By the end of this guide, your client has a priced proposal on their phone, and you can see the moment they accept it.

You build it from the menu, set the price and the deposit, and send a link. The client opens it with no login and presses Accept proposal or Ask for changes. Their yes doesn’t book the event or charge anything. The agreement comes next.

This guide picks up after the inquiry is saved. For the whole event, from the first call to closeout, see Running a catering event in CostCook.

Before you start

  • The inquiry is saved, with the date and the guest count.
  • The dishes you want to serve are published recipes. A draft can’t go on a proposal.
  • You have the client’s email address.

Build and send the proposal

  1. Open the event’s Menu & service. Under Start from a saved menu, find the menu and press Use menu.
A saved menu card: Wedding Plated Dinner, 6 dishes: Braised Short Rib, Wild Mushroom Polenta, Roasted Beet and Citrus, Creamed Spinach, Focaccia and Whipped Goat Cheese, Lemon Posset. Use menu is ringed.
Start from a menu you already priced.
  1. Type the Price per guest. CostCook suggests one from what the food costs you, and shows the Plate cost per guest as you type: what the dishes on each plate cost.
Servings 150, All guests. Price per guest $95.00, ringed, with Suggested $90.00 at 30% below it. Plate cost $26.93 / guest · 28.4% · total $14,250.00.
$26.93 on each plate, sold at $95.

The Food cost at the top of the screen can read a little higher than the plate cost. Some bases, like the whipped goat cheese, are made in whole batches, and the event pays for the whole batch. CostCook says how much that adds.

Subtotal $14,250.00, Per guest $95.00, Food cost 28.9%. Food cost counts $76.32 of whole batches the plates do not eat, so it reads higher than a service’s plate cost.
28.4% on the plate, 28.9% for the event.
  1. Press Continue to proposal.
The button Continue to proposal · $14,250.00, ringed.
The total travels with you.
  1. Type the client’s email under Client email. You can’t send without it.
The client Priya Nair, and Client email priya.nair@example.com, ringed.
The offer link goes to this address.

  1. If the job has more than food, add it under What you’re charging: + Staff, + Rentals, + Fee or + Other.

  2. Open Terms and choose what the client pays, and when. For a deposit, pick A deposit, then the balance, then the deposit as a percentage or a fixed amount, and how many days before the event the balance is due.

This proposal asks for: A deposit, then the balance (ringed). Deposit: A percentage of the order, or A fixed amount, chosen, 3500.
The offer states the schedule in dollars.
  1. Read What the client will read. That’s the schedule exactly as it goes on the offer.
What the client will read: Deposit to confirm the date $3,500.00. Balance, due Wednesday, December 9, $10,750.00. Your final guest count is due Wednesday, December 9. The total does not change after that.
The final count is due with the balance.
  1. Press Preview & send.
Total · tax not set, $14,250.00, and Preview & send, ringed.
Nothing is sent yet.
  1. Go through Before you send. Each line has Open, which takes you to the fix. A yellow line is a warning you can send with. A red line has to be fixed first.
Before you send, 3 to review: Event details not confirmed: venue, service time will show as “To be confirmed”. No terms included: Cancellation, change and service conditions. No tax (0%): Check this against your local tax rules.
Check the tax before the client sees the total.
  1. Choose how long the link works under Offer link valid for, then press Send offer.
Offer link valid for 7 days, Until Tue, Oct 20. Send offer is ringed. Below it: The event isn’t booked until the customer accepts.
Pick how long they have to decide.
  1. You land on the client decision page. It shows when the offer was sent, delivered and viewed, and waits for the decision.
Waiting on Priya Nair. Offer sent Tue, Oct 13 · the link works for 7 more days, until Tue, Oct 20. Step 4 of 6: Client decision. $14,250.00, Waiting for response. Sent Oct 13, Delivered Not confirmed yet, Viewed Not opened yet, Decision Accept or decline.
Sent, delivered, viewed, decided.

