Catering staff planning: shifts, setup, teardown, and who is actually there
How to plan the service team for an event: setup, service, and teardown as their own hours, without a WhatsApp group standing in for a rota, and attendance by QR.
An event runs longer than the hour the buffet opens. Someone sets up, someone works the service, someone tears down and loads the van. If those three blocks collapse into one line that says “service, 6 pm”, you either bring too few people or pay for the wrong hours.
Catering staff planning means the same dates as the calendar, the same hours as the quote, and, on the day, an answer to who is actually there.
Setup, service, teardown
Put all three on the calendar, not only the time the customer sees. Setup at 3 pm, guests at 6 pm, teardown after 11 pm is a different event from “wedding, Saturday”. The people who set up are often not the people who stay until the end.
If the quote already has those hours as their own lines, the rota is not a second invention. It is staffing what you have already charged the customer for.
Why the WhatsApp group is not a plan
“Can anyone do Saturday?” works when you have one event a month. With three events in a weekend it becomes a thread where Thursday’s yes sits under a photo of the setup. Nobody can see who is already on two shifts and who is still free.
A plan names the event, the time, and the person. A cancellation changes the plan. It does not start a new chat. You only see a fair week when the days sit next to each other: not the same two people every Saturday, and not someone who tore down on Friday night building up again on Saturday morning without you noticing.
Attendance by QR, not by a paper sheet
The plan says who should come. On site, what matters is who did. A sheet in the kitchen gets wet, and a message that says “I’m here” disappears. One QR badge per person, one scan in and one scan out, gives you the time you can later set next to the planned shift.
This is not a warehouse clock. It is the answer to whether the sixth person on the quote was actually there.
One place for the date and the team
Keeping the calendar, the quote, and the rota apart is why someone is missing on Friday. Party-service software that holds them together does not have to be an HR suite. It has to keep the event, the hours, and the people in one place.
In Kolsche, the event calendar, staff, and QR attendance sit in Operations at €49 a month. Shift suggestions from the AI assistant are in the €89 plan. Suggestions stay suggestions: you apply the shift, and nothing goes to the team that you did not send yourself. If you want to see that on your own events, book a demo.