Overview

The Event Services section of the Banquets system enables a Banquet/Event Manager to formalize the relationship and categorization of Items that will be served (such as food) and/or provided (such as A/V equipment) during the event, and define how the pricing will be established. Understanding how Service Item Categories, Service Items, Service Types, Menus, Menu Categories and Pricing Structure interact and are assigned is imperative to properly establishing them within the event.

Use Case(s)

Dinner will be served during the reception of the Smith wedding to occur next July. The 4-course Reception Menu established from the Wedding Menu Category will be utilized, and will be broken down into 4 4 Item Categories: (1) Appetizer, (2) Soup/Salad, (3) Main Entree, and (4) Dessert. Within each course, two service Items will be available for the guests to choose from - ie. Appetizer will have Shrimp Cocktail and Beef Tartar as available Service Item options. Pricing on the dinner will be a fixed, all-inclusive, package pricing per person. Additionally, an open bar will be maintained with an ala carte pricing structure. Cake Cutting and A/V services will also be required during the event, and have been set up as separate Service Types.

Content

Accessing Event Services

To access Service Item Categories, Services Items, Service Types, Menus, and Menu Categories, navigate to Settings, and then click Event Services.

Then, follow the instructions below for specific Event Service Settings.

Manage Service Items Categories

Creating Service Item Categories is helpful in managing service items, as they allow you to easily search for the items. Item Categories serve to help group Service Items (such as Shrimp Cocktail or Beef TarTar) into meaningful buckets, such as Appetizers, Soups, Entrees, Desserts, etc. There are numerous ways to categorize items.

Creating New Service Item Categories

To establish an Item Category, navigate to Event Services as previously shown, and then click Manage Service Item Categories.

Click the New button.

Note: Multi-site Organizations, with site-specific item categories that are not shared across their organization, will want to add and/or edit item categories within the appropriate site(s). Multi-site Organizations whose item categories ARE shared across all sites will want to add and/or edit item categories within the Master List. Organizations with a single site will want to add/edit item categories where they see the ‘edit’ link available next to the existing item categories. This could be at the Master or Site level.

Enter the Service Item Category name, then Click Save.

The new service item category is then displayed with all the other categories.

Deleting Service Item Categories

To delete a Service Item Category, follow the same steps as above until you reach the step where you would click the New button. Instead of clicking this button, click the Delete link next to the category you wish to remove.

Note: Multi-site Organizations, with site-specific item categories that are not shared across their organization, will want to add and/or edit item categories within the appropriate site(s). Multi-site Organizations whose item categories ARE shared across all sites will want to add and/or edit item categories within the Master List. Organizations with a single site will want to add/edit item categories where they see the ‘edit’ link available next to the existing item categories. This could be at the Master or Site level.

Editing Service Item Categories

To edit a Service Item Category, click the Edit link next to the category you wish to change.

Note: Multi-site Organizations, with site-specific item categories that are not shared across their organization, will want to add and/or edit item categories within the appropriate site(s). Multi-site Organizations whose item categories ARE shared across all sites will want to add and/or edit item categories within the Master List. Organizations with a single site will want to add/edit item categories where they see the ‘edit’ link available next to the existing item categories. This could be at the Master or Site level.

You will be brought to the edit screen where you can change the name or spelling of the Service Item Category. Click Save when finished.

The updated Service Item Category name is displayed with the other categories, and all service items that had the original category name will be updated with the new category name.

Note: Item Subcategories are also available for setup, and function similar to categories, but could be used to break down categories into further groupings. For instance, if a Category of Appetizer was established, two subcategories could be established, such as Hot Appetizers and Cold Appetizers.

Manage Service Items

Service Items must be created before they can be added to menus. A Service Item is any Item that will be served in the course of an event, such as a Steak, Shrimp Scampi, Mashed Potatoes, or a glass of Dom Perignon.

Creating New Service Items

To establish a Service Item, navigate to Event Services as previously shown, and then click Manage Service Items.

