Catering Quote Template
Turn your pricing and package options into a branded catering quote a client can say yes to today.
Nothing kills a promising catering inquiry faster than a pricing reply that reads like a jumble of numbers typed into an email. A caterer working from a real catering quote template can turn a five-minute phone call about a 90-guest anniversary party into a professional PDF the client can forward to their partner or their boss, without you rebuilding a spreadsheet from scratch every time.
This page gives you a working catering quote template, plus a plain breakdown of what belongs on the document and why. In BEO HQ, you build the quote from the event record and export a clean, itemized PDF in minutes, or read through the field list if you would rather build your own in Word or Google Docs.
Whether you are quoting a backyard graduation party, a 200-guest corporate holiday party, or a wedding inquiry that just landed through your contact form, the same core pricing structure applies. Get it right once and every quote after that takes minutes instead of an hour of copy-pasting last month's numbers.
What is a catering quote?
A catering quote is the itemized pricing document you send a prospective client after they share their event date, guest count, and general vision, but before anything is signed or booked. It answers the one question every inquiry is really asking, which is what this event will cost. A good quote breaks that number down by package, per-person rate, add-ons, fees, and tax so the client can see exactly where their money is going instead of just staring at one lump total.
A catering quote template is simply the reusable starting point for that document: the package tiers, pricing fields, and terms already laid out so you are not rebuilding the pricing logic from a blank page every time a new lead calls or fills out your inquiry form. Owner-operators and sales reps lean on it to respond fast, since a clean quote that lands in an inbox within a day beats a competitor's quote that takes a week to arrive.
It is not the same document as a BEO, a contract, or an invoice. The quote sells the pricing and gets the client to say yes. The catering contract locks in terms once they do. The banquet event order is what your kitchen and floor staff actually execute from on event day. The invoice collects the money. Keeping these four documents distinct, rather than cramming everything into one file, keeps each one doing its job well.
What a catering quote template should include
Client and event snapshot
Client name, event type, date, venue or delivery address, guest count, and service style requested, so the reader can confirm the details match their conversation before looking at a single price.
Package tiers or menu options
Two or three pricing tiers, such as a passed-appetizer buffet, a plated three-course dinner, and a premium stations package, each with its own per-person rate so the client can compare without a separate phone call.
Menu highlights per package
A short, appetizing description of what is included in each tier, such as a carving station, a signature salad, and a dessert display, without the full course-by-course detail that belongs on the BEO instead.
Bar and beverage options
Hosted bar per-person add-on, cash bar setup fee, beer-and-wine-only package, or a corkage fee if the venue allows outside alcohol, each priced separately from the food.
Add-ons and upgrades
Optional extras like chargers, specialty linen, an extra passed hors d'oeuvre, additional staffing hours, or a late-night snack station, each listed with its own line-item price so nothing feels bundled or hidden.
Service charge, tax, and gratuity
Your service charge percentage, typically 18 to 22 percent, sales tax based on the delivery or venue location, and whether gratuity is included or left to the client's discretion, spelled out clearly instead of buried in a footnote.
Deposit and payment schedule
The deposit percentage due to hold the date, usually 25 to 50 percent, when the remaining balance is due, and which payment methods you accept.
Validity window and key terms
An expiration date on the quote, any minimum guest count that applies, and a short note on your cancellation or rescheduling policy so pricing questions do not surface after the client has already mentally booked the date.
Next step to confirm
A clear call to action, such as reply to confirm, sign here, or call to lock in the date, plus your direct contact information so the client knows exactly how to say yes.
How to build a catering quote
Confirm the essentials before you price anything
Get the event date, guest count, venue, and service style nailed down first. Quoting off a guess at any of these means redoing the math later when the real numbers come in.
Build your package tiers
Set two or three options at different per-person rates rather than a single take-it-or-leave-it number. Clients compare more easily, and a middle tier often becomes the one they pick.
Add bar options, upgrades, and fees
List beverage packages and optional add-ons as separate line items, then add your service charge and sales tax so the subtotal and final total are both visible, not just one final figure.
Set the deposit and validity window
State the deposit percentage, the balance due date, and how many days the quoted pricing holds. Food costs move, and a dated expiration protects your margin on a quote that sits unanswered for a month.
Export and send it same-day
A branded PDF that lands within hours of the inquiry reads as far more professional than a plain-text email, and it is often the difference between winning the booking and losing it to whichever caterer replied first.
Quote versus proposal versus invoice versus BEO
These four documents get lumped together constantly, but each has one job. The quote is the earliest touchpoint: rough scope, package pricing, sent before anything is confirmed. A catering proposal is a heavier version of the same idea, often used for larger events, sometimes with photos or menu descriptions built in. Neither one is a legal commitment.
The contract is where terms become binding once the client accepts the quote or proposal. The invoice is the billing document that follows, itemized for accounting and payment tracking. The BEO comes last and is purely operational, telling your kitchen and floor team what to execute. Sending a BEO when a client asked for a quote, or vice versa, is a common mix-up that makes a business look disorganized before the event even starts.
Common pricing mistakes on a catering quote
The most frequent one is quoting a single all-in number with no breakdown. Clients want to see the per-person food rate, the service charge, and the tax as separate lines, partly to trust the math and partly so they can adjust the guest count or package themselves and estimate the new total.
The second is leaving off an expiration date. Without one, a client can sit on a quote for two months, come back after a menu price increase, and expect the old number to still stand. A simple line, such as pricing valid for 21 days from the date above, protects you without sounding unfriendly.
How long a catering quote should stay valid
Fifteen to thirty days is standard for most catering quotes, giving the client enough time to compare options and get sign-off from a partner or a committee without the pricing going stale on your end. For high-demand dates, like a Saturday in October or New Year's Eve, a shorter seven to ten day window is reasonable, since holding a date at a quoted price for a month can cost you a fully booked weekend.
If a client comes back after the quote expires, it takes thirty seconds to duplicate the old quote, update the date and any menu pricing that changed, and resend rather than starting over. That is exactly the kind of reuse a proper catering quote template is built for.
Turning a quote into a booking
Once the client says yes, the fastest path is to convert the accepted quote directly into a contract and catering invoice, carrying over the client details, package selection, and pricing rather than retyping them into a new document. Every retype is a chance for a number to change by accident.
If you want signatures without printing and scanning, an e-signature or shareable approval link speeds up the yes-to-deposit window considerably, which matters most during peak booking season when a slow follow-up can lose the date to a competitor who replied first.
Create your quote in BEO HQ
Build it from the same event data as your BEO, branded, with the math done for you. Start free, upgrade to $19/mo for unlimited watermark-free documents.
Common questions
Build your catering quote now
Fill in your pricing and package details once and get a branded, print-ready quote ready to send, free to try, no spreadsheet required.