Catering Business Forms, Standard Letters and Templates

If you start a catering service, like any other business model you will soon realize that there is a fair bit of paperwork involved. Different situation will require a variety of catering business forms, letters and other documents.

Instead of putting together a new form, document or letter together from scratch every time it is needed it is important that you save time by having standard letters and other templates ready. Then it is simply a matter of pulling up a form or standard letter on your computer and making some small changes to it in order to customize it for the current situation.

When you start out in catering these days you don't even have to put your own sets of paperwork together as sample forms and standard letter templates can be purchased online. Some of the catering startup kits featured on the home page of this website even offer them for free when you purchase a startup guide.

Let's take a closer look at some of the forms and other documents that you will need when you start a catering business.

Menu Templates

You must be able to quickly put together a catering menu. A menu template that can easily be altered and printed out is exactly what you need. A good menu should have your catering business logo, name and slogan at the top and your business contact details in the page footer. Prepare a cover page as well in case you want to give clients a large number of sample menus.

Every time you have an event you can also customize and print out menus for each table. Consider using fine quality paper, irregular paper sizes or laminated menus to add a nice finishing touch.

Dealing with Clients

You should have a variety of standard letters for managing clients and building relationships with them. Have letters confirming their booking before an event and thanking them for their business afterwards.

Letters for Marketing

The right letters can also help you with your marketing. You might have one letter asking satisfied clients to give you a testimonial that you can add to your website. Better results can be had by offering a small gift in return their time and effort.

Another letter could be targeted at prospects who are on your list of contacts but have not yet become customers.

In another letter you could politely ask satisfied clients to pass on some business cards or a flyer to several of their friends or associates. If clients have been happy with your service, you ask nicely and possibly offer a small free gift customers just may just help you out and send some referrals in your direction.

Event Planning Forms and Checklists

It is important to keep paperwork on each individual event that you cater to. A basic event information sheet is a useful place for compiling all customer details and requirements.

You also need a schedule to help you prepare for the event in advance and you need a schedule for the event itself.

Event checklists are useful for preparing for an event and making sure that nothing important is left behind or forgotten. Have some standard lists prepared for the various types of catering that you do. You can then easily make adjustments to them on a case by case basis for each unique event.

Costing Forms

Costing forms are useful for working out the cost of the ingredients required to make each of the courses on your menus. Calculate the number of units or weight of the necessary ingredients to prepare a dish for a certain number of people. Multiply these figures by the cost of each ingredient and you can easily work out the cost of the food for each course.

Financial Forms

Forms are needed for submitting event quotes to customers, invoicing them and issuing receipts as deposits and payments are made. If you don't insist on receiving all installments by the day of the event then you may also need letters for pursuing bad debts.

Whether or not you do the bookkeeping for your business you will also need to keep records of all cash flows in and out of your business. These can then be passed on to your accountant or kept for your own reference.

There are numerous catering business forms, standard letters and templates that will be useful to you as you start your business and try to become organized and professional. Sometimes generic business forms are sufficient but wherever possible you should look for examples that are specific to the catering industry.