Excel, a general CRM or catering software: what should you run your catering business on?

The short answer: spreadsheets are enough when you start, a general CRM handles sales well but has no idea what an event is, and catering-specific software links the booking, quote, team and stock in one place. The right choice isn't about which tool is "best" but about where the chaos in your business is right now.

What are the options?

There are three classes of tool, and each covers a different part of the job.

1. Spreadsheets — Excel, Google Sheets, sometimes Notion or Airtable. Flexible, free or nearly free, you build everything yourself.
2. General CRMs — HubSpot, Pipedrive and similar. Built for sales teams in any industry: pipeline, deals, contacts, email, reminders.
3. Event and catering software — for example Caterease, Total Party Planner, Event Temple, Planning Pod, Garnify. Built around the event: date, venue, guests, menu or bar, staff, documents for the team.

Comparison table

When are Excel or Google Sheets enough?

Spreadsheets are enough if you run up to 4 events a month with 1–2 people. At that volume everything fits in the owner's head, and the flexibility is a plus: you can change the format for each new type of job.

Spreadsheets start getting in the way when:

• the same information lives in three places — the sheet, the chat and email;
• quotes are built by copying old ones and stale prices slip in;
• you arrange shifts one bartender at a time.

For the warning signs and a one-evening migration plan, see moving from Excel to a CRM.

When does HubSpot, Pipedrive or another general CRM fit?

A general CRM fits when sales are your main challenge: lots of incoming enquiries, several salespeople, long negotiations with corporate clients. These tools do what they were built for very well: pipeline, next-step reminders, email history, reports per salesperson.

What they usually lack without serious customisation:

• per-guest pricing with tiers by guest count (e.g. €36 up to 29 guests, €33 from 30, €30 from 50);
• the event as its own record with venue, timings and assigned team;
• shifts, bartender confirmations and a pick list from the store.

In practice a caterer on a general CRM often ends up with sales in the CRM and delivery back in spreadsheets and chats. That's better than nothing, but the chaos simply moves from sales to the kitchen and the store room.

When do you need dedicated catering or event software?

You need dedicated software when you have regular events, a steady shift team and equipment that travels to jobs. The key difference is that the event, not the deal, is at the centre: client, venue, quote, people and kit all hang off it.

Within this class, tools differ a lot in focus. Broadly:

• Caterease and Total Party Planner are long-established catering programs with a focus on menus, recipes, banquet event orders (BEOs) and kitchen paperwork. They are aimed mainly at caterers with their own kitchen.
• Event Temple is a sales and catering system for hotels and venues: function space bookings, group business, banquet paperwork.
• Planning Pod is a platform for event planners and venues: planning, documents and client management.
• Garnify is a CRM for caterers and mobile bars: per-guest packages, a client page with the quote, shifts through a Telegram bot, a pick list from the store and work with agencies.

Before choosing, check three practical things: which languages the team interface and client documents support, whether the tool fits your format (kitchen, bar, venue), and how long moving your data in will take.

How to choose: questions to answer first

The most reliable way to choose is to answer five questions and test 2–3 systems on real bookings, not demo data.

1. Where is the chaos right now? In enquiries — look at the pipeline. In shifts and on-site jobs — look at team and stock features.
2. How many events a month, and how many people work them? Up to 4 and 1–2 people — spreadsheets. 10+ and a regular team — dedicated software.
3. How do you sell? If your main model is per-guest pricing with tiers, check the system handles it without formulas.
4. Who will use it? Bartenders and cooks rarely want another app. See how the system actually reaches them.
5. Which languages do your team and clients use? In multilingual markets such as Latvia you often need Latvian, Russian and English at once.

A practical test: take two past events — one simple, one complicated — and run them through the system end to end, from enquiry to stock return. Within 1–2 hours you'll know whether it fits.

How this works in Garnify

Garnify is built for caterers and mobile bars: a deal holds one or more events, the quote is built from per-guest packages, the client approves it from a link in one click, and bartenders get shifts through a Telegram bot without installing anything. The team and client interface is available in Latvian, English and Russian. You can try it free for 2 months: garnify.com/en.