Welcome! Yes, we heard you and your decision is good. You are planning to start a catering service business. Also, you want to do it in a professional manner. It is a great decision. We will help you by providing you with an array of templates to run your business in a professional way.
Did you guess it right? We will support you with paperwork. The invoices, bills, receipts, etc are given here and you can download them in one click. They are free and easy to customize as well.
Also, we will brief about how to make an invoice, what are the policies for the catering business, step by step guide to cater an event etc. In short, this article will be a feast to all of you in the catering business to impress your clients and get paid on time.
Contents
Catering Event Order Form Template
The event order form will contain all details pertaining to the event and send this in the first cut to gather information from the client. Download it from here and edit with your business details and send them. The client can choose all their requirement in this form and send it to you to let you give them a quote.
Sample Receipt For Catering Services
These receipts can be best used for your catering service after receiving payment. You send an invoice and get paid, then send this receipt as an acknowledgement for payment received.
Personal Chef Invoice Template
In case you have a professional chef who cooks for special events or specific food item, then you need to explain to the client the same and his charges may vary. Use this template given here to get the payment for his services individually. Even at the time of client requesting a personal chef to cook in their venue you use this invoice.
BBQ Catering Invoice Template
Barbeque catering service is a great opportunity to serve food to clients with difference BBQ. The invoice will be different because you need to carry some equipment to the venue to grill at the time of the event. The template given here is specifically designed listing all BBQ items, equipment, service charges, and cost for each item. Use this instead of using the regular template and entering each item manually.
Blank Catering Invoice Template
The blank template will let you fill details based on your service. You can simply download this template and mention all details pertaining to the materials, and service you provide and calculate the cost.
Catering GST Bill Format
GST has a great impact on every business and has not spared the food industry as well. You need to understand the bill format for your catering business along with the GST details. Before GST you had the following tax included in the bill namely the VAT (Value Added Tax) the tax calculated on the part of the food in the bill, and Service tax is the cost included for the services offered.
However, after GST was introduced the bill format has changed as given below. It is a flat 18 percentage on the total bill value for your outdoor catering service. We would recommend you to read more from cleartax to have better clarity.
What to include in your catering invoice
Ok, when you think of invoice, then you will know that it must contain the cost details, address detail and the bank details. Cost is required to be explained to the client for them to make payment. Bank details and address for communication is needed to send money for your services. These are general components for any invoice. Let us now specifically understand the important elements of a catering service invoice.
Will first list all components and then elaborate each of them in detail. I have listed them with sun headings and that will help you to understand at a glimpse of it.
So here you go with the details.
- Heading – Start with your company name as the title and let you fix your logo. These two are purely optional elements. Simply catering invoice also can be the title. It is professional to have a name for your business and so you can include that in the title.
- Contact – The contact details here is your details namely office address, email id, contact number. Provide all proper details here to let client contact you in case of need. The caterer is you who offers the service. Throughout this document, CATERER refers to you.
- Billing – This section should contain the customer contact details. In your catering business sometimes the billing address and shipping address may vary. Therefore include both with proper heading in this section. Bill to the address of the client headquarters and ship to is the address locally to be sent for payment.
- Detail Part 1 – Coming to the actual segment, the details part. Part 1 is specific to the catering Whereas part 2 is the usual one produced for any service. Let us now focus on the unique part and care about the usual part in the next section.
- Day of the event – When the event will take part.
- Delivery Date – This will mostly be the same as the day of the event but in some cases, few items must be delivered before and hence the delivery date must be mentioned for avoiding any confusions.
- Terms – Discuss terms here. Find the details in the upcoming section under policies and terms for more description.
- People – Number of people who will participate in the dinner, lunch etc. This will help you prepare meals accordingly.
- Delivery Time – Similar to date of delivery exact timing is also a must in this business.
- Detail Part 2
This section will be a table with following headings and mention the details under them one after the other to calculate the cost. Name of the item and the quantity. Details about the item. Price for each item and finally total cost. This is no different from the usual service invoice template. The product, description, cost/item and total. Hence, I told you the previous section is important as it is with respect to the catering business.
