The food is the smallest part. The rest is planning.

A quotation that is allowed to change

At the start it is rarely settled what the event will look like. How many guests, buffet or set menu, which drinks concept, how much service, and which of it you are taking on at all.

From that a quotation is built in which food, drinks, staff, logistics and material are costed together. Service and goods may sit in the same job, valued by time or as a flat rate.

If expectations change, the quotation is not overwritten. It continues in a new version, and the previous state is kept as a revision. The first draft becomes a fourth without anyone hunting for the third.

Before you commit, the margin calculation shows the gross profit at the intended price. Whether the concept carries is your decision beforehand.

The order becomes a running order for the day

With the order it is settled not only what was sold but what has to happen. From it comes the packing list, or function sheet, your central plan for the day: when material is prepared, when production starts, when vehicles are loaded, when delivery happens and at what time set-up, reception, food, service and tear-down take place.

Chefs, service staff, drivers and event management are scheduled for it. Qualifications and availability govern the staffing, approved absences take effect on it immediately, and the bar chart shows overlaps between two events on the same weekend.

Pay types cover hourly wage, flat rate, supplement and benefit in kind. What a Sunday evening shift costs does not have to be worked out by hand.

Crockery, glasses, cooling, standing tables and buffet stations are articles with availability per day. If your own stock is not enough, you bring in the missing quantities as sub-rentals from your suppliers, and they hang on the same order. The same goes for everything around it: furniture, decoration, a DJ or a band are bought-in work and appear in the costing, so it stays visible what comes from your own house and what you buy in.

Billing, taking back, recalculating

Larger events are rarely paid only after the last plate. A down payment can be posted in advance and converted into a down payment invoice, after which partial and collective invoices follow, and finally the closing invoice.

After the event, whatever comes back is taken back. What was consumed stays with the customer, hired items are back in the yard, missing items stay open. Part delivery, cancellation and return act on stock and invoice.

The initial costing is created while the quotation is being written: against the sales prices stand cost of goods, staff, vehicles, bought-in work and hired equipment. After the event you put the actual figures beside them, and the initial costing becomes the final costing. How many staff hours did you really need, what did you have to buy in on top, where was the effort higher than planned.

The feeling that it went well thereby becomes an answer to the question that matters for the next quotation: what did you actually earn on this event.