Get Started With Catering Online Ordering

In this Article:

Catering Online Ordering Overview
Prerequisites
Configure Your Catering Online Ordering Settings
Frequently Asked Questions
Additional Resources

Catering Online Ordering is not currently available in Australia. Check back soon for updates.

Catering Online Ordering Overview

Catering Online Ordering is built to increase the efficiency of your catering and events business while decreasing the time it takes to coordinate with your guests. With Catering Online Ordering, frictionless planning is now a part of your daily routine, where guests can place orders - on your schedule!

Catering-specific schedule - Separate hours of operation for the catering portion of your business
Customized lead times - Give you and your team the buffer you need to prepare for your events
Order minimums & capacity - Set cart minimum order amounts ($), item-level min/max limits, and the maximum amount of daily orders
Menu - In addition to your everyday menus, add special menu(s) like a holiday menu for guests to order from on a specific date or date range
Capacity - Manage the total number of orders you are willing to accept by day
Calendar view - Keep track of upcoming events and their status in a shared calendar
Menu integration - Integrated with Toast menus, open items, and discounts

Everything you need to know when using Toast's Catering Online Ordering, including order types, setting a revenue center and service charges, setting your schedule, menu management, other Catering Online Ordering settings, and reporting.

The table below shows the features specific to Catering Online Ordering.

	Catering Online Ordering	Toast Online Ordering
Special menus	✅	❌
Order minimums	✅	❌
Daily capacity	✅	❌
Calendar view	✅	❌
BEO form questions	✅	❌
Prep lists, pack sheets, BEOs	✅	❌
Toast Delivery Service/Third-party capability	✅	✅
Manual approval	❌	✅

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Prerequisites for Catering Online Ordering

Before configuring the Catering Online Ordering settings, please be sure you've created the following:

Service charges
- Create catering-relevant service charges like "delivery fees" or "labor fees" (learn more: Get Started With Service Charges and Mandatory Gratuity).
- You can configure service charges to be a mandatory gratuity or an employer-kept service charge. When editing your service charge, take note of the Assign to check owner (Gratuity)? field.
  - Select Yes to assign the service charge to the check owner (a mandatory gratuity appearing below the subtotal).
  - Select No to assign the service charge to the restaurant (an employer-kept service charge appearing above the subtotal).
- For example, a “Labor and Fees” service charge (employer-kept) appears above the subtotal as it’s a good/service rendered. The “Catering Server Gratuity” (mandatory gratuity) appears below the subtotal and tax, and will be given as a tip to the server associated with the invoice.
Revenue centers
- Create a catering- and/or Catering Online Ordering-specific revenue center (learn more: Create and Assign Revenue Centers).
- Designating catering sales to a specific revenue center allows you to isolate this source of revenue within Toast reporting.
  - For example, some caterers want their catering online orders separated in their revenue reports from those that an employee put together via the Catering & Events workflow. In this case, they would likely create two revenue centers: Catering and Catering Online Ordering.
Order types
- Catering order types help you separate the different styles of catering you offer, and allow you to customize the information required for a guest to submit a catering online order. Order types can vary in complexity but should be unique (learn more: Get Started With Toast Catering and Events).
- At most, two order types are supported for Catering Online Ordering; they will be nested behind Takeout and Delivery labels.
- Note: Catering online orders will be visible on the Catering and Events calendar.

Configure Your Catering Online Ordering Settings

To configure the settings specific to Catering Online Ordering, navigate to the Catering & events page in Toast Web and select Online ordering from the left-hand menu.

In the General settings section, you'll see:

The Online ordering enabled setting, which allows you to toggle Catering Online Ordering on or off
Your public URL for Catering Online Ordering
The Spotlight feature, which allows you to show a banner message of your choice at the top of the Catering Online Ordering page

The following sections of this article will explain the rest of your Catering Online Ordering settings in depth.

Schedule and Order Setup for Catering Online Ordering

The Schedule settings allow you to adjust your hours for Takeout and Delivery for your catering site. This schedule is independent of any other you’ve set within Toast Web, and will not affect your regular restaurant hours.

