Campus catering, coordinated
From faculty receptions to alumni galas, run every campus event from one place.
Campus dining and catering services handle a high volume of internal events from a long list of departments, requesters, and administrators - each with their own budget, timeline, and approval chain. A faculty reception, a trustee dinner, and an alumni gala are all on the calendar at the same time, and they're all being coordinated by different people. We give your catering operation one organized system so that every department gets a clean proposal, every event gets a record, and every invoice goes back to the right account.
Core workflows in one place
System, inquiry to payment
Spreadsheets required
Any device, anywhere
What makes campus catering complex
High volume of internal events
A university catering operation might run dozens of events a week - faculty meetings, recruiting receptions, trustee dinners, athletics banquets, commencement events, and alumni weekends. Keeping all of them organized in a shared inbox or a spreadsheet that multiple coordinators edit is a recipe for something falling through the cracks.
Many departments and requesters
Every department, school, and administrative unit has its own contact, budget authority, and preferred setup. The law school runs events differently than athletics, and the development office has different billing expectations than student affairs. Managing all of these as separate relationships without losing institutional knowledge is a full-time job on its own.
Budgets, POs, approvals, and chargebacks
Campus catering billing is rarely a simple credit card transaction. It involves departmental budget codes, purchase orders, committee approvals, and internal chargebacks to the right cost center. Every invoice needs to be itemized cleanly enough to pass through financial services without being sent back for clarification.
Department and account management
Keep one record per department or administrative unit with all the relevant contacts - department administrator, budget authority, event coordinator - and the full history of every event you've catered for them. When a new coordinator takes over, the institutional knowledge stays in the system.
Approval-ready, itemized proposals
Every campus event needs documentation that can move through an approval chain without additional back-and-forth. Proposals break out every item, service charge, and tax line so the department administrator, budget officer, or finance committee can review and approve without requesting a breakdown.
Calendar view of your full schedule
The weekly faculty senate lunch, the monthly board of trustees reception, the annual alumni gala - repeat campus events are the backbone of the catering calendar. Create each event as it's confirmed and see your full schedule on one calendar so nothing falls off the radar between sessions.
Reuse campus menus and pricing
Your campus catering menu is the foundation for every proposal - standard reception packages, plated dinner tiers, beverage packages, and staffing rates. Pull from your menu catalog instead of rebuilding pricing from scratch for every event, and update prices in one place when they change.
Deposits, invoicing, and chargebacks
Campus billing flows through more hands than a typical catering invoice. Issue a clean, itemized invoice that financial services can process without additional questions, support internal chargeback documentation, and track which accounts have paid and which are still outstanding - all without a separate billing system.
A record per department with full history
Every event, every proposal, every invoice, and every note is tied to the department record. When the provost's office calls about last year's commencement dinner, you have the full history - items, headcount, cost, and any notes - without hunting through archived emails.
From request to invoice
Request
Log the event - department, date, headcount, and any specific requirements - as a new event on the department record the moment the request comes in.
Quote
Build a proposal from your campus menu catalog and send it to the department contact as a clean, itemized link they can forward through the approval chain.
Department or PO approval
The department administrator or budget officer reviews the itemized proposal, issues a purchase order or gives approval, and the event is confirmed.
Event and invoice or chargeback
Execute the event and issue a clean invoice back to the department. The itemized totals give financial services everything they need to process the chargeback without a separate request.
What changes for campus catering
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Give every department a clean, itemized quote they can actually approve - not a rough estimate that requires follow-up.
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See every campus event on one calendar - create each event as it's confirmed and your full schedule is always visible.
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One source of truth across campus - every department's events, proposals, and invoices in one organized system.
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Billing that financial services can process without a phone call - itemized, documented, tied to the right department.
Campus catering questions
Can I manage multiple departments and accounts separately?
Yes. Each department or administrative unit has its own account record with its own contacts, event history, and billing information. When the engineering school and the law school both book an event on the same day, each is managed as its own account with its own proposal and invoice - no cross-account confusion.
Do you support purchase orders and internal chargebacks?
Yes. You can issue an itemized invoice after each event that financial services can process as a chargeback to the department's cost center. Every line item, service charge, and tax is broken out so the invoice can move through internal approvals without being sent back for clarification.
How do I manage events that happen every week or month?
Each occurrence is its own event record - you create it when it's confirmed, with its own date, headcount, and proposal. There's no automatic recurrence, but the department's full order history is always on their record, so past events are your reference when rebuilding a new proposal. Your calendar shows every confirmed event so nothing gets missed.
Can I handle tax-exempt billing for the university?
Yes. Tax exemption is handled at the proposal level - you can zero out the tax line for tax-exempt accounts and note the exemption in the proposal. The invoice reflects the correct totals so financial services doesn't have to make corrections before processing.
Ready to run catering the modern way?
Sign up free and send your first proposal this afternoon. No card, no setup, no contract.