Run the event day

What it does. Turns the event you already built into the documents your crew works from on the day: the banquet event order, the packing list, and the kitchen report. All three are generated from the event itself, so there is no second copy to keep in step.

When you’d use it. The week of the event, once the guest count and the menu are settled. Then again the moment something changes, because a fresh copy is one click away.

Before you start. The documents only carry what is on the event, so fill in the guest count, the menu, the rentals and staff, and the timeline first. Anything missing from the event is missing from the paperwork.

Where the documents come from

Open the event and find Event Totals on the right, then click Create report. The drawer that opens splits into two lists.

Operational reports are the ones your crew uses: Banquet event order (BEO), Kitchen report, Packing list, Shopping list and Recipe sheets.

Financial reports are the ones you use internally: Profit analysis and Sales tax.

Picking one opens its options, and every one of them ends in the same Generate & download PDF button. Each report reads the event as it stands at that moment.

Generate the banquet event order

1. Click Create report, then Banquet event order (BEO).
2. Leave Include financials checked to print pricing and totals. Uncheck it for a kitchen or crew copy.
3. Leave Include internal notes checked for your own team. Uncheck it if anyone outside the crew will read the sheet.
4. Add Print notes if this copy needs a line at the top, like “final count confirmed Friday”.
5. Click Generate & download PDF.

What you’ll see. A PDF downloads. It opens with your logo, the event name, date, guest count, client, contact, venue and address, then runs through Internal Notes, Event Timeline, Menu Items, Packages, Rental Items, Staff Requirements and Financial Summary. Sections with nothing in them are left out, so an event with no rentals has no rentals section.

Two details worth knowing. The timeline always prints, even on an event with no timeline items, because your event start time is a row in it. And unchecking Include internal notes takes out the Internal Notes section and the Internal Notes column inside the timeline table, so the copy you hand to a venue carries the schedule without your crew’s instructions. The step by step for filling the timeline in is in build a BEO for an event.

Generate the packing list

1. Click Create report, then Packing list.
2. Add Print notes if the loading crew needs a line at the top.
3. Click Generate & download PDF.

What you’ll see. One checklist for loading the van. It starts with the Event Timeline, then gives you Food & Beverage Items, Equipment & Rentals and Staff Required, each row with a tick box beside it.

An item you sell on its own and also inside a package comes out as a single row with the two quantities added together, and a “From:” line underneath names both sources. That is what keeps a dish from being packed twice or missed because it was only counted once. A line still waiting on a count reads “Count not set” and names what it is waiting on, so the list doubles as the reminder to chase it.

Generate the kitchen report

1. Click Create report, then Kitchen report.
2. Add Print notes if the kitchen needs a line at the top, like an allergy.
3. Click Generate & download PDF.

What you’ll see. A prep sheet with one row per menu item: the item and its description, the Quantity to make, and a Preparation Notes box to write in. For anything built from a recipe that yields a count, or a recipe that rounds up to whole containers, the batch count prints inside that box, like “12 batches (10 ea per batch)”. An item with no recipe gets an empty box, so add a recipe to a menu item to get one on there.

Quantities follow how each line was set up. A per person line carries the full guest count, rounded up to full containers when its recipe is set to round up. A set amount line keeps the number you typed, so 12 vegetarian plates on a 120 guest dinner stay at 12 while the rest of the menu reads 120.

When the guest count changes

1. Open the event and stay on the Details tab.
2. In the Event Details card, click Edit.
3. Change Guest Count.
4. Click Save.

What you’ll see. Every per person line moves to the new count straight away: the packages, the menu items priced per person, and Event Totals. Kitchen batch counts and shopping quantities are worked out from those same quantities, so they follow too. Set amount lines stay where you put them.

Rentals and staff are not per person, so their counts stay as you typed them and it is your call what they should become. To change one:

1. Open the Rentals tab and click the pencil on the row.
2. Change Quantity and click Update Rental Item.
3. Open the Staff tab and click the pencil on the row.
4. Change Number of Staff and click Update Staff Role.

Then generate the documents again. The new PDF is the event as it stands now, so hand that one out and throw the old print away.

Prep for a week, not one event

The Create report drawer covers one event. To roll several events into one sheet, click Reports in the top menu, set a date range and the statuses you want, and pick Kitchen report or Shopping list. The kitchen sheet totals each item across the range and names the events behind the total, so your team can prep for the week in one pass. What each report holds is in reports overview.

Good to know.

• Print notes are not saved. They print on the copy you generate now, and the box is empty the next time you open the drawer.
• These documents never print your Client-Facing Notes. Those are for invoices and proposals. Internal Notes are the ones the crew reads, and only while Include internal notes is checked.
• Item groups do not change the order of anything here. The banquet event order prints menu items, rentals and staff in the order you set on the event with the up and down arrows, and the kitchen report and packing list list items alphabetically.
• Reports are not saved on the event. Each one is generated and downloaded on the spot, so keep the PDF if you need a record of what you handed out.