Smapey Catering Manager Guide
Everything you need to run your catering business in Smapey, step by step: packages and recipes, quotations your clients accept from their phone, the event calendar, market lists, payment milestones, and staff payouts.
1. Set Up Your Catering Account
Create your Smapey account
Sign up at smapey.com and select Catering Manager as your product. Your private catering workspace is created instantly - no credit card required on the free plan.
Build your package catalog
Go to Catering → Packages and click Add Package. Enter the package name (e.g. Basic Buffet, Premium Set Menu), a short description, and the price per head. Then add the menu items. Build out all your standard packages here - you'll attach them to bookings later instead of re-quoting every time.
Set up your supply catalog
Go to Catering → Supply and click Add Ingredient. Enter the ingredient name, unit type (KG, Grams, Liters, ML, Pieces, Packs, Boxes), cost per unit, and any notes (e.g. preferred supplier). Your recipes are built from these items, so add the ingredients you cook with.
Add recipes for your dishes
Go to Catering → Recipes and click Add Recipe. Enter the dish (e.g. Chicken Adobo), how many servings one batch makes, and what that batch takes from your supply catalog (e.g. 2 kg chicken and 0.3 L soy sauce for 10 servings). Smapey shows the cost per serving from your catalog prices.
Add your staff list
Go to Catering → Staff and add the people you call for events - cooks, waiters, drivers - with their usual role, phone number, and rate per event. You'll pick them on each booking instead of retyping names.
Set your daily event limit
On Catering → Calendar, tap the daily limit and enter the most events your kitchen and crew can run in one day. Smapey warns you before you book or confirm past it.
Invite your team
Go to Settings → Team and invite team members by email. Assign Admin or Member roles based on their access level. Team members can log in with their own account and see the live dashboard, bookings, and clients.
Configure your currency symbol
In Settings → Organization, confirm your currency symbol (₱ for Philippine Peso). This appears on payment milestones, quotes, and the revenue dashboard.
2. Manage Clients
Open the Clients page
Navigate to Catering → Clients from the sidebar. This is where all your client profiles live - register a client once and reuse their details on every booking.
Add a new client
Click Add Client. Enter the client's full name, contact number, and email address. Add any notes that are useful to keep on file (e.g. dietary preferences, how they found you). Click Save.
View a client's profile
Click View on any client to see their full record - contact details, all bookings ever made under their name, and their booking history at a glance. Returning clients are already in the system, so you don't re-enter their information for new bookings.
Edit or delete a client
Click Edit on any client to update their contact details or notes. Clients with existing bookings can be edited but not deleted - this protects your booking history.
3. Create and Manage Bookings
Open the Bookings page
Navigate to Catering → Bookings from the sidebar. This is your master event list - every booking is shown here with its status, event date, client, and guest count.
Create a new booking
Click New Booking. Select the client, then enter the event date, event type, venue, and expected guest count. Add internal notes if needed. New bookings start as Inquiry. As you pick the date, Smapey shows what else is on that day and warns you if it's already full.
Attach packages to a booking
Open the booking and click Add Package on the Packages tab. Select from your package catalog and enter the number of guests. Add more than one package if the client is taking, for example, a food package and a drinks package. Click the pencil on an attached package to change its pax or price per pax.
Add other charges and discounts
Below the packages, click Add charge for anything else on the bill: transport, styling, extra staff. Tick 'This is a discount' to subtract an amount instead. The booking total updates automatically.
Update the final headcount
Click Edit details on the booking and change the pax count. Leave 'Also set the package to this pax' ticked to re-price the attached packages in the same step, then recalculate the market list on the Supply tab.
Update booking status
Use the buttons on the booking to move it through Inquiry → Confirmed → In Progress → Completed, or cancel it while it's still open. Confirming on a day that's already at your daily limit asks you first. Marking a booking Completed never marks a payment as paid: any balance the client still owes stays open so you can record it when it arrives.
View booking details
Open any booking to see everything about the event in tabs: Packages, Quote, Supply, Payments, and Staff.
4. Calendar and Daily Limit
Open the calendar
Go to Catering → Calendar, or tap Calendar on the Bookings page. Each day shows its events, colored by status: inquiries in blue, confirmed in green, in progress in amber, completed in gray. On a phone, each event is a dot.