In the Overrides section, you can customize your Catering Online Ordering schedule for any known closure days to prevent orders from coming in when your staff isn’t there.
Remember, the schedule you set here will only impact your Catering Online Order availability. You might need to have different menu availability for your POS terminal -- that can be configured on the menu level. See Set Menu Availability to learn how to configure the days & times that your menus will be visible on other ordering channels (like your in-house orders).

In the Order setup section, you can configure the following settings for Catering Online Ordering:

Default server - This is the server who should receive tips for a catering online order
Reporting - This is where you'll indicate the revenue center you want to use for Catering Online Ordering
Special requests - Allow special requests when guests add items to their cart for a catering online order

Takeout and Delivery Setup for Catering Online Ordering

In the Takeout setup section, you can customize the following settings for Catering Online Ordering:

Enable or disable Takeout orders for Catering Online Ordering
Select the Order type that should be associated for Takeout orders
Select the Dining option you'd like to use for Takeout orders
When can guests place orders for takeout?
- Add a minimum lead time (ensures guests aren't placing last-minute catering online orders that you can't fulfill)
- Add a maximum lead time (how many days in advance can your guests place a catering order?)
Prep time - How far in advance of the due time should tickets should print/show on your Kitchen Display System (KDS) device?
Minimum & maximum order amount ($) for catering online orders
Enable or disable tipping for catering takeout orders, and select your custom & default tip percentages

The Delivery setup section has a similar group of settings for Catering Online Ordering:

Enable or disable Takeout orders for Catering Online Ordering
Select the Order type that should be associated for Delivery orders
Select the Dining option you'd like to use for Delivery orders
When can guests place orders for delivery?
- Add a minimum lead time (ensures guests aren't placing last-minute catering online orders that you can't fulfill)
- Add a maximum lead time (how many days in advance can your guests place a catering order?)
Prep time - How far in advance of the due time should tickets should print/show on your Kitchen Display System (KDS) device?
Minimum & maximum order amount ($) for catering online orders
Enable or disable tipping for catering takeout orders, and select your custom & default tip percentages
Add a Delivery boundary & zones to represent where your guests can place catering delivery orders
- You can choose to configure this as a delivery radius (X miles in a straight line from your location -- not driving distance), or you can draw a map to represent your desired delivery area. Drawing a delivery area is ideal for avoiding waterways and highways or adjusting town limits.
- You can also add Zones, which are used to add service charges based on delivery distance (within your delivery boundary)
- For more information on delivery radius and zones see Configure Delivery Boundary and Zones in Optimize Toast Catering Online Ordering.

Note:

With Toast Catering & Events, you can enable Toast Delivery Services® (TDS) to provide delivery via DoorDash Drive or Uber Direct for drop-off friendly catering. For instructions, see Optimize Toast Catering & Events.
You can have different lead times between Takeout and Delivery order for Catering Online Ordering.

Menu Management and Special Menus for Catering Online Ordering

The Menu management section is the only place that matters for Catering Online Ordering menu settings. Here you can adjust the following:

Select default catering menus - Add the menus (or specific menu groups) that should appear all the time on your catering site. Note: These menus are overridden by Special menus on the days that those menus are available.
Mix & max item selections - Add minimum and/or maximum item count restrictions on individual menu items for a catering online order.

Note on Catering Online Ordering menu visibility:

Menus for Catering Online Ordering can only be managed within the Menu management section of your Catering Online Ordering settings. If you want a menu to appear only on your Catering Online Ordering page (and not on your regular Online Ordering page), you should:

Add the menu (or groups) directly in the Catering Online Ordering > Menu management section.
Avoid adding that same menu to the Toast Online Ordering channel under Visible To.

In the Special menus section, you can set up menus for one-off or recurring dates. For example, you may have a holiday menu that you only want to offer this November and December. Or, you may have a Taco Tuesday menu that you want to show every Tuesday. Special menus are the recommended way to create a menu specific to your offering, holiday, or event. This way, you can add and remove different items or adjust menu prices specific to this day.

