Banquet event order (BEO) template for larger catered events

A boxed lunch for 24 needs an order form and a pack-out check. A rehearsal dinner for 80 in your back room, or a buffet at someone else's venue with servers and a bar, needs more: a room layout, a timeline by the minute, staff by role, rentals, and a bill that matches what was agreed. Hotels and banquet halls put all of that on one document, the banquet event order (BEO), and everyone works from it: the kitchen, the floor, the bar, and the client who signs it.

For smaller drop-off jobs, use our catering order form and event sheet: it's lighter and faster. Use the BEO when the event has staff on site, more than one course or service, rentals, or a guaranteed count.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Check your license, your health department's rules for off-site events, and your state's rules on service charges.

The rules that make a BEO work

• One version. The BEO has a version number and a date. When anything changes, you issue a new version and the old one goes in the bin. The kitchen never works from an email thread.
• The client signs it. The signature is what turns "about 80" into a guaranteed count you bill for.
• Every section has an owner. The chef owns the menu block, the event lead owns the timeline and the floor, the owner or manager owns billing.
• It goes out on a set day. Final BEO to every department a fixed number of days before the event, with the final count due before that. Pick the numbers once and print them on every BEO.

Page 1: the event

BEO # ______ Version ______ Issued ______ Event lead ______

Guaranteed count rule (write yours on the BEO). An example: "The count received by the due date is the minimum billed. We prepare a few portions over the guarantee."

Page 2: room and setup

Sketch the room under the table: doors, the kitchen or service entrance, the buffet line, the bar, and where guests queue. Put the buffet away from the door guests come in through, so the line doesn't block arrivals.

Page 3: the run of show

Work backwards from the moment the food lands on the table.

Page 4: food and drink

Check every line against your allergen matrix, including sauces, dressings and garnishes. The Food Code's nine major food allergens are milk, egg, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts, soybeans and sesame (§1-201.10, 2022 FDA Food Code).

Holding: time/temperature control for safety food stays at 135°F or above, or 41°F or below (§3-501.16(A)), on the buffet and in the hot boxes. A buffet held by time instead needs written procedures; the rules and the four-hour limit are in the catering order form post, and the hot holding guide covers the rest. Put a probe and a log sheet on the buffet, and write a reading every hour.

Page 5: staff, equipment and rentals

Write down your own ratios after each event and adjust them: plated service needs more servers than a buffet, and a full bar more bartenders than beer and wine.

Page 6: billing and signatures

Service charges aren't tips. The federal regulations put it plainly: "A compulsory charge for service, such as 15 percent of the amount of the bill, imposed on a customer by an employer's establishment, is not a tip", and "where negotiations between a hotel and a customer for banquet facilities include amounts for distribution to employees of the hotel, the amounts so distributed are not counted as tips received" (29 CFR 531.55(a)). So a service charge on a BEO is your revenue: if you pass some of it to the staff, it goes through payroll as wages, not as tips, and your accountant should know how you split it. Say on the BEO what the charge is for; some states and cities have their own disclosure rules. A tip the client adds on their own, on top, is a tip. Our tip pooling guide covers who can share tips.

Signatures: Client ______ Date ______ / Event lead ______ / Chef ______

After the event

Within two days: final bill with the actual count if it went over the guarantee, a thank-you call, and a short note on the BEO itself: what ran late, what ran out, what was left over. File it; the next event with that client starts from it.

Where Mays fits

Mays catering covers the order side and runs with our team's setup, with payment through a connected Square account.

• The lead and the order. Leads move through Pending assignment, Quote sent, Quote accepted, Paid, In prep, Ready and Delivered. Each one keeps the event date and time, guest count, address, delivery notes and dietary notes, and Catering → Orders moves paid jobs through Start prep, Mark ready and Mark delivered.
• Packages set a price per serving, minimum and maximum guests, what's included and dietary tags.
• The event on the schedule. Add it to the day's Events row with the BEO number in the note, and put the call times from page 5 in as shifts or Open shift (unassigned) for people to claim. See Schedule events and birthdays and Open shifts.
• The load-out and buffet checks. Build page 5's equipment list and the hourly buffet temperatures as a template under Tasks → Templates with Number answers for temperatures and a Photo of the setup, and send it on the day with Tasks → Create Task → From Template. See One-off tasks.

What Mays doesn't do yet: there's no BEO document. A lead has one package and one free-text dietary note, with no courses, room setup, run of show, rentals, staffing plan, version number or client signature, and catering jobs don't appear on the schedule on their own. Keep the BEO itself as a document, and use Mays for the lead, the payment, the shifts and the checks.

One signed sheet

Get the count guaranteed, put the whole event on one versioned BEO, have the client sign it, and send it to everyone on the same day. On the night, nobody is guessing.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Catering is set up with our team, so book a walkthrough and we'll connect it with you.