Events: guests, bar & BEOs

Who this is for: coordinators, hosts at the door, bartenders, every department working a function (kitchen, pastry, bar, banquet service, set-up, security, AV, transport, accounts, management). Permissions: guest lists and the door events.guests (or events.manage); the bar screen events.bar (selling to guests also payments.take); reading and acknowledging BEOs events.beo; issuing a BEO events.manage; approving it events.approve. Venues and the account: Venues & private hire.

1. Guests (function → Guests)

The cards show guests expected, attending (and no reply / maybe / declined), arrived, and seated against the seats.

• Add guest: name, party (family of the bride, the board…), plus-ones, RSVP, meal choice, table, dietary need, VIP. E-mail and phone are optional — only needed to send the guest their link.
• Import: paste one guest per line — name, e-mail, phone, party, plus-ones, VIP. Guests already on the list (same e-mail, phone or name) are skipped.
• RSVP link: the link button copies the guest’s private link. The guest opens it (no sign-in), says whether they will attend, with how many (up to their plus-ones), their meal choice and any dietary need. The link shows only the event and their own reply.
• Meal choices: add the choices offered (beef, fish, vegetarian…) with the dish they are. The production plan then makes each such dish for the guests who chose it, sharing the guests who have not chosen yet in the same proportions. The BEO’s menu shows the same portions (“3 chose it”). A choice whose dish is not on the quoted menu says so under the choice — the kitchen still makes it; add it to the quote so it is priced.
• Tables: Add tables (Table 1…n with their seats); a guest’s party cannot go over a table’s seats. Removing a table unseats its guests.

2. The door (Check-in desk)

From Guests → Check-in desk (the function must be confirmed): find the guest by name, party or phone — their table, meal and dietary need show — and Check in (a party: how many arrived). Undo reverses a mistake. Walk-in adds someone not on the list and checks them in. The desk refreshes itself every 20 seconds (several doors can work at once).

3. The event bar

Set up the bar (function → Bar):

Add the drinks served, with an event price where it differs from the menu; opening and closing times; notes. A package per guest is quoted and charged per guest (the guests charged on the final invoice).

The bar screen (Event bar): choose the function, Open the bar. Tap a drink: when the host covers it, it is rung on the host — its stock leaves the bar store at once. When the host does not (a cash bar, a drink not on the host’s list, the tab or the allowance used up) it goes to the guest’s round: Take payment (cash with change, or another method) — an ordinary bar sale linked to the function. The cards show host drinks, guests’ drinks, what the host still covers and what was charged. Void a host drink rung by mistake (your own within 15 minutes; others need a manager) — its stock goes back. Close the bar: the host’s drinks (as consumed) and any shortfall are charged to the function’s account. The final invoice closes a bar left open.

4. The run of the day (Venues & timeline → Timeline)

What happens when, which department, who: set-up, doors, ceremony, speeches, each service, cake, last orders, departure. It prints on the function sheet and the BEO.

5. The banquet event order (BEO & documents)

The BEO is the whole function frozen as a version: event and client, venues and set-up (access and clear-by times), guests (counts, VIPs, meal choices, dietary), menu with portions, bar, staff, equipment, transport, timeline, billing. Departments work only from the latest approved version.

• Issue a new version with a note of what changed; a manager approves it (or rejects it with a reason). A manager can issue and approve at once. Nothing changed since the approved version → nothing to issue.
• On approval the function sheet (the day on one page) and the BEO are generated and stored, and everyone with events.beo at the branch is notified.
• The workspace warns Changed since the approved version with the sections that changed, until a new version is approved.
• Banquet event orders (menu) lists the coming functions with the version to work from, a version waiting for approval and which departments acknowledged. Choose your department: each version opens with your sections (the kitchen: event, guests, menu, timeline, staff; the bar: event, guests, bar, timeline, staff; set-up: event, venues, equipment, timeline…). Print BEO prints your sections with a sign-off; Function sheet prints the day.
• We have read it: acknowledges the version for your department. An older version says so and links to the current one.

6. Profit (Profitability)

Revenue = the account net of tax + what guests paid at the bar + damage charged. Costs: food (stock issued to production, else the plan), beverage (the drinks poured for the host at the event bar and what the guests’ bar sales used), staff, equipment (+ damage), transport, other. Gross event profit = revenue − costs. Until the function is served the tab says so far (only the costs recorded yet) and shows the quote’s estimate; a hosted bar sold as a package is estimated at the cost share of its drink list. The events reports add the beverage cost and the guests’ bar revenue per function (and in the CSV).