Set how many events you can run in a day
Tap the daily limit at the top and enter a number, or leave it empty for no limit. Confirmed, in-progress, and completed events count toward it; inquiries don't, since they aren't booked yet.
Spot full days
Days at your limit are tinted and marked Full, and the summary counts this month's events, inquiries, and full days. Use it before you promise a date to a client.
Book from a date
Tap a day to see its events, then New booking on this day to open the booking form with the date filled in.
Double-booking warnings
Smapey warns you, without blocking you, when you pick a full date for a new booking, move a booking to a full date, or confirm an inquiry on a day that's already full. You decide whether to take it.
5. Send Quotations
Create a quote
Open a booking that has at least one package and go to the Quote tab. Click Create quote, choose how long it's valid, and review your terms. Smapey remembers your terms, so the next quote starts from them.
Share it with your client
Tap Share with client to send the link through Messenger, Viber, or SMS, or tap Copy message for a ready-made message with the link. Your client opens it on their phone - no account or app needed.
What your client sees
The event details, each package with its menu, other charges, the total, the payment schedule, and your terms. They can also print it or save it as a PDF. Your notes, costs, and supply list are never shown.
Accept or request changes
Your client accepts by typing their name, which records who agreed and when, or asks for changes with a short message. You get a notification either way, and the Quote tab shows their answer. Once a quote is accepted, click Confirm booking.
Send a new version
If the booking changes, click Send new version. Older links forward to the newest version, and an accepted version stays on record as what the client agreed to. The Quote tab warns you when the booking total no longer matches the latest quote.
Preview before you send
Click Preview to see exactly what your client sees. Opening your own preview doesn't count as the client viewing the quote.
6. Payment Milestones
What is a payment milestone?
A payment milestone is a scheduled partial payment tied to a specific booking. Instead of tracking a single lump sum, you break the booking's total into stages - for example: 30% reservation fee, 50% partial payment two weeks before the event, and the 20% balance on event day.
Add a milestone to a booking
Open the booking and go to the Payments tab. Click Add Milestone and enter the milestone name (e.g. Reservation Fee), the amount, and the due date. Repeat for each payment stage. Your client sees this schedule on their quote.
Record a payment
Click Pay on any pending or overdue milestone and choose the payment method: Cash, GCash, Maya, Bank Transfer, Check, or Other. The milestone is marked Paid with today's date and the revenue dashboard updates immediately.
Collect balances after the event
Balances are often paid after the event. Completed bookings still accept payments, and the booking shows what's still unpaid until you record it.
Keep the schedule matching the total
When the pax or charges change, the Payments tab tells you how much of the total isn't in the schedule yet. To change an unpaid milestone, delete it and add it again with the new amount.
Overdue milestones
An unpaid milestone becomes Overdue the day after its due date, and the dashboard counts your overdue payments. Check it regularly - the earlier you follow up, the easier it is to collect.
7. Supply, Recipes and Market List
Open the Supply Catalog
Navigate to Catering → Supply from the sidebar. This is your ingredient and materials reference - not an inventory tracker, but the prices and units your recipes and market lists are calculated from.
Add an ingredient or supply
Click Add Ingredient. Enter the name (e.g. Chicken, Jasmine Rice, Cooking Oil), select the unit type (KG, Grams, Liters, ML, Pieces, Packs, Boxes, or Other), and enter the cost per unit. Add a notes field for supplier name, brand preference, or buying notes.
Build recipes from your catalog
In Catering → Recipes, list what one batch of a dish takes and how many servings it makes. Quantities use each supply item's own unit (kg, L, pcs), so there's nothing to convert.
Link recipes to package items
In Catering → Packages, expand a package and click Link a recipe under each dish, or pick the recipe when you add the item. Each package then shows its food cost per guest and what percent of the price that is.
Calculate the market list
Open a booking, go to the Supply tab, and click Calculate from recipes. Smapey multiplies every recipe by the booking's pax, combines the same ingredient across dishes (chicken for adobo and for lumpia becomes one line), and adds an optional buffer for spillage. Click Update supply list to save it. Dishes without a recipe are flagged so you know the list is incomplete.
