Setting Up Catering Order Approval

Some restaurants accept all catering orders automatically, regardless of date, time, or size. Others prefer to review a catering order before accepting it, to confirm the kitchen has the capacity to fulfill it on the requested date. Requiring restaurant approval supports the second approach: catering orders are held for review and are not accepted until a staff member approves them.

Requiring Restaurant Approval for Catering Orders

Approval is enabled by setting the revenue center's Initial Receipt Status to Pending Approval. The walkthrough below covers each step.

How the Catering Approval Workflow Works

Once the Initial Receipt Status is set to Pending Approval, the customer and the restaurant experience the following workflow:

1. The customer places a catering order, for either ASAP or a future date. The checkout page shows the order as Pending Approval.

   

2. The customer receives a confirmation email for the pending order.

   

3. The restaurant receives a copy of the same email notification, which indicates that the order requires approval.
4. In the Direct Ordering Admin Panel, the restaurant reviews the pending catering order and approves it. See Approving a future catering order.

5. Upon approval, the customer receives confirmation that the order was approved.

   

6. On the day of the order, depending on the Order Send Time setting, the order is sent to the POS automatically or manually from the dashboard. See When orders are sent to the POS.

Customizing the Approval Emails

The emails sent during the approval workflow can be customized:

• To customize the pending-order email, go to Settings > Communications > Confirmation Emails > Catering > PENDING.
• To customize the approved-order email, go to Settings > Communications > Confirmation Emails > Catering > INITIAL.

For more on editing these emails, see Customer Confirmation Emails.

To route every catering order email to a specific catering team, go to Stores > [store] > Revenue Centers > Catering Revenue Center > Email Settings and update the Confirmation Emails recipients as a comma-separated list. For more, see Updating email recipients at a revenue center level.