Running a restaurant, Food Service Company or catering business means you and your team wear many different hats. From salesperson to guerilla marketer, customer service rep to accountant, you have many responsibilities in your business day.
But, thanks to technology, there are now tools, software and apps that can help your operations run more efficiently. Whether you are a large banquet department in a hotel or a small catering business that handles a few events per week, there are online catering software programs that offer the versatility your business needs to succeed.
The right catering software will be your one-stop information hub for everything related to your catering operations. From event planning and scheduling tools to staff management solutions and a banquet event order (BEO) builder, you will be able to track every detail of an order from its inception to the final delivery and setup.
The best catering programs are also equipped with a database that stores client contact information, which makes it easy to nurture leads and convert sales, create contracts and BEOs and track communication with clients.
A catering program will typically be designed to handle multiple types of events ranging from weddings to corporate meetings and office parties.
It should include tools to facilitate a quick and seamless process for your clients to book online. This may be accomplished through an intake form that automatically populates order details into a proposal, or through a simple online ordering setup.
A good catering system will also be able to calculate the total cost of an order, accounting for items like labor and utilities in addition to the price of the food itself.
In addition to booking tools, a catering software system should allow you to schedule hourly employees for various shifts and events. This feature is especially important for a catering business that employs a number of part-time workers. A program like Rentman combines payroll, scheduling, time & attendance and employee communication features to make managing your employees easy.
Finally, a great catering program will give you the ability to send digital invoices to your customers for payments. This will save you and your accountant time when compared to sending paper invoices.
Most catering programs also integrate with payment processing solutions and accounting software programs such as QuickBooks, Xero and Freshbooks to further streamline the data transfer process.
There are a wide variety of online catering software options, from the affordable and easy-to-use Better Cater, to the comprehensive FoodStorm and Tripleseat that provide management solutions for all different catering scenarios.
Each offers everything from customer marketing tools to payment invoicing that will increase your catering bookings. So, take a look at all of the options available to you and choose the solution that will work for your catering business.
Once you do, you can focus on what matters most – your guests and their experience at your business.
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