Events & Catering
Deposits, per-event staff, variable food cost, and revenue that comes in chunks. We track it all so you know which events actually made money.
Money That Arrives in Chunks
A restaurant gets paid every day. You get paid twice per event, sometimes three times. A deposit when they book. A second payment before the event. Final balance after. Weeks or months between each one. Your cash flow looks nothing like your workload.
April is packed with weddings but the deposits came in January. December is slow but you’re collecting finals from the holiday rush. Without careful tracking, you spend money you haven’t earned yet or panic about cash that’s actually coming.
Deposit Tracking
Deposit Tracking
What’s been collected, what’s still owed, when it’s due. Every event has its own payment schedule. We track them all so nothing slips.
Who This Is For
Who This Is For
Caterers, event planners, wedding coordinators, corporate event companies, rental businesses. Anyone whose revenue comes tied to specific dates.
Did That Event Actually Make Money?
You quoted $15,000 for a wedding. The check cleared. Felt like a win. But the final headcount jumped by 30. The client added a late-night snack station. Your sous chef worked overtime. Rentals cost more than the estimate. Did you make $3,000 on that event or $800? Most caterers couldn’t tell you.
We track costs by event. Food, labor, rentals, transportation, everything that touched that job. When it’s done, you see the real margin. Over time, you learn which event types make money and which ones just feel busy.
Per-Event Costing
Per-Event Costing
Every expense assigned to the event it belongs to. Not dumped into general categories where it disappears into the monthly P&L.
Quote vs. Actual
Quote vs. Actual
Compare what you estimated against what you spent. Find out where your bids are accurate and where they’re consistently off.
Staff You Hire by the Event
Your core team is small. For a big event you bring on servers, bartenders, prep cooks, drivers. Some are W-2, some are 1099, some you’re not totally sure about. They work one Saturday and you don’t see them again for a month.
Tracking hours, calculating pay, filing the right forms. It’s a different headache than regular payroll because the roster changes constantly. Miss a 1099 at year-end and you’re explaining it to the IRS. Misclassify someone and you’re paying back taxes.
Event-Based Payroll
Event-Based Payroll
Hours tracked by event so labor cost lands in the right place. Pay calculated correctly whether someone worked one shift or ten.
1099 Management
1099 Management
Contractors tracked, payments documented, forms filed at year-end. No scrambling in January to remember who you paid cash.
The Off-Season Problem
Wedding season runs May through October. Corporate holiday parties hit November and December. January through March? Quiet. You’re paying rent, insurance, storage on equipment, maybe keeping a chef on retainer. The cash from busy months has to stretch.
We help you see it coming. Monthly books that show the real profit from peak season so you know how much cushion you’re building. Cash flow forecasts that tell you if February’s rent is covered or if you need to hustle for a few corporate lunches to bridge the gap.
Seasonal Tracking
Seasonal Tracking
Revenue and profit by month, by quarter, by season. See the pattern so you can plan for it instead of getting surprised every winter.
Cash Reserves
Cash Reserves
Know how much to set aside during busy months. A slow January stops being a crisis when you saw it coming in July.
Greater Richmond's Small Business Bookkeeper
The Next Step:
A Short Conversation
Fifteen minutes to tell us what you're dealing with. We'll let you know how we can help and give you a clear price quote.
