🍰 rest-events

Catering & Events

Catering & Events manages bookings for events your restaurant caters — birthdays, corporate lunches, weddings and parties — with a monthly calendar view, per-event deposit collection, and a status flow from first inquiry through preparation to completion.

📍 Menu path: Events & Banquet → Catering & Events

👤 Who uses it: All roles with the Billing feature enabled

Overview

Each event moves through a fixed status flow: Inquiry → Confirmed → Deposit Paid → Preparing → Completed, with Cancelled reachable at any point before Completed via a dedicated "Cancel Event" button; only Inquiry-stage events can be deleted outright.

The mini calendar on the left shows a coloured dot per event type on any day that has one or more events; clicking the arrows navigates month to month, and the event list on the right reloads for the selected month.

Recording a deposit is a separate action (via the "Record Deposit" button, opening its own modal for amount and payment method — Cash, Card or UPI) from editing the event's other details, and automatically sets depositPaid to true and Status to Deposit Paid.

KPI tiles at the top show Upcoming Events, This Month, Deposit Pending (events with a deposit amount set but not yet paid) and Revenue (Completed) — summed only from events whose Status is Completed.

Each event type (Birthday, Corporate, Wedding, Party/Social, Conference, Other) has its own icon and colour used consistently across the calendar dots, filter list and event cards.

A deposit progress bar on each event card shows how much of the deposit requirement has been collected as a percentage, turning green once the deposit is marked paid.

Before You Start

You must have the Billing feature enabled on your plan.

Step-by-Step Guide

1 Create a new catering event

Open Events & Banquet → Catering & Events and click "New Event".
Choose an Event Type, enter the Event Title, Date, Start/End Time, Guest count and Venue/Area.
Fill in the Contact Person's Name (required), Phone and Email.
Pick a Package, and add Menu Notes and Special Requirements as free text.
Enter the Total Amount (required) and Deposit Required, plus any Internal Notes, then click "Create Event".

2 Record a deposit payment

Click "Record Deposit" on an event card (only shown while the deposit is still unpaid and the event isn't Cancelled/Completed).
Adjust the Amount if needed (it defaults to the outstanding deposit) and pick a payment method — Cash, Card or UPI.
Click "Confirm Deposit" — the event is automatically marked deposit-paid and its Status advances to Deposit Paid.

3 Advance an event through its stages

Click the status button on the event card (labelled with the next stage, e.g. "→ Preparing") to move it forward one stage at a time.
To cancel instead, click "Cancel Event" — available on any event that is not already Completed or Cancelled.
Inquiry-stage events also show a small × button to delete them outright before they are confirmed.

4 Browse events by month, status or type

Use the calendar's left/right arrows to move between months — the event list reloads for whichever month is shown.
Use the Status and Event Type filter lists on the left to narrow the event list on the right; select the "All" option in either to clear that filter.

Every Field & Button, Explained

Field / Button	What it does
`Event Type`	Birthday, Corporate, Wedding, Party/Social, Conference or Other — sets the icon and colour used across the calendar dots and event cards.
`Event Title, Contact Name, Event Date, Total Amount`	Contact Name, Event Date and Total Amount are required before an event can be saved; Event Title is optional (falls back to "[Type] — [Contact Name]" if left blank).
`Guests / Venue / Package`	Package is picked from a fixed list: Standard, Premium, Deluxe, Veg Only, Non-Veg Special, or Custom / A-la-carte.
`Menu Notes / Special Requirements`	Free text for veg/non-veg ratio and special dishes (Menu Notes) versus decor, AV, DJ, cake or photography asks (Special Requirements).
`Total Amount / Deposit Required`	Deposit Required is the target deposit amount; the actual amount collected is entered separately when recording the deposit and can differ from this target.
`Internal Notes`	Staff-only notes (e.g. "Key client — extra attention") not shown to the client, visible only in the edit form.
`Status`	Inquiry → Confirmed → Deposit Paid → Preparing → Completed, advanced one stage at a time via the card button; Cancelled is a separate action available until Completed.

Tips & Best Practices

Use the mini calendar to spot which weeks are already busy with catering commitments before quoting a new client a date.
Record deposits through the dedicated "Record Deposit" button rather than editing the event's Deposit Required field — only the dedicated action actually marks the deposit as paid and advances the status.
Delete events only while they are still at the Inquiry stage; once confirmed, use "Cancel Event" instead so the record and its history are preserved.

Troubleshooting & FAQ

I can't find a delete button on a confirmed event.

Deleting is only available for events still at the Inquiry stage — once an event is Confirmed or later, use "Cancel Event" instead, which keeps the record in the list marked as Cancelled.

Recording a deposit didn't change the event's status.

It should move the event to Deposit Paid automatically — if the status looks unchanged, refresh the page; the update may not have been reflected in the still-open view.

Revenue (Completed) looks lower than the sum of all my bookings.

This KPI only totals Total Amount for events whose Status is Completed — events still Confirmed, Preparing, or cancelled are excluded from this figure even if money has already been collected.