Catering requests, quotes and payments

Confirm instant bookings, answer requests with a quote, take deposits and balances, move orders along, and cancel or refund.

Every catering order has its own page. Open it from Catering → Requests, Awaiting payment, Past events or the Calendar. The top of the page shows the event date, the pickup or drop-off time, the guest count, pickup or delivery, one line saying where the order stands, and the buttons for what you can do next.

When a new request or booking comes in, you get an email, and a text message if your account has a mobile number, with a link to it.

The lists

Each row shows the event, the customer, guests, the stage, the payment, the total and a button for the next step: Review booking, Open request or Build quote. A request outside your rules is marked, for example “Outside 2 of your rules”. You can still quote it.

Payment column:

Label	What it means
Request	Waiting for your quote. Nothing is charged.
Quote sent	Your quote is out, waiting for the first payment.
Deposit paid	The deposit is in. The balance is due on the date shown.
Paid	Paid in full.
Payment failed	The customer’s payment didn’t go through. They’ve been told.
Payment pending	The customer’s bank wants them to approve the payment.
Overdue	A payment passed its due date. See Due dates.
Declined	You declined the request, or the customer declined your quote.
Refunded, Voided	Money returned, or an invoice cancelled.

Pay now bookings

A customer who books with Pay now has already paid. The order shows New booking.

• Confirm booking: the customer gets an email that it’s confirmed.
• Can’t do it: pick a reason (We’re not available that day, Too few or too many guests, Outside our delivery area or Something else) and add a note if you like. The customer gets everything back and an email with your reason, and the booking is cancelled.

Requests

A request shows New request. Under What the customer asked for you see the occasion, service style, dietary needs, allergies, contact details, company and PO number, and what they’d like. They may have picked items, asked you to quote just those, or asked you to Suggest a menu for them. If they didn’t pick items, they may have given a budget.

• Build quote opens the quote builder.
• Decline: pick a reason. Nothing was charged. The customer gets an email with your reason.

Build a quote

The quote builder is one page, in the order you work:

1. The request, with Checks against the request: for example the budget, dietary needs and allergies. Checks only warn you. Problems that would stop the quote block sending: the button then reads Fix: … and takes you to the first one.
2. The event: guests, pickup or delivery, the date, and the ready or arrival time. Serving until is optional.
3. Start from…: on a new quote, start from a saved package or a quote you’ve sent before. Prices update to your menu today.
4. The quote: sections and lines. Add from your menu adds items to a section. Add a custom line adds anything else. Each line is Food, Service or Rental (+ PST), and is charged Per guest, Per tray, piece, dozen… or as One price. A line can carry a description and a note to the customer. Add a section adds another section. Drag sections and lines by their handles to reorder.
5. Extras: tap your extras to add or remove them, or Other service or rental.
6. Message to the customer and What’s included.
7. Payment and terms: a discount (% off or $ off, food only), the delivery fee, the deposit and due dates, and your terms. Use your settings resets them. Include card processing in prices follows your setting and can be changed per quote while nothing is paid.

The footer shows what the Customer pays, what You receive ≈ after the Local Pass fee and tax and estimated card processing, and the payment plan, such as “Deposit (25%): $100.00, due …" and "Balance: $300.00, due …”. Your quote saves as a draft as you go. Save as package keeps the menu to reuse: give it a name, an occasion and a note to yourself.

Press Preview & send to see What the customer will see, then Send quote.

What the customer sees

The customer gets an email and a text message with your quote, its parts and due dates, and links to pay. Their order page on localpass.ca shows Quote ready, the quote with your message and what’s included, and a button to pay: Pay deposit · $…**, **Pay balance ·$… or Pay $…. It opens a secure invoice they pay by card.

• Paying the first invoice is how they accept the quote. It books the date.
• They can press Decline quote, with a reason if they like. You get an email and a text.
• To ask for changes, they reply to the quote email. Replies go to your email.

Change a quote

While nothing is paid, or after the deposit is paid, Revise quote opens the builder on your last quote.

• Nothing paid yet: sending cancels the customer’s unpaid invoices and sends new ones.
• Deposit paid: the deposit stays, and sending replaces the balance invoice with a new one. A revised quote can’t be less than the deposit already paid. Refund the difference instead.

Resend invoice (or Resend deposit invoice, Resend balance invoice) sends the same invoice again by email and text.

Due dates

• A deposit or a one-invoice quote that isn’t paid by its due date cancels the order and frees the date. You and the customer are both told.
• An overdue balance stays under Awaiting payment, marked Overdue. The customer gets a reminder. You decide: send a revised quote with a later due date, or cancel.

Prepare and hand over

Once the booking is confirmed or paid, move it along under Progress: Start preparing, then Mark ready for pickup or Mark out for delivery, then Mark completed. The customer gets an email when the order is confirmed, ready for pickup and out for delivery. If you mark an order completed while money is still owed, you’re asked first. After that, Resend balance invoice still works.

Delivery is yours: the order page says Who delivers: “You do, with your own driver”.

Print ticket prints a kitchen ticket for the order, with serving and reheating notes.

Notes and history keeps your own notes (“Called to confirm the time”) and a history of the order: placed, quote sent, deposit paid, payments, refunds and cancellation. Notes aren’t shown to the customer.

Cancel or refund

Cancel order asks Who is cancelling?

• We are. The customer gets everything back.
• The customer asked to cancel. Your policy applies. Your policy and the free-cancellation date are shown, and the refund is filled in to follow it. You can change the amount. The button says what happens, for example Cancel and keep $100.00** or **Refund $300.00 and cancel.

If nothing was paid, the quote is cancelled and the customer is told there’s nothing to pay. Add a note for the customer if you like. Customers who want to cancel email you or reply to an email about their order.

Refund returns part of a payment without cancelling: choose which payment, the amount and a reason (Customer request, Quality issue, Missing items or Event changed). “The refund comes out of your balance and goes back to the customer’s card.” It can take 3 to 5 business days to show up.

What you’re paid

The Quote and payment card shows, for each payment, the Local Pass fee and tax, the card processing, what’s In your balance so far and what’s Still to come, about. The Local Pass fee is 5% of the order before tax, at most $25, plus tax on the fee. Refunds come back out of your balance, and card processing isn’t returned. See Catering.