Catering - Do you use Square or a third party system?

[lilisalazar]

We're currently exploring setting up a catering order form, i've done some in the past using Jotform such as this one here - https://tierradelsolpdx.com/catering

Is anyone using Square's built in online ordering for catering orders? If so i'd love to see your setup/link! 

What i've found confusing is that the online ordering menus are all tied together with the main ordering page, there's no way to separate the categories, for example Regular Menu vs. Catering menu in separate ordering pages..unless i'm missing a work around..

TIA! 

[CinderBistro]

We currently have all of our catering items & services added to our Square library and use the built in estimating & invoicing features. We also rely heavily on the Square Online ordering capabilities for pickups & deliveries. I think I may have find a workaround by creating a new "Catering" page where I can add the appropriate categories and items but I haven't yet had the time to actually set it up. I sure hope this is a possibility. If not, we have to find a solution soon because our catering business is expected to grow exponentially this year.

[Donnie-M]

@lilisalazar Yes,  I’ve looked around quite a bit and I’m currently using Square for it, though I agree it’s not very clean out of the box.

You’re right about the limitation: online ordering menus are tied together, which makes separating regular vs catering awkward. You can make it work, but it takes some intentional structuring and restraint with categories.

That said, I’ve been thinking a lot about treating catering almost like a separate “location” within Square: same ecosystem, but isolated menus, pricing logic, and workflows. Square can get you most of the way there if you lean into how locations, menus, and fulfillment are designed, but it’s not obvious or well-documented.

Still exploring the cleanest way to do it, but I think there’s room to do catering better inside Square without bolting on a third party.

Just my 2c.  Wait we don't have those anymore..Here's a nickel, call someone who cares...

[CinderBistro]

Based on Square's current design limitations, I completely agree with you that treating catering services as a separate location is the best technical option. The only major downside is the additional cost and complexity involved with doing so.

[lilisalazar]

@CinderBistro you're right about adding more complexity, do you know if we can have 1 Plus (paid) subscription for 1 location and 1 free plan for the second (catering) location? 

[CinderBistro]

When I was forced to setup two distinct locations for another restaurant that offered both online ordering and catering services, Square charged for both locations.

[lilisalazar]

Yikes! Thanks for the heads up!

[abrokenangel]

We were told by chat the other day that we could set our Catering "location" to the free plan during times of lower activity. The transaction rate is higher, but you have to do quite a bit of sales to make it worth paying the $49/month. Notes here:

https://community.squareup.com/t5/Food-Beverage/Square-Plus-quot-Locations-quot-Pricing/m-p/836217

We do a good amount of seasonal pickup catering Nov-Mar, including a large Soup CSA, so I may bump Catering down to the free version during the "slow" pickup season. I'm not sure if this would affect Preorder options, etc.

For offsite catering (weddings and events), we use our website form and QuickBooks for invoicing. I like a few of the Square invoicing features - especially the way tips are handled, which tend to get buried in Quickbooks - but we were badly burned once using Square invoicing due to suspected fraud (not us), when Square suddenly removed a good amount of money from our linked account for about a week. It ultimately was resolved, but it hurt our small business in stress, time spent, and lack of available funds, as you can imagine.

[lilisalazar]

Hi Donnie!

I had tried that setup but was unable to show only one location's menu in one Online Ordering page and the other in a different one. From what I'm seeing we can only have 1 main online ordering pages despite having multiple locations per website... so maybe adding a separate site to that location may be a better option... 

That's my nickel (doesn't have the same ring to it lol)

[MAXSDELI · Accepted solution]

I’ve been looking into this for years and yes, the only viable way to setup a separate online Catering Menu seems to be, setting it up as a separate entity with a different site and url. 

Typically, catering requires a different set of parameters than our online ordering site such as lead times, pickup/delivery availability, fees & gratuities, etc., making our current online ordering site unusable for Catering orders. 

