Catering software for Saudi caterers serving weddings, istirahat and offices

Pricing by the tray and by the head

Traditional orders are often counted in trays. A family asks for enough mandi for 120 people, and the caterer converts that into whole lamb trays, chicken kabsa trays, rice, salads and sweets. Corporate and hotel style orders are counted per head. Many weddings mix both, with trays for one hall and a buffet for the other.

Software has to handle both units without a separate spreadsheet. A tray should carry its yield, so changing the guest count changes the number of trays, the kilos of meat and rice on the kitchen sheet and the price on the quote together.

Coffee and dates service deserves its own line. It needs staff, dallah pots, cups and timing, and it is often what the family notices most.

Sample catering order a Saudi system should produce

Family gathering for 120 guests at an istiraha north of Riyadh, catered with mandi trays and coffee service

• Illustrative prices, not a rate card.
• VAT on the 50% advance is due for the amount received; its tax invoice follows within 15 days after the end of that month.
• Issue the legal tax invoice in Arabic from a FATOORA compliant solution.

From the order to the kitchen and the istiraha gate

Each confirmed order should print a production sheet in cooking units: lambs, kilos of rice, litres of laban, boxes of dates. The driver sheet needs the delivery location pin, gate instructions, the contact on site and the serving time, because istirahat on the outskirts are easy to miss after dark.

Staff planning matters as much as food. A wedding may need waiters for the men's hall, coffee servers and a supervisor, and each of those hours is a cost. Put staff on the order and the true margin becomes visible before you quote.

Late changes need a trail. If a family adds forty guests on the morning of the event, the kitchen sheet, the number of trays loaded, the waiters sent and the balance owed all change at once. When the change is made on the order rather than in a chat, the driver leaves with the right trays and the invoice matches what was served.

• Production sheet in lambs, kilos and litres
• Location pin, gate notes and serving time on the driver sheet
• Waiters and coffee servers listed per event
• Dietary notes and late changes shown in one place

15% VAT, advances and the invoice timeline

Catering, delivery, staff and equipment hire are standard rated at 15%. When a family pays an advance, the supply is treated as made for the amount paid, and the tax invoice for it must be issued within 15 days from the end of that month. The final invoice deducts the advance.

Simplified tax invoices are generally used for supplies to individuals below SAR 1,000; larger supplies need a standard tax invoice. Invoices must be issued in Arabic and the VAT amount stated in Saudi riyals, and records kept for at least six years.

What to test in a demo before choosing catering software in Saudi Arabia

Pricing a wedding order without losing the margin

A wedding order hides more cost than a family sees. Meat and rice are the obvious lines, but transport to the hall, gas, disposables, coffee servers, waiters for the men's hall and the time spent on late changes all come out of the same price. Caterers who price only the trays often find that their busiest weekends earn the least.

Put every cost on the order. Give each tray a cost as well as a price, add staff hours and transport, and let the system show the margin before you send the quote. Then set clear rules: a minimum order for delivery to an istiraha outside the city, a cut off time for guest count changes, and a charge for changes after that point.

Clear rules also make conversations with families easier. When the quote shows the cut off date for numbers and the charge for late changes, the discussion on the wedding week is about food, not about money.

• Cost and price on every tray and per head item
• Staff hours and transport as costed lines
• Cut off date for final guest numbers on the quote
• Delivery minimums by distance from the kitchen

Moving from WhatsApp and a notebook

Most Saudi caterers start with a phone, a notebook and a group chat for the kitchen. That works for ten orders a week. It breaks when two weddings and three rest house deliveries share a Thursday and a guest count changes by voice note at eleven at night.

The move does not need to be dramatic. Enter next month's confirmed orders first, then send every new enquiry through the catering app. Keep WhatsApp for talking to clients, but make the order in the system the only version the kitchen cooks from. After a month, check that every advance in your bank account matches an order. That single check usually finds the money that used to go missing.

FATOORA and your catering invoices

Phase One of FATOORA, from 4 December 2021, requires VAT-registered businesses to issue and store invoices electronically through a compliant system. Phase Two connects those systems to ZATCA's platform in waves. Wave 24 covers businesses with VAT-subject revenue above SAR 375,000 in 2022, 2023 or 2024, with integration due by 30 June 2026.

Venura does not connect to FATOORA. A sensible set-up for a growing caterer is to run orders, kitchen sheets, staff and payments in a catering system, and issue the legal tax invoice from a FATOORA compliant solution.

Where Venura fits for a Saudi caterer

The Venura catering app holds orders, menus, quotations, kitchen sheets, staff and payments, with your own tax rate on each line and sharing on WhatsApp or email. It runs on the web, Android and iOS, so the owner, the head chef and the drivers work from the same order.

Plans for Saudi Arabia are priced on request with a free 30-day trial. Use it on a busy week that includes a wedding and a rest house delivery, and you will see quickly whether tray based orders and late changes are handled the way your kitchen works.

Catering software questions from Saudi Arabia