How to Create a Catering Menu

This guide will walk you through setting up a catering menu separately from your regular online ordering menu.

What Is a Catering Menu?

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A catering menu is a separate online ordering catalog designed for scheduled, large advance-orders like office lunches, event platters, and bulk orders. These menu's are labeled with an orange Catering badge in portal and the customer app so they're easy to identify at a glance.

Catering catalogs can have ordering rules, scheduling requirements, custom checkout fields, and points-earning rates that are distinct from your regular everyday menus. 

Creating Your Catering Menu

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Step 1: Create Your Catering Catalog

① Sign into http://portal.tapmango.com.

② Navigate to Orders > Catalog and select your location group. Click + New Catalog to launch the Create Catalog window.

③ Once you select your menu source, a field titled "Select Catalog Type" will appear. Choose Catering, and enter a name for the menu in the "Catalog Name" field. 

We recommend including the word "Catering" in the catalog name for clarity.

④ Click Create to generate the catalog.

Step 2: Open Configuration Settings

Catering catalogs can have their own configuration that overrides location-level settings, allowing different rules for catering vs. regular ordering at the same location.

⑤ After generating the catalog, click Update Hours to open the Edit Catalog page.

⑥ Click Override Location Settings to enable settings specific to this catalog. 

Step 3: Configure Scheduling

Catering orders can only be scheduled in advance - ASAP ordering is automatically disabled for catering catalogs.

The Tax rate is also set on the location level and can't be adjusted for catering.

Max Days - How far into the future customers can schedule an order (up to 60 days).

Intervals in Minutes - The increments customers can pick from when scheduling. Choose 5, 10, 15, or 30 minutes.

Min. Advance Time - How far ahead customers must place their order. You can set this in hours or days (e.g. 48 hours or 2 days).

We suggest matching your minimum advance time to your kitchen's real prep window. If a 20-tray order needs two days of lead time, set the minimum to 48 hours so you're never caught short.

Step 4: Configure Ordering Options

Pickup Options - Enable or disable curbside pickup and in-store pickup.

Minimum Order Total for Pickup - Set separate minimums for pickup and delivery.

Catering Delivery (Taxable) - Choose self-delivery (with distance-based zones and pricing) or a third-party delivery integration.

Minimum Order Total for Delivery - The order total required for delivery.

Minimum Order Total for Free Delivery - The order total at which delivery becomes complimentary.

Extendable Prep Time - Automatically add prep time as order quantity increases.

Guest Checkout Enabled - Allow customers to order without creating an account.

Step 5: Configure Your Catalog - Custom Checkout Fields (Optional)

Custom checkout fields let you collect catering-specific information from your customers at checkout - things like guest count, event time, dietary restrictions, or a delivery contact name.

⑦ In your catering catalog settings, navigate to Custom Checkout Fields.

⑧ Click + Add Field and select a field type and select one of the options from the Type dropdown:

Text - For open-ended responses (e.g. "Any allergies we should know about?").

Number - For numeric values (e.g. guest count).

Email - For a secondary contact email.

Phone - For a delivery or event-day contact number.

Dropdown - For a fixed list of options you define.

⑨ Enable the Required checkbox if the customer must complete this field at checkout.

⑩ Click Save.

If you later decide that you want this catalog to use the same rules as your standard web ordering catalog, click Reset to Location Settings to clear your overrides in one click.

Step 6: Set Your Menu Availability

Time frames control when your catering menu is visible and orderable to customers. To set these hours, you can use the standard steps laid out in the following guide:

Updating Your Online Ordering Time Frames

Important: If you don't add at least one time frame, your catering menu will be hidden from customers. You'll see a warning in the portal until a time frame is added.

Catering Specific Loyalty Points (Optional)

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You can set a different point-per-dollar rate for catering orders than for regular online orders.

There are two ways catering points can be set - on the account level (applies to all locations) or per location.

Account Level Loyalty Points

Point-per-dollar conversions set at this level will apply to catering menu's across all locations. 

① Navigate to Settings > Advanced Settings > Purchases.

② Set your points-per-dollar rate in the $ to point conversion (catering orders) and/or $ to point conversion (catering orders wallet) fields.

③ Click Save.

Location Specific Loyalty Points

Point-per-dollar conversions set at this level will be location specific.

You will need to reach out to your TapMango representative or TapMango support to modify this.

Order Management & Reporting

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Incoming orders and detailed/summary catering reports can all be managed from Portal > Orders > Orders. For more information on how to navigate through reports, review the following guide:

Order Reporting

Additional Questions?

As always, if you have any additional questions that aren't covered in this guide do not hesitate to contact us and we'll be happy to help.