Note: Multi-site Organizations, with site-specific items that are not shared across their organization, will want to add and/or edit items within the appropriate site(s). Multi-site Organizations whose items ARE shared across all sites will want to add and/or edit items within the Master List. Organizations with a single site will want to add/edit items where they see the ‘edit’ link available next to the existing items. This could be at the Master or Site level.

Click the New button.

You will now be taken to the screen where you can create a Service Item. You can enter as little or as much information about the item as you would like. However, if you want to enter in a price, the item MUST have a Revenue Center.

*Note that when you select a Revenue Center it automatically populates the applied rates. These can be toggled if the item needs another set of applied rates.

A completed Service Item might look like this. Click Save finished.

The completed item then displays with all of the other Service Items.

Deleting Service Items

To delete a Service Item, follow the same steps as above until you reach the step where you would press the New button Instead of pressing this button, Click the Delete link next to the item you wish to remove.

Editing Service Items

To edit a Service Item, click the Edit link next to the item you wish to change.

Make any edits you would like to the Service Item. Click Save when finished.

*For the purposes of this example, we edited the Assorted Cookies and Brownies item. We added a description, a price, a cost and placed the item in a category.

The item is then displayed with all of the other items.

*You can see the changes we made in the last step here.

Manage Service Types

Service Types are the groupings that service items live under in a menu. They display in the column on the far left of an event order with services. Examples could include A/V Equipment, Food, Beverages, and many more.

Creating New Service Types

To establish a Service Type, navigate to Event Services as previously shown, and then click Manage Service Types.

Note: Multi-site Organizations, with site-specific service types that are not shared across their organization, will want to add and/or edit service types within the appropriate site(s). Multi-site Organizations whose service types ARE shared across all sites will want to add and/or edit service types within the Master List. Organizations with a single site will want to add/edit service types where they see the ‘edit’ link available next to the existing service types. This could be at the Master or Site level.

Click the New button.

Enter a name into the Service Type area. Click Save when finished.

The new Service Type is then displayed with all the other service types.

Deleting a Service Type

To delete a Service Type, follow the same steps as above until you reach the step where you would press the New button. Instead of pressing this button, click the Delete link next to the Service Type you wish to remove.

Editing Service Types

To edit a Service Type, click the Edit link next to the one you wish to change.

You will be brought to the edit screen where you can change the name or spelling of the Service Type. Click Save when finished.

The updated Service Type name is displayed with the other service types, and all service items that were under the original service type in a menu will be updated with the new service type name.

Manage Service Menu Categories

Creating Service Menu Categories is helpful in managing service menus. It allows you to categorize menus so that they are easily distinguishable from one another. Examples could include Beverage Menus, Food Menus, Service Menus etc.

Creating New Service Menu Categories

To establish a Service Menu Category, navigate to Event Services as previously shown, and then click Manage Service Menu Categories.

Note: Multi-site Organizations, with site specific menu categories that are not shared across their organization, will want to add and/or edit menu categories within the appropriate site(s). Multi-site Organizations whose menu categories ARE shared across all sites will want to add and/or edit menu categories within the Master List. Organizations with a single site will want to add/edit menu categories where they see the ‘edit’ link available next to the existing menu categories. This could be at the Master or Site level.

Click the New button.

Enter a name into the Service Menu Category area. Click Save when finished.

The new service menu category is then displayed with all the other categories.

Deleting Service Menu Categories

To delete a Service Menu Category, follow the same steps as above until you reach the step where you would press the New button. Instead of pressing this button, click the Delete link next to the category you wish to remove.

Editing Service Menu Categories

To edit a Service Menu Category, click the Edit link next to the category you wish to change.

You will be brought to the edit screen where you can change the name or spelling of the Service Menu Category. Press Save when finished.

The updated Service Menu Category name is displayed with the other categories, and all service menus that had the original category name will be updated with the new category name.