Want to send the link yourself, by text? Press Copy offer link.

View proposal, Send a reminder, and Copy offer link, ringed.
The same link the email carries.

What the client sees

The client opens the link on their phone. There’s no account and no login.

Proposal for Priya Nair. Nair & Castellano wedding. Please respond by Tue, Oct 20 · 7 days left. Total for your event $14,250.00, 150 guests · $95.00 per guest. Your event: Date December 19, 2026, Guests 150, Venue To be confirmed, Service time To be confirmed.
The deadline is at the top.

They see the menu, the total and the payment schedule, in the same words you checked in step 7.

Payment schedule: Deposit to confirm the date $3,500.00. Balance, due Wednesday, December 9, $10,750.00. Your final guest count is due Wednesday, December 9.
The schedule they accept with the price.

Two buttons stay at the bottom of the screen: Ask for changes and Accept proposal.

The bottom bar of the client’s page: Ask for changes, and Accept proposal, ringed.
Always in reach on a phone.

To accept, they type their name and press Accept for $14,250.00. The window says it plainly: “Nothing is charged today.”

Accept this proposal? Nair & Castellano wedding · $14,250.00. Your full name: Priya Nair. Note for Harbor & Hearth Catering · optional. Nothing is charged today. Harbor & Hearth Catering will send an agreement to sign next. Accept for $14,250.00 is ringed.
Their name goes on the acceptance.

They see what happens next.

Thank you. Proposal accepted. We’ve let Harbor & Hearth Catering know. A copy is on its way to priya.nair@example.com. What happens next: Proposal accepted. You’ll receive an agreement to sign. Your date is held once it’s signed.
Their yes, and what comes after it.

After they accept

  1. On your side, the client decision page now reads Proposal accepted, and the event moves to step 5, the agreement. Press Send agreement. The deposit and the booking come after that: see How to get a catering deposit in without chasing it.
Client decision. Proposal accepted. Step 5 of 6: Agreement. Client accepted this offer. The next step is the agreement. Send agreement is ringed.
Accepted is not booked. The agreement is next.

Tip: if the client presses Ask for changes, they write what they’d like changed and it comes straight to you. To change the menu, price or terms after sending, use Update the offer on the client decision page. “The current link keeps working until you send the update.”

Ask for changes. Your response goes directly to the caterer. Your full name · optional: Priya Nair. What would you like to change? Send to Harbor & Hearth Catering.
Their changes come to you, not to a form somewhere.

Tip: if they said yes or no on the phone, record it under Heard back another way? with They accepted or They declined. CostCook notes who recorded it.

Tip: no answer yet? Press Send a reminder on the client decision page.

If something goes wrong

“Publish every dish in that menu before using it here.”

One of the menu’s dishes isn’t published. Open each dish under Recipes, finish and publish it, then press Use menu again. Adding a single unpublished dish gives the same answer: “Publish that dish before adding it.”

A red notice: Publish every dish in that menu before using it here.
Only published recipes go on a proposal.

“No customer email”

The Before you send list marks it 1 must fix, and Send offer stays greyed out. Go back and type the client’s email.

Before you send, 1 must fix: No customer email. Add an email before sending.
No email, no offer.

“The balance due date has already passed”

The event is closer than the number of days you gave for the balance. Open Terms and shorten the days before the event, or check the event date.

The balance due date has already passed. Balance and final guest count say Sat Oct 10, but the event is Tue Oct 20 and today is Tue Oct 13.
A balance date in the past blocks the send.

Limits

  • Accepting isn’t booking. The client’s page says “Nothing is charged today”, and the agreement comes next.
  • The link stops working when the time you chose under Offer link valid for runs out, or straight away if you press Withdraw offer.
  • The client sees “To be confirmed” for anything you didn’t fill in, like the venue and the service time.
  • Food cost stays on your side. The proposal marks it “only you see this”, and the client never sees it.