Practice Areas — Catering
Catering runs on deposits, event dates, and a cost sheet that has to be right before the first invoice goes out. We keep event-level revenue, food, labor, and rental expense separated — so every booking's margin is known, not guessed.
What we hear
These are the gaps that quietly cost you money, time, and confidence. We bring structure and accuracy to each one.
Event pricing built on instinct instead of cost
Deposits and progress payments tracked off the books
Food, labor, and rental costs not separated by event
Staffing and overtime absorbed silently at month-end
Contract and vendor commitments with no accrual
No visibility into which event types actually profit
The scope for you
The engagement
The first 90 days
Days 1 – 14
Event calendar and deposits on hand
We load your booked event calendar and reconcile every deposit you are holding to the events it belongs to, so unearned revenue is identified and tracked from the first day rather than at year-end.
Days 15 – 45
Cost sheets you can price from
We build a cost-sheet structure covering food, labor, rentals, transport, disposables, and overhead allocation, then apply it to your completed events so quoted against actual is finally visible.
Days 46 – 90
First close and pricing feedback
Your first close reports margin per event and per event type. Your next quotes are priced from a cost sheet instead of last season's number, and the deposit roll-forward runs on schedule.
The rhythm we keep
Every week
Every month
Every quarter
Every year
The result
A defensible price on every quote you send
Margin known per event, per client, per event type
Deposits and deferred revenue tracked properly
Cash flow planned around the season, not the month
Systems we work in
We plug into the booking, proposal, and accounting tools you already use. Where you price from a spreadsheet, we build it out with you rather than replacing it with software you did not ask for.
Booking & Proposals
Accounting & Payroll
Rentals & Logistics
Vendors & Supplies
Common questions
Not when they arrive. A deposit is a liability until the event is delivered, and we track it that way — so a strong booking month never looks like a profitable one when it is not.
From the cost sheet plus the invoices behind it: food, labor including prep and travel, rentals, transport, and disposables. After the event we compare actual to quoted and feed the gap back into your pricing.
Yes. Cost-sheet modeling is part of controllership. You keep the final say on price; we make sure the number you set covers the event it is quoting.
It changes the forecast, not the bookkeeping. We build the budget and cash plan around the season you actually have, including the months with no events, so the off-season is funded before it starts.
We track contractor and vendor payments all year and prepare the year-end package for your tax preparer, including the amounts that belong on 1099-NEC forms.
Yes. Events can be reported by client, venue, event type, or month, depending on what you price against and what you are negotiating with venues or partners.
Catering Intake
A few details about how you book and staff events, so our first conversation is already grounded in your numbers.
A 30-minute discovery call. Bring a recent event and we'll walk the numbers back to what it actually cost.
Book an Advisory Session