The Catering Wizard enable you to plan a catering event based on menu and cost. This feature allows you to maximize your profits for each event. You can determine menus, pricing strategy, and even shopping lists, prep sheets, and menu confirmations.
This window can be used for catering events, classroom events, banquets, and even employee meals. The window is for planning and once the event is complete, you can extract stock to register the sales and extract the inventory.
Once the event is complete, you can extract the stock from inventory and print out a summary of the event.
To Create a Catering Event:
- Click "Catering" (main menu toolbar).
- The Catering Events Calendar appears. Double-click on any event to open.
- To create an event, click "New".
4 Parts of the Catering Window:
Catering Core Information
| Field | Details |
| Description | Enter a unique description for this event. Try to make it something that will be easy to identify later. |
| Event Location | The location of the event. |
| Customer (optional) | Choose the customer the event is for. |
| Sales Group | Enter the sales group that this event will appear in on the sales mix reports. One tip is to add a sales group called "Catering". This will keep all catering events together in your reports for easy evaluation. |
| Quote Date | The date that the quote was given. |
| Instructions | Enter in any further details regarding the event. Ex. "Need a podium", "Deliver side door", "White table cloths", etc. |
| Event Date | This is the expected date of the event. The date will most likely be in the future as this window is designed to help you plan catering events. |
| Event Time | The start of the event. |
| Serve At | The time at which the food will be served. |
| Duration | The estimated time of the entire event. This is a great tool if you are booking rooms. Optimum Control will alert you if the location you are scheduling the event for is being used at that time. |
| Tax Group | Assign a tax group to be applied to pricing calculations for this event. |
Enter the Guests for the Event
- Indicate the guests for the event and how many. You will need to detail guests in the "Setup" section to have them available.
- Click "Settings" (main menu toolbar).
- Choose "Setup".
- Select "Guests".
- Click "Add", indicate the guest name, selling price, and POS ID (optional) and POS description (optional). The POS information is ONLY needed if you want Optimum Control to ignore these items in the POS import.
TIP: Do not ignore the POS ID so that when sales are imported to Optimum Control, the catering sales entered into the POS will be listed as invalid (pending) sales. This way, you can cross reference the amount to the catering wizard and click "Extract Stock". This will extract the sales and you can then delete the pending sales. - To add a guest, click the "Add Guest" icon on the catering toolbar.
- Select the guest type (if you have more than one).
Field Details Guest Description Indicate from the list of entered guests. Amount Indicate the number of people coming to the event. Price Enter the price you want to charge per guest. Total This price is calculated by multiplying the number of guests by the price. You can edit this price if necessary.
Catering Ingredients
Add menu products, prep recipes, and even inventory items to build the event. If choosing prep and inventory item type ingredients, you can choose whichever units of measure you want to use from the drop-down.
NOTE: Be careful when adding inventory items and preps, as the selling price that is listed in the window is COST PRICE only. You can override this price if you are calculating by selling price.
Adding Products – Add completed recipes to the event. The retail price of the menu product as entered into Optimum Control will appear and allow you to override if you wish.
Adding Items and Prep Recipes – Sometimes you will plan to add a few loaves of bread to an event or perhaps just take along a pan of chicken or meatloaf. Indicate how much you want to take with you (the drop-down list will allow you to add both recipe units and package units of items only).
Detail the amounts for each item, prep, or product.
Cost Calculation Types
| Costing Type | Details |
| Cost Percentage | Calculates the selling price and total cost based on your desired cost of sales. Indicate the cost percentage or margin percentage. Note the recalculation each time you change the percentage. |
| Guest Price | Calculate the selling price based on guest price. |
| Selling Price | This method uses the retail selling price (or calculated markup price in the item and prep type ingredients. |
Catering Calculation Results – Use each costing type as you require to maximize profitability for the event. The results will let you make decisions that will help make the pricing proper for the event and detail your profitability.
| Field | Details |
| Tax Group | Choose the tax group if applicable. |
| Price Per Guest | Displays the price per guest to quote. |
| Selling Price with Tax | Calculated total including tax. |
| Cost per Guest | The cost of the catering event divided by the number of guests. |
| Selling Price | Total selling price for the event. |
| Selling Price with Tax | The selling price including tax. |
| Total Cost | The cost of the event. |
| Net Profit | The total sales less the cost. |
| Gratuity % | Add a gratuity or some sort of service charge if necessary. |
| Total Gratuity | The total gratuity amount. |
| Grand Totals | The total of the selling price plus gratuity. |
Catering Reports
To print reports, click "Print" from the catering toolbar.
| Report | Details |
| Catering Contract | Print a report confirming the customer and menu for the event. |
| Shopping List | Print a listing or required stock for the event. |
| Prep Sheet | A listing of the preps required and the recipes to complete the preps. |
To complete the catering sales, click "Extract" from the catering toolbar. This will extract the stock required for the event from inventory and register the sales. These sales will appear in the catering reports along with the sales mix reports.
Duplicating a Catering Event
In some instances, you may wish to create a new event from an existing event / menu.
To Duplicate an Existing Catering Event
- Open the existing event you wish to duplicate.
- Click "Reset" to reset the list with zero amounts so it is ready for the new events.
- Enter the name and the date for the new event.
- Finish all catering information and review the calculated totals.
- Click "Save" and "Extract Stock" to complete the event.