Catering: enquiries & quotes

Who this is for: the events and catering team (sales, coordinators) and branch managers. Menus: Events & catering (events.view; creating and quoting needs events.manage), Events setup (events.manage). Taking payments also needs payments.take; exceptions need events.approve. Production, staff, equipment, transport, documents and reports: Catering: production & delivery. Venues and private hire, guests, the event bar and banquet event orders: Venues & private hire and Events: guests, bar & BEOs.

The board

Events & catering lists the functions of your branch (or all your branches):

Search by number, title, client or venue; filter by dates. The cards at the top count new enquiries, quotes out (and their value), deposits due, functions in the next seven days and functions served but not invoiced. The board updates by itself when someone else changes a function.

1. Enquiry

New enquiry — contact name, organisation, phone, e-mail, how they reached us; event type (wedding, corporate event, conference, birthday, funeral / memorial, party, government function, other) and service style (buffet, plated, cocktail / canapés, packed meals, family style, drop-off); title (blank: “Wedding — Nansubuga”); date, start and end time; guests; budget; where (our venue, the client’s venue, outdoor) and the venue’s name and address; dietary requirements with how many guests (Vegetarian 8, Halal 20, nut allergy 2…); menu preferences, equipment, staff and transport requests; notes. The function gets its number (CAT-KLA-00001).

A catering, private-hire or event enquiry from the website appears under Online orders → Enquiries: Open as catering function creates the function from it (the enquiry becomes contacted, later quoted, won or lost with the function).

Edit on the function’s Overview changes the details at any time until it is invoiced.

2. Quotation

Quotes tab → Quote from package (a price per guest with its menu), Price per person (you choose the dishes and the price per guest) or Custom pricing (every dish priced per portion).

The draft editor:

• Pricing, guests, price per guest.
• Menu — dish (and size), course, portions per guest (1 plate of pilau, 0.5 of luwombo, 2 glasses of juice). With a price per guest the dishes are listed but not charged one by one; with custom pricing each dish is charged guests × portions × price.
• Charges — equipment (from the catalogue: its charge and cost fill in; the list shows how many are free that day), service staff, transport, other; quantity × price, and our cost.
• Service charge (from Finance setup), discount (a percentage or an amount, with a label), deposit % (30 % by default), valid until, the printed introduction and terms, internal notes.

The Totals panel shows food, extras, subtotal, discount, service charge, VAT (included or added), total, per guest, deposit and balance, the estimated cost and the estimated margin — the same numbers the order will charge. Save draft; Send to client freezes the quote (Print / PDF for the client).

A quote below the margin floor (25 % by default) or with a discount above the limit (10 %) can only be sent by a manager (events.approve).

Revisions. New revision copies the last quote into a new draft (same number, rev 2); sending it supersedes the previous one. Client declined records why; Mark lost on the Overview closes the enquiry.

3. Accepted → deposit → confirmed

Client accepted turns the quote into the function’s catering order (Orders, number ORD-…): the per-guest food line (“Wedding Gold — per guest”), each charge as its own line, the service charge and the discount — the order total equals the quote total. The client is found by phone among the customers or added.

• A deposit is asked → the function is Accepted — deposit due. Payments & account → Take deposit (cash, mobile money, card, bank…; cash needs your open till). When the deposit is paid it is Confirmed. Part payments are fine; the order stays open for the balance.
• No deposit asked (0 %) → confirmed at once.
• Waive deposit (managers, with a reason: a trusted client, a government LPO) confirms without one.

An expired quote can only be accepted by a manager.

4. After the event: the final invoice

When the function has been served (Mark served with the guests actually served — see the operations manual), Payments & account → Final invoice: the per-guest line is charged for the guests served or the guests booked, whichever is higher (you may change the number), and you add extra charges (overtime, breakage, extra dishes). The tax invoice is issued (Invoice INV-… prints it; add the client’s TIN). Paid in full → Closed (paid); otherwise Invoiced until the balance is taken.

Cancelling

Cancel the function (a manager once it is booked) with the reason:

• nothing paid → the order is cancelled;
• Keep the deposit as a cancellation fee → the order becomes a one-line invoice for what was paid and closes;
• otherwise the payments stay on the order to be refunded (Payments → refund).

Set-up (Catering setup)

• Packages — code, name, price per guest, service style, event types, minimum / maximum guests, what is included, and the dishes with portions per guest. The list shows each package’s food cost per guest and its share of the price.
• Equipment — owned quantity, charge to the client, our cost per use, replacement cost.
• Vehicles — registration, capacity, cost per trip and per km.
• Settings (managers; all branches or one branch): deposit %, production buffer %, quote validity (days), margin floor %, discount needing approval %, procurement lead time (days), printed terms.