How to write a caterer invoice

What goes on a caterer invoice

Six things, in the order they belong on the page. The invoice generator opens a caterer document with the lines already in place, so most of this is checking rather than typing.

1. Show the price per head and the final headcount. Guests times a rate is the line every client checks first.
2. State the date final numbers were confirmed. It is what makes the headcount a fact rather than a memory.
3. Bill staffing separately from food. Chefs, servers and bar staff are hours, not menu.
4. List rentals and equipment as their own lines. Crockery, glassware, linen and ovens are rented goods with a return.
5. Show the deposit and deduct it visibly. A client who paid in advance wants to see it on the final document.
6. Put the cancellation and minimum terms on the invoice. Food and staff are committed days before the event.

The lines a caterer invoice usually carries

These are the lines the generator opens with when you pick Caterer. The figures are a starting point to type over rather than a going rate: this site runs no pricing survey, and the number on your invoice should be the one you charge.

Add, rename, reorder or delete any line, and set tax per line where it applies. Priced as they open, that comes to $3,326 before tax.

A worked caterer invoice, filled in

This is the same job as the table above, written out the way it would leave your phone. Every figure on it is a starting point rather than a going rate, and the tax line is shown at ten per cent purely so the arithmetic is visible: set your own rate, or none, per line.

Subtotal $3,326, tax $332.60, total $3,658.60. The parts worth copying are the structure rather than the numbers: the job reference next to the client, every line separately priced with its count showing, the tax on its own line, and terms that name a number of days instead of saying on receipt.

Per head pricing, final numbers and the guest who did not come

The commercial reality of catering is that you buy for the number you were told, days before the event, and you cannot unbuy it.

Set a final numbers deadline in the contract, usually a stated number of days before, and invoice on the confirmed figure regardless of attendance. Then show that on the invoice: the confirmed headcount and the date it was confirmed, so a client counting empty chairs has an answer already on the document.

A stated minimum charge does the same job from the other direction. It protects a small event from being unviable and it is far easier to agree at booking than to explain the week after.

Staffing, rentals and everything that is not food

Clients think about catering as food, and food is often less than half of what a served event actually costs.

Break out the staff by role and hours: chefs, servers, bar, and any supervision, with the call time and the finish. Break out rentals separately again with quantities, because that equipment has to come back and a stated count is what makes a shortfall discussable.

Where an event overruns, charge the additional staff hours at your stated rate and show the times. Nobody argues with a line that shows the bar staff finished ninety minutes after the contracted time.

Deposits, dietary requirements and the terms that only matter once

A catering deposit does two jobs: it commits the client, and it funds your purchasing. Show it clearly on the final invoice as a deduction rather than assuming the client remembers, and always date it.

Special diets belong on the invoice as well as the kitchen sheet. Listing the dietary covers you produced, by count, records what was ordered and delivered, which matters if a client later says a requirement was missed.

Cancellation terms are the clause that gets read exactly once, in the worst possible week. State the sliding scale on the quote, repeat the key figure on the invoice, and make sure the client saw it before they signed rather than after they canceled.

Hourly, fixed price or per unit: how caterers price the work

Catering is priced per head against a confirmed number, with everything that is not food priced separately. The commercial reality behind the model is that you buy for the number you were told, days before the event, and you cannot unbuy it.

Set a final numbers deadline and invoice on the confirmed figure whatever the attendance. Then show both on the invoice, the confirmed headcount and the date it was confirmed, so a client counting empty chairs finds the answer already on the document.

Working out what to charge

This guide is about what goes on the document, not what the number should be, and nobody should hand you a rate for your own market. What the site can do is the arithmetic: the freelance rate calculator works back from what you need to earn, the service price calculator prices a service against your costs, and the profit margin calculator checks what is left once the job is done.

Writing it on your phone, in five steps

Most caterers write the invoice standing next to the work rather than at a desk a week later, and the week later version is the one that gets details wrong. The generator is built for the first case.

1. Open it with your trade already chosen. The caterer invoice loads with catering (per head) and the rest of the lines already on the page.
2. Put the client and the job reference in first. It is the part you will not remember accurately in three days, and on agent, landlord or contractor work it is the reason the invoice gets paid at all.
3. Edit the lines rather than starting from empty. Change the quantities and the rates, delete what you did not do, add what you did. Keeping the descriptions means the wording stays consistent from one job to the next.
4. Set the terms to 7 days and add a payment link. A due date that is an actual date gets chased. A link and a QR code means it can be settled before you have packed up.
5. Send it before you leave. The clock on your terms starts when the invoice arrives, not when the work finished, so every day it sits unsent is a day added to getting paid.

Getting paid once it is sent

Put a due date and your terms on the document, because an invoice without them is hard to chase. Add a payment link and a QR so settling up is a tap rather than a transfer somebody has to set up. When part of it lands, the receipt maker records it as a part payment and prints the balance still due. If the due date passes, the late fee calculator works out what your own terms allow and writes the chasing letter to go with it.

Five dates decide whether a caterer gets paid on time, and four of them are set before the work starts.

Mistakes that cost caterers money

• Invoicing on attendance rather than confirmed numbers. You already bought the food for the number you were told.
• Staffing hidden inside the per head price. Half the cost of a served event, invisible.
• Rentals count not stated. A missing tray becomes a conversation with no starting point.
• Deposit not shown as a deduction. A client who paid in advance wonders whether it was applied.
• Cancellation terms only in the contract. Read once, in the week they matter, and always too late.

Caterer invoice questions

Free caterer invoice template

The free caterer invoice template opens with the lines above already priced, in any of 200 designs, and exports a print-ready PDF with no signup and nothing saved to a server. If you would rather edit a file offline, there are 72 Word templates, 72 Excel templates with the totals already calculating, and 72 fillable PDFs.

Invoicing guides for related trades

The same billing questions come up next door. These four guides cover the trades closest to caterers, and each one sits alongside its own free template.

Every trade has one: see all 46 invoicing guides, or go straight to the 46 free invoice templates they describe.

Everything on this site, set up for caterers

The whole toolkit, with the reason each one matters to caterers rather than in general. The five marked links open with caterer already selected.

Read next