Group Pre-Order Manager
Group Pre-Order Manager handles large bookings that need a set menu with individual guest choices collected in advance — weddings, corporate dinners, anniversary parties. You define the set-menu courses and options once per booking, then collect each guest's starter/main/dessert choice and dietary needs, and print a kitchen tally sheet and place cards from the same data.
Overview
A group booking is created first (group name, date, time, table/area, covers, price per head, contact, deposit and booking status), then guests and their course choices are added one at a time inside that booking's detail view.
The menu for a booking is built as a set of Courses (defaults to Starter, Main, Dessert) each with one or more Options — guests then pick one option per course when their pre-order is recorded, rather than choosing freely from the full menu.
A progress bar on both the booking list and detail view shows how many guests have pre-ordered against the booking's Covers count, so you can see at a glance how much collection is still outstanding.
Booking Status (Confirmed, Tentative, Completed, Cancelled) and Deposit Status (Not Paid, Partial, Paid in Full) are tracked as two independent fields, each shown as its own coloured badge.
The "Kitchen Order" print produces a tally of how many guests chose each option per course (not a per-guest list) plus a consolidated list of guests with dietary requirements — built for kitchen prep, not service.
The "Place Cards" print produces one card per guest showing their name and chosen starter/main/dessert plus any dietary tags — designed to be cut out and placed at each seat.
Guest dietary tags are multi-select from a fixed list (Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Nut Allergy, Halal, No Pork, No Shellfish, Diabetic).
Before You Start
- You must have the Billing feature enabled on your plan.
Step-by-Step Guide
1 Create a new group booking
- Open Events & Banquet → Group Pre-Order Manager and click "+ New Group Booking".
- Enter the Group/Event Name (required) and Time (required), plus Date, Covers, Table/Area, Price Per Head and Contact details.
- Set the Status and Deposit Status, and enter a Deposit Amount if applicable.
- Under "Set Menu Courses & Options", edit the default Starter/Main/Dessert course options or add more options per course with "+ Add Option".
- Add any Notes and click "Create Booking".
2 Collect guest pre-orders
- Click "Manage Pre-Orders" on a booking to open its detail view.
- Click "+ Add Guest", enter the Guest Name, pick their choice for each course from the dropdowns, select any Dietary Requirements, and save.
- Repeat for each guest as their choices come in — the collection progress bar updates automatically.
- Use Edit / ✕ next to any guest row in the detail table to correct or remove an entry.
3 Print kitchen tally and place cards
- From either the booking list or the detail view, click "Kitchen Order" to print a per-course tally of guest choices plus a dietary-requirements summary for the kitchen.
- Click "Place Cards" to print one card per guest with their name, course choices and dietary tags, ready to cut out for the table.
4 Filter bookings
- Use the date picker to filter to a specific booking date, or "All Dates" to clear it.
- Use the status chips (All / Confirmed / Tentative / Completed / Cancelled) to narrow the booking list.
Every Field & Button, Explained
| Field / Button | What it does |
|---|---|
Group/Event Name, Time | Both required before a booking can be saved; Date defaults to today. |
Covers / Price Per Head | Covers is the expected guest count, used as the denominator for the pre-order collection progress bar; Price Per Head × Covers gives the Total Bill shown in the detail view. |
Deposit Status / Deposit Amount | Not Paid, Partial or Paid in Full — tracked independently of Booking Status; Deposit Amount is a separate rupee figure. |
Booking Status | Confirmed, Tentative, Completed or Cancelled — a simple status field, not a stage-advance sequence. |
Set Menu Courses & Options | Defaults to three courses (Starter, Main, Dessert) each with one option field; add more options per course with "+ Add Option" so guests have a choice within each course. |
Guest Name, per-course choice | Guest Name is required to add a guest; each course choice is picked from that booking's defined options for that course via a dropdown (not free text). |
Dietary Requirements (per guest) | Multi-select tags: Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Nut Allergy, Halal, No Pork, No Shellfish, Diabetic — shown on the kitchen tally and place cards. |
Tips & Best Practices
- Finalise the Set Menu Courses & Options before you start collecting guest choices — guests can only pick from the options you've defined for each course, so changing options later means re-checking any choices already collected.
- Watch the pre-order collection progress bar rather than counting rows manually — it is calculated as guests-added ÷ Covers and updates immediately as you add each guest.
- Print the Kitchen Order close to the event date so the tally reflects the final guest count, since it is a live count of current choices, not a fixed snapshot.