Short answer: In Manage My Restaurants Events, a corporate dinner runs from one record, from the first inquiry to the wrap-up the morning after.
Planning. You save the company as a client and create the event with an expected guest count. You build the menu with its dietary variations, which gives you a plate cost and a shopping list. Extras such as audio-visual (AV) equipment are added to the event, and what the evening costs you is logged as restaurant costs.
Sharing and paperwork. The client's contact sees the timeline through a link without an account. Your team opens the event through their shift or task. The confirmation, kitchen sheet and final summary are document templates filled from the event and exported to PDF.
Invoicing. The app doesn't invoice or bill. You issue the invoice in your own invoicing system.
Here is one example event, start to finish. For the full planning checklist behind each step, see our corporate events in a restaurant guide.
Example event (made up for illustration): a corporate dinner for a 60-person IT firm on a Thursday evening. Private room, three-course seated dinner, a 15-minute talk by the CEO, finish by 23:00. All amounts are example figures, before tax.
Step 1: The corporate dinner inquiry becomes a client and an event
The office manager emails on a Monday, five weeks out: "Team dinner, about 60 people, a short talk from our CEO, we need to be out by 11."
The Manager does two things:
Saves the client. The IT firm goes in as the client, with the office manager as the contact. When the same company asks for a summer party or a December dinner, you start from this record and their past events.
Creates the event on that client, with the date, room and expected guest count: 60. The final count will go into its own field later, so nobody confuses the inquiry number with the confirmed one.
Step 2: Corporate dinner menu with diets and plate cost
The Manager builds the event menu: a sharing starter, a main with a vegetarian, a vegan and a gluten-free variation, and a dessert. Each dish carries an estimated plate cost that you enter. The main, for example, comes out at $24 per plate. That puts the proposed package of $95 per guest in context before the quote goes out.
The office manager sends the diets two weeks before: 8 vegetarian, 3 vegan and 2 gluten-free, one of them coeliac. The coeliac guest's name goes in a note on the dish, so both the kitchen and the floor know who gets that plate.
From the menu, the app generates a shopping list. It's built from the menu as it stands, not from the guest-count field, and it doesn't update by itself. Keep that in mind for step 6. For the costing method, see how to cost an event menu. For the product side, see event menus.
Step 3: Corporate dinner extras and restaurant costs
The CEO's talk needs a projector, a screen and two microphones. You add AV as an event extra at $350, separate from the food menu. Extras are priced lines that roll into the event total.
What the evening costs you goes into restaurant costs, attached to the event: an external AV technician at $200 and a hired lectern at $60. These are your expenses, not lines for the client. When you look at the event later, you can see what it took to run.
Step 4: The corporate dinner timeline, shared with someone who has no login
The Manager builds the timeline backwards from the 23:00 finish:
Time | Step |
|---|---|
17:30 | Room set, AV check with the technician |
18:30 | Doors, welcome drink |
19:15 | Starter |
19:45 | CEO's talk (15 min). The main leaves the pass only after the talk ends |
20:05 | Main |
21:00 | Dessert, coffee |
22:45 | Last drinks |
23:00 | Guests out |
The office manager doesn't have an account and doesn't need one. You share the timeline by link. She sees the current steps and times, and so does the CEO's assistant when she forwards it. The link is read-only and expires by default 24 hours after the event. If you generate a new link, the old one stops working. For more layouts, see event-day timeline examples.
Step 5: Documents for the client and for the kitchen
You wrote two document templates once:
a confirmation for the client,
a kitchen sheet for your team.
Placeholders fill from the event and the client: company name, date, guest count and the event total. You generate both from the event and export them to PDF. The client gets the confirmation with the menu, the agreed terms and the AV line. The kitchen gets courses, dietary counts, notes and timing. The data is the same and the layout is different.
Step 6: The final count, two days before
On Tuesday at noon, the agreed deadline, the office manager confirms 54 guests. The Manager enters 54 as the final guest count, then does the two things the app won't do on its own:
Updates the menu quantities to 54, with diets adjusted (41 standard, 8 vegetarian, 3 vegan, 2 gluten-free).
Generates the shopping list again from the updated menu, so the order matches 54 plates, not 60.
The estimated plate cost now shows food for 54. The kitchen sheet is regenerated so the pass works from the right numbers.
If you haven't set a deadline for the final count yet, use the headcount checklist in our corporate events guide.
Step 7: The night: the team opens the event from their shift
The Owner and Manager plan the event. Staff open it through their shift on this event, or through a task such as "set the private room by 17:30". That puts the menu, the dietary notes and the timeline for this dinner in front of the people serving it. To size the team, see staffing plans for 80, 100 and 150 guests.
At 22:40 the CEO's assistant asks for another 30 minutes at the bar. The client's host approves it, and the Manager adds a bar extension at $250 as an event extra.
Step 8: The morning after: wrap-up
The wrap-up is three steps, using documents and costs only:
Final summary from the template. It covers the final guest count, the extras actually used and the event total. Example: 54 guests × $95 = $5,130, plus AV $350, plus the bar extension $250, which gives $5,730 before tax.
Check your side. Restaurant costs on the event show what it took to run: $260 for the technician and the lectern.
Issue the invoice in your own invoicing or accounting system, using the same company details and amounts as the summary.
Manage My Restaurants Events doesn't invoice or bill. It gives you the numbers and the PDF your invoice is based on.
If the same client comes back in December, start from their record and see the corporate Christmas events guide.
FAQ
Does the client need an account to see the plan?
No. You share the timeline by link. The client can read it but can't reply through it, and the link expires by default 24 hours after the event.
Does the shopping list change when the guest count changes?
No. Update the menu quantities to the final count, then generate the shopping list again.
Can Manage My Restaurants Events send the invoice?
No. It produces the final summary as a PDF from your template. You issue the invoice in your own system.
Run your next corporate dinner from one record
Client, guest counts, menu, extras, costs, timeline, team and documents, all on the same event. See plans: 14-day free trial, card required.