Recalculate after headcount changes
When the final headcount changes, calculate again. Quantities update in place, items you've already marked bought keep their actual quantity and cost, and items you added by hand stay.
Share the list and track spending
Tap Copy list to paste the market list into Messenger for whoever does the market run. As you buy, record the actual quantity and cost - the Supply tab shows estimated vs. actual spend and food cost as a percent of the booking total.
Keep costs updated
Edit ingredient costs whenever your supplier prices change. Recipe costs, package food costs, and new market lists use the updated prices.
8. Staff and Payouts
Keep a staff list
In Catering → Staff, add each person once with their usual role, phone, and rate per event. Renaming someone or changing their number updates every event they're on. People who've worked events can be deactivated instead of deleted, so their history stays.
Assign staff to a booking
Open the booking's Staff tab and click Assign Staff. Pick someone from your staff list - their role and rate fill in - or add a new person and tick 'Add to my staff list'. Set their call time, and any extra pay such as an allowance or overtime. Smapey warns you if the person is already on another event that day.
Confirm who's coming
Tap Confirm once each person has said yes, so you can see at a glance who's still unconfirmed. Tap their phone number to call them.
Record attendance
From the event day on, mark each person Present or Absent on the Staff tab. Anyone marked absent is left out of payouts. The Staff tab totals the event's staff cost and how much of it is paid.
Pay your staff
Mark someone paid right on the booking, or open Catering → Staff → Payouts to see everyone you owe for past events, grouped by person. Mark all paid settles a person in one tap, and Copy gives you a breakdown to send with their GCash payment. Paid shows the last 60 days, with Undo.
What payouts are not
Payouts are what you agreed to pay per event, plus extras. They aren't payroll: there are no deductions, contributions, or payslips.
9. Dashboard & Analytics
Open the Dashboard
Navigate to Catering → Dashboard from the sidebar. This is your home screen - it shows the financial and operational picture of your catering business at a glance.
Read the stat cards
The cards show total, upcoming, and completed bookings; your clients and active packages; how many payments are overdue or still pending; and the revenue you collected this month.
Follow up overdue payments
When the Overdue Payments card isn't zero, open your upcoming bookings' Payments tabs and contact those clients. Following up before the event is far easier than chasing after it.
Check upcoming events
The Upcoming Events list shows confirmed and in-progress bookings in the next 30 days - event date, client, packages, and staff. This is your operations forward-look: what's coming up and whether it's ready.
Review the monthly revenue trend
The revenue chart shows your collections for the last six months. Use it to spot your peak catering season (typically April-May and October-December for Philippine events), track whether revenue is growing, and set realistic targets.
Quick Tips
Things that will save you time and headaches once you're up and running.
Add your packages, recipes, and staff list before your first booking. After that, every new inquiry takes a few taps: pick the package, then send the quote.
Send the quote link instead of typing prices into Messenger. Your client sees the full menu, charges, and payment schedule, and their acceptance is recorded with their name and the time.
Set your daily event limit before your busy season. The calendar marks full days and warns you before you promise a date you can't staff.
Recalculate the market list once the final headcount is in. Quantities update in place, and anything you've already bought keeps its actual cost.
Check the Overdue Payments count on the dashboard at least twice a week. Following up before the event works far better than chasing a balance after it.
Mark staff attendance on the event day. Payouts then only include the people who showed up, and Copy gives each person a breakdown to send with their GCash payment.
Monthly workflow at a glance
What to do each month to keep your catering business running smoothly.
Check the calendar
Look at the month ahead for full days and open inquiries before you promise new dates. Each day shows what's booked and what's still tentative.
Follow up on quotes
Confirm bookings whose quotes were accepted, send a new version where the client asked for changes, and nudge anyone who hasn't opened theirs.
Lock headcounts and shop
As final headcounts come in, update the pax, then calculate each event's market list from recipes and copy it to whoever does the market run.
Line up your crew
Assign staff from your list with call times, and confirm each person. Smapey flags anyone already booked on another event that day.
Collect payments
Record each payment as it comes in, and contact clients with overdue balances before their event date.
Close out each event
Mark attendance, settle staff payouts, and mark the booking Completed. Any balance still owed stays open until you record it.
Ready to get started?
Create your free catering account and have your packages, first client, and first quote ready to send in under 10 minutes.
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