Catering online ordering: trays, lead times and delivery windows

A catering online ordering system lets a client order "sandwich platter for 20, Thursday, delivered 11:30 to 12:00" on your website and pay for it, without three emails and a phone call. Menuthere gives you that page with your own catering menu, a lead time you set, delivery windows, a minimum order and payment up front, at 0% commission. Ordering is free for 50 orders a month. Booking orders for a future date and card payments to your own Stripe account start on Lite at $17 a month.

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Who this is for

• Drop-off caterers selling platters, boxed lunches and hot trays to offices, schools and parties.
• Restaurants with a catering menu, such as taco bars, sandwich shops and barbecue joints.
• Home and small caterers taking party orders a few days ahead.
• Food trucks and bakeries doing private orders. See QR menus for food trucks and bakery online ordering.

Not the main fit: full-service event caterers who quote each wedding by guest count, staffing and rentals. Use Menuthere for the drop-off side and a quote for the events. More on that below.

Build a catering menu that orders itself

Catering menus fail online when the client can't tell how much food they're buying. Name every size by headcount. Everything in this table is on the Free plan.

An add-on costs the same on every size. If "gluten-free bread" should cost more for 40 people than for 10, give each size its own item or price it per head as a separate add-on.

Lead times and delivery windows (Lite)

All of this is in Prebooking settings. It's what turns your website into a catering order form.

Slots are cut to your opening hours and to your delivery hours, so a client never books a time you can't deliver. On the morning, the Prebookings list puts orders due within the hour in a red "Prepare now" box, with rows turning amber when due and red when late. Each kitchen ticket shows the booked time in bold, plus the client's note.

Two rules to plan around:

• One schedule for all catering items. Every ticked item shares one notice, one set of days and one set of windows. If hot trays need 48 hours and cookie platters only 24, set 48.
• Catering items are ordered on their own. A basket with a ticked platter and an everyday item is asked to split. For a restaurant, that's useful: catering orders never get mixed into tonight's dinner tickets.

Money: minimums, fees and payment up front

Payment rules are set per order type, not per item. If you're a restaurant and switch off cash for pickup, it applies to all pickup orders, not only catering. Distances are in kilometers (10 miles is about 16 km).

Card money goes to your own Stripe balance. Stripe's standard US price is 2.9% + 30¢ per domestic card, and Menuthere adds nothing. On a $400 order that's $11.90 in card fees. On a delivery app at a 25% commission, it would be $100.

The office-order workflow

Office managers are the best catering clients: they reorder. Here's how to make that easy.

1. Give them one link. Put your catering menu link in your email signature and on every invoice.
2. They book Thursday's lunch on Monday, choose the 11:30 to 12:00 window, type "Building B, 4th floor, ask for Dana" in the note, and pay by card.
3. You see it in Prebookings, confirm, and the ticket prints with the window in bold on Thursday morning.
4. Turn on full address details at checkout, so suite and floor are required on delivery orders.
5. Keep the client. On Lite, the customer list shows who ordered and how often, and you can export it. On Pro, you can send WhatsApp updates and run loyalty points.

Thinking about delivery apps for catering? Their commission is the same on a $400 order as on a $20 one: DoorDash takes 15% to 30% on delivery and Uber Eats 20% to 30%. See our DoorDash and Uber Eats pages.

What Menuthere doesn't do for caterers, and what to use instead

Write your cancellation and refund terms in each platter's description so clients agree before they pay. Read do I need a refund policy for food orders.

What it costs

For most caterers, Lite is the plan: future-date booking is the whole point. Lite starts with a 7-day free trial; you add a card to start it, and nothing is charged until it ends.

UK caterer? See our catering ordering system for UK caterers, the UK catering menu templates and how to start a catering business in the UK. For an overview of catering on Menuthere, see the catering ordering system.

Set up catering online ordering

1. Create your store. Use your Google listing, or start by hand with your business name and logo.
2. Build the catering menu. Add platters with sizes named by headcount, required choices and allergens.
3. Set your rules. Add a minimum order for delivery, your delivery area and fee, and a packaging charge.
4. Turn on pre-orders (Lite). Tick the catering items, then set the notice, the days, how far ahead and your delivery windows.
5. Connect Stripe (Lite). Switch off cash for delivery so every order is paid before you cook.
6. Write your terms. Put cancellation and refund terms in each platter's description.
7. Test a booking. Order a platter for next Thursday at 11:30 and check the ticket and the Prebookings list.

Catering orders with lead times and payment up front, 0% commission.

Create your free ordering pageBook a demo (opens in a new tab)