If anyone reading this thread has any ideas or suggestions, I’m all ears. 

@isabelle 

[lilisalazar]

Thanks for your feedback @MAXSDELI that's the way I'm advising the team as well! 🙂 

[TheArcticCircle]

Hey there, 

This isn't the best option, but it works fairly okay for what we do. We added a page to our site and then put a featured item list and selected the specific catering items from our catalog.

Here's the link to our catering page. CATERING | The Arctic Circle

We also did something similar for cake ordering. 

Here's the link for that. CAKES & PIES | The Arctic Circle

For fulfillment we have that set for people to pick their own pickup time so they can place orders ahead of time. Then we also in the items library under fulfillment methods we put a specific prep time for these items so people can't place them for pickup before they would be ready. For example, the cakes and pies have a 2-hour prep time so when ordering those it forces a 2-hour window. Doing this also allows us to make it so the orders show up on the KDS and print the ticket when we need to start preparing the order (this is another setting under fulfillment methods if you don't know where that is).

I'm always glad to answer any questions or help figure out specific issues you may be having.

[namilo14]

Hi, this I believe will work with what I am trying to do. Can you please let me know how did you get QTY selection on the top? See the attached screenshot. 

[lilisalazar]

The Quantity is built in by default 🙂 

[lilisalazar]

Thanks for your input & nice setup! I see you're using the new bundles feature too, we just set this up for a client 🙌

[ArrostoDeli]

This is exactly what we did also! https://www.arrostodeli.com/catering 

I would also mention that if you do not want your catering items to show on your Order Online page, they you make them hidden. They will still show when you select them for the Featured Item List.

This way allows people to order online and select a time/date up to 90 days out if they are picking up. If they want delivery, they have to either email or call us to place the order, but with this setup, they are able to figure out what they want first. For deliveries, we then use Square Invoices. They get the email and can pay through there.

I don't think I would want anyone to have the option of ordering a catering delivery without talking with them first. It is just 1 person delivering and an automated scheduling system would block off 15 minutes to and hour for a delivery when they could be next to each other and we could go from one to the next. It works for us and I don't think I have had any issues with it for our almost 6 years of using it.

[Eddiemunster]

We're still in the process of setting ours up fully-there's no photos yet.  We have several locations (one Bricks and Mortar and 3 regular weekly locations for our food truck) so each location is set up on the online ordering page.  Go to www.twfoven.com.au to have a look.  We also have our catering location setup there so customers can preorder their catering items.  There is a 2 day leadtime, so customers have to pre order and the system will give them a pickup day automatically.  We're not open 7 days a week so it's a little challenging with the days that people can pickup but I'm working on this.  You'll also see our menu is duplicating so that's another thing right now I have to figure out.  

Setting up Catering as a separate location is a great solution.  You can choose where customers pickup from and set this in the location as well as creating items with there own prep times etc.  You can also create a google maps location and sync to it and set up all of your images and information there as well.  There's a lot of benefits in making your catering page a separate location. 

[ribshackcaters]

But does anyone cater off site??? I am looking for a work around where I can charge tiers of service and I am struggling.  My current site allows the customer to choose the package and guest count but then also allows for them to pick a time / date AND THEN pickup (free), drop off only (10%), deliver and setup with disposable chafing (20%) and finally deliver real chafing and cleanup (30%).  I've had 12 people from Square tell me not possible but one tell me it was, but when I followed the steps it didn't work.  I will never get back to that one agent who was actually helpful!!

[thelandofkush]

We use Square Site for catering orders for pickup orders only at this time.  Our site is landofkush.com.  You can add options for delivery services through the Delivery option.  It's unfortunate that Square Support is unable to guide you through the process.  Did you search for any videos or try an AI tool to see if they can search for you?

[indianathomas]

We us eZ Cater.

[ribshackcaters]

Like it works with Square as an integration or it’s a completely separate setup? Share your page?