or tax, and it's printed in your business language. Any team member can download it.

• Allergens come only from what you've written on the menu item, never from a recipe. A line with no allergen statement says so on the sheet, in red, with a warning at the top, so nobody assumes it's clear.
• Kitchen notes appear only on the sheet. The client's confirmation never shows them.
• Only catering events have these documents.

Tomorrow's prep

On Production plans, Tomorrow's prep makes a plan for tomorrow's catering events in one click. The Prep list link on the event card takes you to the plans.

The production plan

Catering orders are planned for the day of the event, in your time zone, so they appear on the production plan for that day without needing a separate delivery date.