Manage Service Menus

Service Menus are made up of several components: Service Types, Service Items and Pricing Types. Each menu must include at least one Service Type (a titled grouping for service items). Each Service Type can hold as many Service Items as you want. Menus can be priced in several different ways, and there will be more details below.

Create New Service Menus

To establish a Service Menu, navigate to Event Services as previously shown, and then click Manage Service Menus.

Note: Multi-site Organizations, with site-specific service menus that are not shared across their organization, will want to add and/or edit service menus within the appropriate site(s). Multi-site Organizations whose service menus ARE shared across all sites will want to add and/or edit service menus within the Master List. Organizations with a single site will want to add/edit service menus where they see the ‘edit’ link available next to the existing service menus. This could be at the Master or Site level.

Click the New button.

You will now be taken to the screen where you can start creating a Service Menu. You will need to enter in a Service Menu Name, choose a Category and choose a Pricing Type. Pricing types include A La Carte Pricing, Package Pricing - Dollar Amount Allocation and Package pricing - Percentage Amount Allocation. Drag and drop Service Types from the list of Available Service Types to the Selected Service Types area. Be sure to drag them in the order you would like them to appear on your menu.

A La Carte Pricing: Each item within the menu is priced individually.

Package Pricing - Dollar Amount Allocation: The menu is priced as a whole, either per package or per person, and the prices are allocated to each revenue center using exact dollar amounts.

Package Pricing - Percentage Amount Allocation: The menu is priced as a whole, either per package or per person, and the prices are allocated to each revenue center using percentage amounts.

*The difference between dollar amount and percentage amount allocation is that if you choose percentage amount allocation, then if the package price is ever changed, Banquets will automatically recalculate the allocation of money based on the percentage amounts. If dollar amount allocation is chosen and the package price is changed, the user must recalculate all the math themselves to distribute the pricing amongst the revenue centers.

A completed Service Menu might look like this. Click Save when finished.

*For the purposes of this example, we created a Brunch Menu with Package Pricing – Percentage Amount Allocation that is priced per person. 100% of our revenue is being allocated to the Food Revenue Center.

After saving, you will be taken to this screen where you can add items to the menu. Click the Add Items button under the Service Type (grey headers) you would like it to appear under. You will be taken to the Master List of items where you will be able to search for whichever item you need.

When you finished adding all of the items to your menu, Click Done. The menu is now able to be added to a function.

Deleting Service Menus

To delete a Service Menu, follow the same steps as above until you reach the step where you would click the New button. Instead of pressing this button, click the Delete link next to the menu you wish to remove.

Editing Service Menus

To edit a Service Menu, click the Edit link next to the Menu you wish to change.

You will be taken to this screen first where you can edit the menu’s name, pricing and service types. Click Save when finished to edit items within the menu.

After saving, you will be taken to this screen where you can make several edits to the components within the menu.

Click the Edit Items button to change item pricing, calculate auto quantity and quantity precision.

Click the Reorder Items button to change the order the items are listed in under the service type.

Click the Change Service Type button to change the named grouping that the service item is listed under.

When you have finished, click Done.

FAQs

Q: What is the best way to set pricing, so that I do not have to manually recalculate allocated amounts every time we change the price of an overall package.

A: Use the Package Pricing - Percentage Amount Allocation. Once %’s are established, as prices change, system will automatically recalculate proper revenue allocations based on services required.

Q: What is the best way to determine profitability on the event items?

A: Ensure to enter a Cost as well as a Price to the event menu to assist in calculating profitability

Q: How many Service Item Categories can we have?

A: You can have as many Service Item Categories that you would like.

Q: What is the purpose of Service Item Categories?

A: Service Item Categories allow you to organize your service items and easily search for items by filtering by category.

Best Practices

Ensure all Event Services utilized in an Event are set up in the system as Event Items, categorized appropriately, and consistently utilized to ensure appropriate billing, and profitability calculations can be effectively maintained.
Create Service Item Categories based on how you think Service Items should be organized.

Downloadable Guide

Banquets - Event Services Settings - Guide

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