New Year corporate parties: a restaurant prep checklist and banquet menu costing

For many restaurants December is the most profitable month of the year. Companies look for a venue for their New Year party, rooms are booked weeks ahead, and the kitchen runs two banquets and a full dining room on the same night. December can also be the month you lose most: a menu priced "by eye", a group that shrinks from 30 to 18 at the last minute, a prepayment nobody wrote down, lamb that runs out.

This article is a preparation plan for owners and managers, built around banquet menu costing: when to start, how to work out the per-person price, a sample menu for 25 guests in Azerbaijani manat, what to put in the contract, December purchasing and the rules at the till on the night. All prices are illustrative, so use the numbers from your own recipe cards.

When to start: a calendar

Corporate clients decide in November, so your menus and prices should be ready in October.

How to build a per-person banquet price

The per-person price has five parts:

1. Food. Cost from the recipe cards and a target food cost percentage.
2. Drinks. A soft-drinks package (water, kompot, juice) is included; alcohol is charged either from the bar price list by actual consumption, or with a corkage fee if guests bring their own.
3. Service. If your restaurant applies a service charge, its percentage is stated clearly in the contract.
4. The room. A minimum spend for a private room (not a deposit, but "orders in this room come to at least this much").
5. Extras. Decor, music, a cake: usually agreed separately.

The food formula: food price per person = food cost per person ÷ target food cost. Choose the target from your own venue's norm; we explain how to work it out in our article on food cost calculation.

Banquet menu costing: a sample menu for 25 guests (AZN)

A classic Baku banquet table: cold starters, dolma and qutab, shah plov, kebabs, fruit, sweets and tea. The numbers are illustrative; costs use average purchase prices.

Building the price (an example):

• food: 17.50 ₼ ÷ 28% = 62.50 ₼, rounded to 62 ₼;
• soft-drinks package: 6 ₼;
• per person: 68 ₼, or 1,700 ₼ for 25 guests;
• if you apply a service charge, say 10%: plus 170 ₼;
• alcohol: from the bar price list by actual consumption.

At this price, the cost of food and drinks is 475 ₼, about 28% of revenue. Now check the room: if the minimum spend for a private room on a Friday night is, say, 2,500 ₼, a group of 25 does not reach it. Either the group grows, the menu goes up, or the difference is written into the contract as a room fee.

Offer three tiers

Send the client three menus, not one: "Standard", "Festive" and "Premium". Make the difference with dishes: fish, a lamb chanakh or a cake in Premium; chicken kebab and simpler salads in Standard. The middle option is chosen most often, so keep your best margin there.

Contract and prepayment

A banquet contract looks like paperwork, but in December it is what protects your money. Your template should cover:

Check with your accountant how a prepayment is recorded and which documents a corporate client receives. Keep bookings and prepayments in one table: date, company, contact person, guest count, menu, amount paid, balance.

December purchasing and stock

Base purchasing on bookings: the per-person norm × the confirmed guest count, plus 5–10% headroom. An example for a 25-guest banquet:

Add up all of the week's banquets and send your supplier one order. Agree December prices in November: meat and vegetables can get more expensive before the holidays. Do a stock count before the season so your balances are accurate: restaurant inventory count. Write separate recipe cards for banquet portions, because a banquet portion of plov may differ from the dining-room one: restaurant recipe card template.

The night itself at the till

The chaos of a banquet night usually starts at the till: someone orders more wine, someone wants to pay separately, the kitchen sends the mains too early. The rules:

1. The banquet lives in the menu. A separate category, or a "Banquet, per person" item with a recipe card, so that every guest sold deducts ingredients from stock.
2. Open the order in advance. Join the tables, enter the guest count, assign a lead waiter.
3. Send by courses. Cold starters before the guests arrive, mains after the toasts, dessert and tea at the end. The kitchen starts each course when the till sends it.
4. Anything outside the package shows separately. Extra wine and dishes go on the same check but as separate lines; if the company pays for the package and guests pay their own bar, split the check.
5. Remember the dining room. While the kitchen is loaded with a banquet, put slow à la carte dishes on the stop list so regular guests do not wait an hour.
6. Check before closing the bill. Does the guest count match the contract, is the prepayment taken into account, is the service charge right?

The December staff rota

• No holidays for staff in the second half of December; announce this in October.
• Plan one waiter per 15–20 banquet guests (depending on the menu and service style) and a separate team for the dining room.
• If you need extra or part-time waiters, find and train them in November.
• Check the rules for paying overtime and work on public holidays with your accountant, and take non-working days from the official production calendar.
• A 10-minute briefing before every banquet: menu, allergies, timing, the client's contact person.

For paying and motivating waiters through the busiest weeks, see our article on waiter pay and tipping in Baku.

Afterwards: compare December with last year

Set aside an hour in the first week of January and answer:

• how many banquets there were, and the average revenue per guest;
• how far actual food cost was from plan (from the stock count);
• which menu tier was chosen most;
• how much last-minute drops in guest numbers cost you;
• whether ordinary dining-room revenue fell because of the banquets.

These notes are the most valuable material for next year's menus and contract.

Common mistakes

• Selling the menu at last year's prices. If meat and butter went up during the year, the old per-person price eats your margin. Recost your recipe cards every season.
• Not fixing the guest count. "About 30 people" is not a contract. Write down the date of the final confirmation and which number payment is based on.
• "Unlimited" alcohol in the package. Unlimited drinks are the hardest cost to predict; price alcohol either with a limit or by actual consumption.
• Not tracking banquets separately. When banquet revenue mixes with dining-room revenue, you cannot see which one makes money.
• Forgetting the dining-room guests. If a regular guest waits an hour on a banquet night, they will not come back in January.

The banquet season with Dishment

In Dishment a banquet menu is built on inventory and recipe cards: every guest sold deducts ingredients automatically, cost and margin are visible, and you get a warning when an item drops below its minimum stock. The POS has courses and fire-by-course, joining tables, split checks, service charge and a stop list. The Advanced reports module puts two periods' revenue, average check and voids side by side. Bookings and prepayments are not a Dishment feature: keep them in the contract and your accounts.

FAQ

What is a banquet menu?

A fixed menu agreed in advance for a group: dishes, portions and the per-person price are written into the contract. Unlike the dining-room menu, guests do not choose at the table; everyone gets the same spread.

How do I price a New Year corporate party per person?

Find the food cost per person from your recipe cards, divide it by your target food cost percentage and add the drinks package. Then check the room's minimum spend and your service charge. In the example above, a food cost of 17.50 ₼ becomes a price of 68 ₼ per person.

How large should the prepayment be?

There is no general norm. Choose an amount that covers your food purchases and the risk of cancellation. What matters is that the prepayment and the cancellation terms are written into the contract together.

What if the group gets smaller at the last minute?

Put a date for confirming the final number in the contract, for example three days before the event. After that date, payment is for the confirmed number, because the food has already been bought and prepared.

Can guests bring their own alcohol?

That is the restaurant's rule. Many allow it with a corkage fee. Whatever you choose, write it into the contract in advance so there is no argument on the night.