Special menus can appear on your main catering site or an independent catering site. An independent catering sites allows you to display special menus for events, holidays, etc. that are completely separate from your regular offering.
Special menus have their own unique URL. These can direct customers to the orderable dates for this menu, with no other options. Once a special menu is created, find the URL to the right of it within the special menus table.
Select your desired Availability for your special menu (either specific dates or recurring dates), and indicate whether the special menu applies to Takeout, Delivery, or both.
Menus - Add the menus that should appear for this special menu date(s). You can choose whether these are offered in addition to your normal offerings, or whether they replace your normal offerings for the specific date(s).
- Note: In this section, the setting Are your main site menus also available for 'special menu name'? must be set to No in order to have lead times and max days ahead settings for your special menus operate independently from your standard settings.
In the Advanced section of your special menu settings, you can
- Override hour Takeout and Delivery hours if needed
- Override minimum lead time and max days ahead if needed. For example, you can configure your special menus to require guests to order at least 12 hours in advance, allow guests to order up to 30 days in advance, or whatever works for your catering operation.
- Override minimum and/or maximum order amount if needed
- Override the default service charges configured ifneeded

You can create as many special menus as you need for your business.

Checkout Experience and Catering Capacity for Catering Online Ordering

The Checkout experience settings for Catering Online Ordering include the following settings:

Allow tax exempt ordering for catering online orders by providing a Tax ID (toggle on or off)
Allow promo codes previously set up for catering online orders. For more information on setting up promotion codes, see Set Up a Discount Code for Online Orders.
- At this time, only Entire check discounts are supported for Catering Online Ordering. For example, Get $50 on orders of $500 or more or Get $15 off when ordering a dessert.
- When ordering, guests will see a Promo code field in the Payment Information section.
Checkout without payment - Allow unpaid orders to come in as "confirmed" within catering orders. You will need to collect payment on these orders by entering a payment manually or sending an invoice.

The Catering capacity settings allow you to limit order volume per day, hour, 30 minutes, or 15 minutes.

You can choose to set a maximum number of orders, or a maximum dollar amount for Takeout, Delivery, and/or total orders.
Add overrides to customize your catering capacity for specific dates.
Set daily item limits (and overrides if necessary for specific dates).

Frequently Asked Questions About Catering Online Ordering

How do I set up quote times for catering online orders?

Quote times for catering online orders are currently set on the Takeout & delivery page in Toast Web.

Do I need regular Toast Online Ordering for Catering Online Ordering?

No, Toast Online Order and Catering Online Ordering are separate products/features. You do not need to use both.

Are catering online orders visible on Orders Hub?

Yes, both Toast Catering & Events and Catering Online Ordering orders are available in Orders Hub. To learn more about managing orders here, check out Manage Off-Premise Orders With Orders Hub.

Can my guests use gift cards to pay on the Catering Online Ordering platform?

At this time, guests cannot use gift cards to pay on the Catering Online Ordering platform.

How are notifications set up for Catering Online Ordering?

Catering Online Ordering notifications are set on the order type. To find the order types you’re using for Catering Online Ordering, go to Catering & events > Settings, select the pencil icon to edit your desired order type, and scroll down to the Notifications settings. You can assign an employee or non-employee email to be notified.

Can we use stored cards, ACH, or allow guests to set up recurring catering online orders independently?

At this time, stored payments are not available for catering online orders.

Is Catering Online Ordering a good fit for wholesaling?

Yes! As long as you charge who you’re wholesaling to when the order is placed, Catering Online Ordering can work for your business. We cannot handle $0 orders at the moment.

I created a "Catering" revenue center — why isn’t it being applied to my catering orders?

If your catering orders aren't showing a revenue center, you may need to check your catering order type settings:

- Navigate to Catering & events > Settings > Order types to see a list of the applicable order types.
- Select the pencil icon next to your Catering order type and then scroll all the way down to Reporting.
- Open the Revenue center drop-down, and from there you can select your Catering revenue center.
- Perform this action for each order type desired. Don’t forget to save and publish!