All-in-One Catering Management Software (PHP + MySQL Script)

The Catering Management Software (CMS) is an end-to-end web application built with PHP (compatible with PHP 8+), MySQL, and modern HTML/CSS/JS. It helps catering businesses manage menus, events, bookings, quotes, invoices, inventory, staff, and reporting from a single interface.

This platform is ideal for:

• Catering companies (small to medium)

• Event planners

• Restaurants offering event catering

• Freelance caterers

Key goals:

• Simplify booking and event management

• Streamline menu & recipe management

• Automate quotations and invoices

• Track inventory & staff assignments

• Provide business insights with reports

Core Features

1. User & Role Management

• Admin, Manager, Chef, Sales, Customer roles

• Role-based access control (RBAC)

• Secure authentication & password reset

2. Menu & Recipe Management

• CRUD for menu items and categories

• Recipe ingredients & cost per serving

• Portion sizes and price calculation

• Image upload for dishes

3. Event Booking & Scheduling

• Create and manage event bookings (date, time, venue, guests)

• Assign menus, staff, and equipment to bookings

• Booking status (Pending, Confirmed, In Progress, Completed, Cancelled)

4. Quotation & Invoicing

• Generate automated quotes based on menu & guest count

• Convert quotes to invoices

• Tax, discounts, deposit, payment tracking

• Print/Export PDF invoices (via a PDF library like TCPDF or Dompdf)

5. Inventory & Procurement

• Track ingredient stock levels

• Auto-calculate stock consumption by bookings

• Purchase orders for low-stock items

6. Staff & Resource Management

• Staff scheduling for events

• Role assignment (cook, server, driver)

• Payroll snapshot per event or period

7. Payments & Transactions

• Record online/offline payments

• Payment history & outstanding balances

• Integration-ready hooks for payment gateways (Stripe/PayPal)

8. Reporting & Analytics

• Revenue by period, booking summary, item popularity

• Inventory consumption reports

• Staff utilization & performance summaries

9. Notifications & Reminders

• Email notifications for bookings and invoices

• SMS integration-ready (Twilio) for confirmations and reminders

10. Settings & Customizations

• Tax rates, currency, business details

• Email templates & branding

• Multi-language support ready

User Roles & Permissions

• Admin: Full access — manage users, settings, reports.

• Manager: Manage bookings, quotes, invoices, menus.

• Chef: View assigned events, manage menu/recipes, update statuses.

• Sales: Create quotes, follow up bookings, convert to invoice.

• Customer: Create booking requests, view quotes/invoices, make payments.

Requirement

• PHP 5.6+
• Mysql database
• Xamp/ wamp – local server

Step by step to run the script (installation)

Before we run this script you must have installed a server (localhost) on your computer like XAMPP/LAMP/WAMP. Or you have a hosting plan.

• You Download and extract the file.
• Run your XAMPP control and start Apache and mySql on your pc.
• After doing that, copy the folder you extracted and paste in “C:/xampp/htdocs” directory/ path.
• Open any browser (i.e., chrome) and browse the path “http://localhost/phpmyadmin/” this will open the phpMyAdmin
• When the page opens, you click on new to create a new database for this project. This is found on the left side of the screen.
• Create a new database called “catering_system” and click on create.
• Click the import tab on tab menu.
• Click on browse button and select the file name “catering_system.sql” found in the database folder we extracted earlier and click on Go.

After creating a database

• Then Open another tab on your browser and go to the path. E.g. “http://localhost/cateringmanagementsystem/”
• Then login and explore