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Event bookings

Most venues make their margin on private events, but only find out whether one was profitable afterwards, on the back of an envelope.

The rule

Build the menu, and the cost and margin appear as you go. You quote from a number you can see, not a guess you’ll check later.

Creating one

  1. Open Event bookings in the sidebar and tap + New booking. A draft opens straight away with a placeholder customer and a date a week out.
  2. Overview — the customer, the date, guest count, and their tax details. Those tax fields matter later: no invoice can be issued without them.
  3. Menu & lines — pick recipes from your catalogue with the quantities the chef commits to, then add everything else the customer pays for: drinks, service, room hire.
  4. Cost summary — estimated food cost, customer total and margin, all three at once.

Tracking what it really cost

Once the event has happened, log the actual production against it. The estimate was what you promised; this is what it took. The gap between them is the number worth learning from — and it’s the reason the next quote is sharper.

Good to know

  • A booking walks through Draft → Quoted → Confirmed, and the status moves on its own as you issue and the customer accepts.
  • Guests can request an event themselves through a form on your public site, which lands as a draft booking with their details already filled in.
  • Menu lines come from your recipe catalogue, so a change to an ingredient’s cost re-prices the event too.