r/catering

Hi everyone,

I recently built a free web app that helps freelancers and small businesses create Quotations, Orders, and Invoices without using spreadsheets or complicated accounting software.

The focus is on simplicity, speed, and privacy. All data is encrypted and tied to your account, so your business information stays secure.

I'd love to hear what features you think are essential in an invoicing tool and what frustrations you have with your current workflow.

Link: https://bookwise.work

Hey all. I run a small food-tech platform called Garnish out of Malta. We help caterers manage office lunch orders, and honestly the more time I spend with caterers the more I realise I only understand half of how this stuff really works day to day.

I'm trying to build a simpler, modular version of our office-ordering tool that I could eventually offer to caterers in other countries, and before I build the wrong thing I'd rather just ask the people who live it. So I'm not here to pitch anything, no link, I genuinely want to understand your reality.

When an office orders for a big group, I'm trying to picture the whole flow from your side:

• How do you collect everyone's individual choices right now? Spreadsheet, email chain, WhatsApp, phone, an actual tool, the office sends you one list?
• What's the most painful part: gathering the choices, getting an accurate final headcount, turning it into a kitchen/prep list, or chasing the money?
• On payment, do offices pay you before or after the event? Have you ever been left chasing an invoice or eaten the cost of a no-pay?
• For multi-day jobs (a client wanting lunch Mon to Fri, different orders each day), how do you keep that organised?
• Have you tried any software for this and ditched it? What made you give up on it?
• If you could wave a wand and never deal with one specific part of group ordering again, what would it be?

Even a quick "here's how we do it and here's what drives me nuts" would help me massively. Happy to share back what I learn from the thread if people are interested, and feel free to DM if you'd rather not type it all in public.

Thanks in advance, I know you're busy.

Caterers: Could you help me with a quick MBA research project?

I’m a caterer, but I’m also currently in school working on my MBA. For one of our market research projects, I decided to study the catering industry since it’s a market I’m already involved in.

I’m trying to learn more about the real challenges caterers and food truck owners face when it comes to finding customers and managing catering jobs.

The survey should only take about 2–3 minutes, and your responses would really help me with my research.

Survey link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeiRle8e9pSUMX4z8HDsymo9NAH8\_px1R4\_SkFsNlTBX4OUhg/viewform?pli=1

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to fill it out. I really appreciate it.

Hello everyone, I’m conducting some research on catering businesses and would love to know approximately how many calls you receive per week. Of those calls, about how many do you miss? Thank you!