Caterers face the harshest commit horizon in HORECA: quote at booking, execute weeks later, collect T+30 to T+60. The P&L says the job was fine; the bank account says onion week ate the margin.
The quote-vs-actual gap
Three drifts show up on almost every underperforming banquet:
- Mandi drift — onion, tomato, paneer, oil move 20–80% inside a wedding season.
- Labour premium — helpers locked late for muhurat Saturdays at 1.5×.
- Portion creep — live counters and refill culture push plate cost past the recipe card.
Recipe-cost the plate at quote time, then again 14 days before the event. If food cost rose >3 points, swap dishes or trigger your commodity clause. See wedding catering quote formula and corporate catering quote formula.
Price the plate, not the neighbour
“Competitor quoted ₹700 so we quoted ₹650” is how caterers lose money at scale. Build from recipe cost → target food cost % → labour load → overhead → margin. Use live mandi inputs where you can.
Menu pricing calculator (live mandi) →Break-even for the kitchen day →Procurement timeline
Wedding-week procurement is a project, not a grocery run. Lock dry goods early, perishables on a two-supplier rule, and buffer stock for onion/oil/paneer spikes. Playbook: catering procurement plan timeline · season ops: wedding season catering calendar.
What to put in every quote pack
- Recipe-costed plate at today’s mandi + 3–5 point buffer.
- Written commodity band or approved swap list.
- Labour assumption (helpers × hours) and overtime rule.
- Re-cost date 14 days before event — client notified once if variance > threshold.
More for caterers: Forkcast catering vertical — event-book ingest is on the roadmap; plate costing and supply alerts work today via tools + CSV.