Catering Event Order Builder
Turn a client's event details into a clean, kitchen-ready catering event order without touching a spreadsheet.
A catering event order is the document your kitchen, service staff, and client all work from on event day. It lists the menu, the guest count, the room setup, the timeline, and who is responsible for what, so nobody is guessing when the truck pulls up at 3pm for a 6pm plated dinner.
Most independent caterers still build this in Word or Excel, copying last month's file, renaming it, and hoping they remembered to change the guest count everywhere it appears. That works until it doesn't: a stale allergy note carries over, the bar package doesn't match the invoice, or the banquet captain gets a version without the load-in time.
BEO HQ was built for exactly this problem. Fill in the event once and generate a branded, print-ready catering event order in minutes, then reuse the same client, venue, and menu data for the proposal, contract, invoice, and next event. This page includes a free on-page builder plus everything you need to know about how to write a banquet event order and how to send it.
Download the free template
Word and Excel versions to adapt yourself, plus a filled-in sample so you can see a finished BEO.
Or skip the manual formatting: the free builder below does the math and produces a branded PDF.
Fill it in and get your PDF
A working catering event order generator. No signup to export; a free account removes the watermark and saves your work.
Menu & line items
One row per menu item or charge. Set the price, then pick how it multiplies: /guest uses your guest count, /item uses the quantity, and flat is a one-time charge. The math shows under each row.
120 guests × $14.00 = $1,680.00
120 guests × $9.00 = $1,080.00
120 guests × $46.00 = $5,520.00
120 guests × $32.00 = $3,840.00
One flat charge of $850.00
- Guests
- 120
- Subtotal
- $12,970.00
- Service (20%)
- $2,594.00
- Tax (8.25%)
- $1,284.03
- Total
- $16,848.03
- Per guest
- $140.40
- Balance due
- $14,848.03
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Start free accountWhat is a catering event order?
A catering event order, often shortened to a catering EO or treated interchangeably with a banquet event order (BEO), is the internal working document that spells out every operational detail of a catered event: date and times, guest count, menu with course-by-course detail, room or site layout, staffing plan, rental and equipment needs, and billing terms. It is written for your team first, not for marketing to the client, though a cleaned-up version often gets shared with them too.
Where a proposal sells the event and a contract locks in the legal terms, the catering event order is the execution document. It's what the chef pulls before prep, what the lead server references for course timing, and what the site coordinator uses to confirm load-in access and power. On multi-day or multi-room bookings, each date or space typically gets its own event order even if they share one contract.
Because it touches kitchen, service, sales, and sometimes a rental vendor, the catering event order has to be unambiguous. Vague language like "passed apps for cocktail hour" causes real problems on site; a good event order names the specific hors d'oeuvres, the quantity per person, and the exact 60-minute window they're served.
What a catering event order should include
Event and client snapshot
Client or host name, event type (wedding reception, corporate lunch, holiday party), date, arrival and departure windows, and the point of contact with a phone number for day-of questions.
Guest count and floor plan
Guaranteed guest count, expected attendance range, and the room layout: rounds of 10, a long farm-table setup, cocktail rounds with high tops, or a mixed lounge and dining configuration, plus stage, dance floor, and head table placement.
Menu detail by course
Every course named specifically, not summarized: passed hors d'oeuvres with counts per person, first course, entree choices with a per-selection tally for plated events, sides, stations, dessert, and any late-night snack, each tagged for dietary restrictions.
Beverage and bar plan
Bar package tier (beer and wine, full open bar, consumption bar), specific brands if the client requested them, corkage policy if outside alcohol is allowed, toast pour timing, and last-call cutoff relative to event end.
Timeline and service style
Load-in time, setup complete deadline, cocktail hour window, dinner service start, toasts and speeches, cake cutting, and breakdown, along with the service style for each course: butler-passed, plated with tableside, family-style, or buffet.
Staffing assignments
Headcount for servers, bartenders, and kitchen staff based on guest count and service style, plus named roles for the banquet captain and chef in charge, with call times separate from guest-facing times.
Rentals and equipment
Linens, chargers, glassware, chafing dishes, tents, generators, and any items being sourced from a third-party rental company, with delivery and pickup windows noted so nothing is double-booked.
Site and access details
Kitchen or prep area availability, loading dock or service entrance location, parking for catering vehicles, power and water access, and any venue-specific restrictions like noise curfews or open-flame limits.
Billing summary and signoff
Subtotal, service charge or gratuity, tax, deposit already collected, balance due date, and a signature or approval line confirming the client reviewed the final event order before day of.
How to create a catering event order
Pull the event basics from your proposal or contract
Start with what's already confirmed: date, times, guest count, venue, and the agreed package. If you built the proposal in BEO HQ, this information carries over automatically instead of being retyped.
Lock the final menu with counts
Convert whatever was tasted or discussed into firm course-by-course selections, including per-person quantities for passed items and per-selection counts for plated entrees. Flag every allergy and dietary substitution by name, not by table number.
Map the room and the timeline
Note the floor plan, service style per course, and a minute-by-minute timeline from load-in to breakdown. This is the section your banquet captain will check most often on event day.
Assign staffing and rentals
Calculate server and bartender counts based on your guest-to-staff ratio, then list every rental item with delivery windows so nothing shows up late or gets forgotten.
Generate, brand, and share the document
In BEO HQ, this whole process happens on one screen: enter the event once, and the builder produces a branded, print-ready catering event order you can export as a PDF or share as a link, without reformatting a Word template.
Confirm and distribute before the event
Send the finalized event order to your kitchen, service team, and the client for a last review, and keep it in your event history so next year's repeat booking starts from a duplicate instead of a blank page.
When to send the catering event order
Send a working draft as soon as the menu and headcount are roughly locked, typically two to four weeks before the event, so the client and venue can flag conflicts while there's still time to adjust staffing or rentals. Treat this draft as a planning tool, not a final commitment.
Issue the final version 3 to 5 business days before the event, once the guaranteed guest count is due. This is the copy your kitchen preps from and your banquet captain carries on site, so any change after this point should trigger a reissued document with a visible revision date, not a verbal update that only lives in someone's memory.
Common mistakes that cause day-of problems
The most frequent issue is a guest count or menu detail that changed in an email thread but never made it back into the actual document. If your kitchen preps from an outdated copy while your sales team quoted the client on updated numbers, someone runs short on entrees or over on food cost. Every change needs one source of truth, updated and reissued, not scattered across email and text.
The second most common mistake is vague service instructions: writing "buffet" without specifying single-line or double-sided, or "bar service" without naming the package tier. Specificity here isn't bureaucracy, it's what lets a banquet captain who has never worked this particular client run the event correctly from the page alone.
Catering event order vs. proposal vs. contract vs. invoice
The catering proposal sells the vision and gives a price range before anything is signed. The catering contract locks in legal terms: cancellation policy, liability, payment schedule, and what happens if guest count drops below the minimum. The catering event order is operational, built for execution once the contract is signed, and the invoice is the final billing document issued after or alongside the event.
These four documents should share the same underlying event data so numbers never drift between them. That's the core idea behind BEO HQ's client and menu library: enter an event once, and the proposal, contract, catering event order, and invoice all pull from the same record instead of four separately maintained files.
Common questions
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