How to make the catering invoice in Excel – Catering Company Invoice Template
I have given you all the details about the components to be present in a catering invoice template. So you are clear about it now. Let me quickly walk you through the steps involved in making an excel invoice template. Why excel and why template making instruction is the question revolving in your mind now.
Catering Invoice Format In Excel
Excel templates are easy to make and it will be quick to do any calculation. The inbuilt tables and math formula in excel sheet will help you design your own invoices in no time.
But, why should you learn this when I promised to give you templates for free? Yes, these templates are for free however if you know the simple step in making a template on your own, then personalizing the templates given here will be a cake walk for you. Download the template to your PC and open in excel to click on each cell to edit them. Before that understand how these are made to make your life easy.
Quick Review
#1 Open excel – File à new sheet à then save as with the name of the invoice. Catering Invoice Template 1 or something like that. Use the invoice number in the numerical place to have a track record for your benefit.
#2 Insert logo on the right side of the sheet from your PC. Type the title in the center. Move down and type the invoice number, date. Followed by contact details and then customer details. All once below other and refer section above for more explanation.
#3 Make a table for detail part 3 and in each cell mention Day until Delivery time. It will look like the image given below.
#4 Now again another table to give out details as given below. These are all simple with the help of the inbuilt excel table.
#5 Provide any instructions at the end of the table and sign it for sending to the customer.
How to cost your catering services (standards for service & material)
This time I will take you through some deeper analysis. Yes, how you can charge for your service and materials. There are some standards for the same and you can win more clients if you know this simple trick.
The materials you purchase will cost you based on the following criteria. Understand them and then make your price list.
Top 5 criteria of the material to help decide pricing
- Availability of the materials – Not all materials are available locally and you need to fix the rate based on that. Obviously, you can fix pricing at less cost for locally available materials than the ones available outside your location.
- Season of the event – The cost of the material varies on the season of the event. Yes, you must be aware that not all material available all through the year. Communicate the same to client clearly and then fix your rates.
- Shelf-life of the item – Again there are materials which have a longer shelf life and commonly used which you can purchase in volume to quote less price to the customer. If that is not the case then the cost will be varied from time to time.
- Is the material available in raw form or otherwise – Items sometimes will be available only in raw form and some cost will be involved in processing. Such an item will cost more than others.
- Can it be ordered in bulk – Items like spices can be ordered in bulk and you can store them. So these can be charged minimal even null. But things which should be bought for the specific requirement in small quantity must be charged more.
Keep these pointers in mind and fix price for the materials. Also, find a similar cost factor influencer of the services and then prepare your pricing for the catering services you offer.
Service Charge will vary with the following conditions
Date of the event – When the event falls on busy business times, then you need to hire external resource and will cost more. On the other hand, if there is an order during the off season you can provide service at a cheaper rate.
Place of the event – The travel time, distance, and mode of transport to the event location will influence the cost.
Likewise, you must think and understand all the factors before you make a menu for your catering business.
Typical policies & Terms for catering
Include a separate sheet mentioning all your catering business terms and conditions to avoid any confusions and last minute hassles. This will contain the insurance details, the date for confirming the menu, payment instruction, etc. Do not forget to mention the cancellation policy so that both you and the client will face less loss in case of cancelling the order.
How to Cater a Catering Event: Step by Step guide
Simple 5 step process to cater your event in a professional manner and fetch 5x more customers
- Inquiry Reception
Make sure you give priority to the inquiry from the prospective client to convert to business. Customers check for quotation across and you need to pay attention in providing the right detail to attract them.
- Ask for details
Talk to the client in length and check for all the details like menu, headcount, location, date, and time of the event. Quickly send your quotation to win the deal.
- Get your team ready
Instruct your staff to prepare things based on the request and plan in advance to execute things on the floor on the day of the event.
- Deliver
Deliver food without delay on the date of the event and impress all those who got a chance to taste your food.
- Get Paid
Send the invoice you downloaded from here for free to get your payment on time. Wishing you good luck.
Last few cents,
At the end of this article, we feel glad for providing you with many details about the catering business invoice. Also, it feels great to offer you free templates.
Provide quality food and get more business.
