Back office for caterers & venues
Type the event once.
The inquiry becomes the proposal. The proposal becomes the signed contract. The contract becomes the BEO and the invoice. One record the whole way through, so the headcount on the kitchen sheet is the headcount the client signed.
Private alpha. A handful of teams, onboarded by the founders.
Client
Ainsley–Okafor
Event
Rehearsal dinner
Date
Fri 12 Jun · 6:30 pm
Guests
120 confirmed
Dinner service · plated
| 68 | Herb-roasted chicken, spring vegetables |
| 28 | Cedar-plank salmon, charred lemon |
| 24 | Mushroom bourguignon vegan |
Allergy Tree nuts, table 6. No romesco at the carving station.
01 · What stops happening
A six-figure season run off six tools and a spreadsheet fails in predictable places. These are the ones Panko removes.
- Leads stop dying in a shared inbox.
- Signatures stop taking three follow-up calls.
- The headcount stops being typed five times.
- Deposits get invoiced whether anyone remembers or not.
02 · The record, stage by stage
Six stages. One record. Every stage inherits the last.
The headcount you enter at the proposal is the headcount on the BEO and the invoice. Not a copy of it, the same number.
- 1
Inquiry
The form on your site opens the event record. Date, headcount, and venue arrive attached, so nobody emails the client to ask what they already told you.
- 2
Proposal
Priced from your own price sheets and built from your real menus. Minutes, not an evening spent rebuilding last year's quote.
- 3
Contract
Your template, their signature, on screen. The client is walked through review and signs where they stand. Nothing to print, nothing to scan.
- 4
Event order
The signed contract becomes the BEO. Same numbers, same menu, same allergens. The kitchen works from the sheet the client agreed to.
- 5
Invoice
Deposits and balances go out on rules you set once. The invoice exists whether or not anyone was thinking about it that week.
- 6
Paid
Payments land against the event and flow into QuickBooks Online. One set of numbers, and it matches the calendar.
03 · Winning the job
Answer before the other caterer does
A lead that sits for two days is usually a lead someone else booked. In Panko the inquiry opens the event record with the date, headcount, and venue already on it. You price it from the right price sheet, build the proposal from your real menus, and send it the same afternoon. When they say yes, the signing happens on screen, walked through page by page.
Email us what you run…final guest count is due ten (10) days before the event date. Changes after that date are billed at the per-plate rate on Schedule A.
Dana Ainsley
Client signature
04 Apr 2026 · 3:12 pm
Date
- Contract signed 04 Apr
- Invoice № 0214-1 · deposit paid 06 Apr
- Event order updated 30 May
Dana: Can we move the vegetarian count to 24?
You: Done. New event order is attached.
04 · The client’s copy
Kill the “can you resend that?” email
Every event gets one link, fed by the same record you work from. The contract, the invoices, the menu, and a thread to ask questions in. When the client wants the signed copy at 9 pm on a Sunday, they open the link instead of calling you. And it carries your brand, not ours.
Email us what you run05 · Getting paid
The deposit nobody had to remember
You already know your terms. Fifty percent at signing, balance due two weeks out. Set that rule once and it applies itself to every event, using the numbers already on the contract. The invoice goes out on schedule, the payment lands against the event, and QuickBooks Online gets the same figures your calendar shows.
Email us what you run| Deposit · 50% at signing № 0214-1 · issued 04 Apr | $4,870.00 | Paid |
| Balance · 14 days before event № 0214-2 · due 29 May | $4,870.00 | Scheduled |
synced to QuickBooks Online
06 · Also on the sheet
The rest of the day-to-day
Event orders the kitchen can work from
Built from the signed contract, not retyped from it. Order templates open your recurring event types mostly filled in.
One catalog behind every quote
Menus, packages, and add-ons in one place. Raise a price once and every future proposal uses it.
Allergens at the item level
Tag an item once. The tag rides the proposal, the BEO, and the client portal instead of living in one person's memory.
Floor plans on the event record
Tables and stations laid out on the actual event. The plan the client approved is the plan the crew sets.
One calendar for the operation
Events, appointments, staff, rooms, and equipment together. You see the double-booking before you confirm the date.
Messages that stay on the event
Threads attach to the booking. When the coordinator is off, the next person opens the event and reads everything.
Every brand, one back office
Several concepts or venues, one operation. Each keeps its own forms, catalog, theming, and portal. One login.
QuickBooks Online sync
Invoices and customers flow into the books your accountant already uses. Nobody rekeys deposits at month end.
Permissions per team member
Sales sees the pipeline. The kitchen sees the BEO. You see all of it, across every brand you run.
07 · Who it’s for
Off-premise caterers
Drop-off through full service. One catalog, one calendar, and deposit terms that enforce themselves.
Venues & event spaces
Date check, layout, BEO, final balance. One record from first inquiry to last payment, with nothing lost between the sales desk and the floor.
Multi-brand groups
Several concepts, one back office. Each brand keeps its own look and client portal; you keep one view of every event.
08 · The alpha
Small on purpose
We’re onboarding a handful of catering companies and venues, working directly with the founders. No signup form, no sales team. The first step is an email.
Panko is built alongside real operations. The deposit rule someone needed on a Tuesday, the BEO field the kitchen kept writing in by hand. Work with us now and yours is one of the operations it gets shaped around.
Two lines is plenty: what you run, and roughly how many events a year. We reply to every note, even if the answer is “not yet.” Directly: hello@panko.events
Branded inquiry forms and a lead inbox
replaces: the contact form that dumps into shared email
Proposals from your price sheets
replaces: the quote template nobody updated since March
Contract templates with e-signature
replaces: the e-sign subscription and the printed PDF
Event orders and order templates
replaces: the BEO spreadsheet rebuilt for every event
Allergens, floor plans, scheduling
replaces: the diagram tool, the shared calendar, the sticky note
A branded client portal with messaging
replaces: the “can you resend that?” thread
Invoicing on your deposit rules, synced to QuickBooks Online
replaces: the reminder nobody set
Six tools and a spreadsheet, folded into one record per event.