Catering quote software
Send the quote while they still care.
Hi — we're getting married at Stonefields Barn on Saturday 26 September and are after catering for about 40 guests.
Congratulations Ella! Saturday 26 September is free and we'd love to look after you. Were you thinking seated, or something more relaxed?
Seated dinner, three courses — and canapés while everyone arrives would be lovely.
Perfect. I'll send your quote through now — three courses seated, with canapés on arrival.
What goes wrong
Four ways a hand-built quote costs you
Each one is a separate hole, which is why fixing quoting with a better spreadsheet never quite works.
It takes a day
Checking the calendar, pricing the menu, remembering the travel. The enquiry that got a number in an hour has already been accepted.
Every date is priced the same
A Saturday in December costs you more to staff than a Tuesday in February, and a flat per-head price quietly gives that margin away.
The food cost is a guess
Priced from what you charged last time rather than what the ingredients cost this time. Two years of quiet supplier increases do not show up until the year does.
It dies in an inbox
Sent as a PDF attachment, and then nothing. No one knows whether it was opened, and chasing it is a task somebody has to remember.
What the price is made of
Every quote, taken apart
The price is not one number you chose. It is a stack, and the software can show you the whole of it before you send.
How it works
From enquiry to accepted
Four steps, and the customer does the last two themselves.
Compose from your packages
Pick the menu and the service. The quote builds from what you actually sell, priced at what those ingredients cost now — not from a blank template you fill in by memory.
The date does its work
Day-based pricing applies automatically, so a peak Saturday carries its own rate instead of you remembering to add one and feeling awkward about it.
See the margin, then send
The profit on the job is visible before it goes. Costs the system cannot derive appear as gaps naming what is missing, never as zero.
They accept and pay
In their own portal, deposit included. The booking is confirmed by the payment landing rather than by you updating a status.
Where the number comes from
Build the package. Watch what it costs you.
A quote is not a number you type into a template. It is assembled from dishes you already sell, each of which the system knows the cost of — and knows how sure it is about that cost.
- Pumpkin & sage arancini$4.20
- Kingfish crudo, finger lime$9.80
- Heirloom tomato & burrata$6.40
- Porchetta, salsa verde$12.60
- Barramundi, fennel & citrus$16.40
- Charred broccolini, almond$2.90
- Roasted chat potatoes, aioli$2.10
- Pumpkin & sage arancini$4.20Recipe'd
- Kingfish crudo, finger lime$9.80Estimated
- Heirloom tomato & burrata$6.40Actuals
- Porchetta, salsa verde$12.60Recipe'd
- Barramundi, fennel & citrus$16.40Estimated
- Charred broccolini, almond$2.90Actuals
- Roasted chat potatoes, aioli$2.10Actuals
Every dish carries what it costs you, and how sure that is.
What one guest’s food costs at 40 guests. Some dishes are priced from estimates — those are marked.
- Pumpkin & sage arancini × 0.3$1.40Recipe'd
- Kingfish crudo, finger lime × 0.3$3.27Estimated
- Heirloom tomato & burrata × 0.3$2.13Actuals
- Porchetta, salsa verde × 0.5$6.30Recipe'd
- Barramundi, fennel & citrus × 0.5$8.20Estimated
- Charred broccolini, almond × 1$2.90Actuals
- Roasted chat potatoes, aioli × 1$2.10Actuals
The barramundi is still an estimate — so the package is too.
The last beat is the one worth watching. Confirming one dish does not make the package certain, because a package is only as sure as its weakest line — so the figure keeps its tilde and says which dish is still a guess. Software that rounded that away would be easier to demo and worse to quote from.
The date's own price
A Saturday in December is not a Tuesday in February
Day-based pricing is the part operators most often leave on the table, because adding it by hand feels like haggling. Here it is simply what the date costs.
Saturday 26 September
Wednesday 23 September
Tuesday 22 September
Nothing moves the price on this day.
The rule underneath all of it
A package is only as sure as its weakest dish.
src/lib/kitchen/costSpine.ts — a package's confidence is the weakest of its lines, so confirming one dish does not make the total certain. Decision 0088.
03 — In their words
Caterers who love CaterCloud
“The moment I realised this was actually working was waking up in the morning and having the leads in my inbox already — without chasing the business. I've gone from one booking a month to three or four.”
Michelle
Owner, Michelle's Catering
50–60% of leads converted
“I run three businesses, so chasing quotes and back-of-house was really hard work. Now people order and pay through the website and get a quote instantly — I don't have to lift a finger.”
Mel
Owner, Junction Cafes
2–3 a day enquiries, was 2–3 a week · admin halved
“This software does it all for us — our invoicing's done, our payment schedules are done, the quoting tool's there. We can be asleep and still get leads. Without it, our truck would be sitting in the backyard not generating revenue.”
Steve & Amanda
Owners, Travelling Carnivores
45–55 quotes sent / month
“We've collected $40k just in deposits. Our calendar is filling up — we're actually in the process of getting a second van. One job alone basically paid for the whole system.”
Jacinto
Owner, Spanish Paella & Sangria
$40k in deposits
“These guys know how to improve your web page and the inquiries coming in. I'm three months into next year already confirmed — that's never happened in 12 years.”
Stephen
Woodfired pizza, Ablaze in the Valley
Who it is not for
Where this is the wrong tool
You quote one fixed price
If every job is the same package at the same price, a quoting engine is machinery you do not need. A price list on a page will serve you better.
You need e-signature and legal terms
Customers accept a quote and pay a deposit; there is no contract-signing flow with countersigning and audit trails.
You want it to write the copy
It prices the job and lays it out. The words that make a wedding client trust you are still yours.
Questions
What people ask about quoting
- How does CaterCloud price a quote?
- From your own menu and packages, against what the ingredients cost, with the date’s own pricing applied — a Saturday in December is not a Tuesday in February. The margin is visible before you send it, not discovered after the event.
- Can the customer accept the quote online?
- Yes, in their own portal, and they can pay the deposit in the same step. Accepting is what converts the enquiry into a confirmed booking, so nothing needs re-typing.
- What happens when the head count changes?
- The quote reprices and the costs follow it. This is the part that eats an afternoon by hand, because a head-count change is really four changes — the price, the shopping, the crew and the invoice.
- Does it show me the margin before I send?
- Yes. And where a cost cannot be derived it is shown as a gap naming the missing input rather than as zero — a cost of zero is a claim, and an estimate that says it is an estimate is the only honest kind.