Proposal and BEO Paperwork Cost Calculator

Estimates the hours and dollars a catering team spends each month writing proposals, building banquet event orders and re-editing them after changes.

Your estimate

Paperwork hours per month...

Paperwork cost per month...

Paperwork cost per year...

Paperwork cost per booked event...

Estimates only. Assumptions are listed below, and you can change every input.

Every catering event generates paperwork at least twice: once as a proposal to win the business and again as a banquet event order once it is booked, plus a fresh round every time the headcount or the menu changes. Each document takes minutes rather than hours, so the cost rarely shows up on its own line. Added up across a month of inquiries and events, it can be a meaningful share of a coordinator's week. This calculator makes that cost visible so you can decide whether it is worth fixing.

You enter how many proposals you send in a month and how long each takes, how many events book and how long it takes to turn a signed proposal into a BEO, plus the minutes spent on revisions per booked event and the hourly cost of the person doing the work. The calculator adds the minutes, converts them to hours and applies the hourly cost. It does not assume any savings from templates or software; if you want to model a change, rerun it with lower minutes and compare the two results.

How to use this tool

Count the proposals you send in a typical month and estimate the minutes each one takes from first draft to sent.
Enter how many events book, the minutes to build each BEO, and the minutes spent on revisions per booked event.
Add the hourly cost of the person doing the work and read the monthly hours, monthly and annual cost, and cost per booked event.

What the math assumes

Every proposal takes the same number of minutes whether it closes or not.
BEO time and revision time are counted only for booked events; lost proposals generate no BEO.
The annual figure is the monthly figure times 12 with no seasonality; busy and slow months are assumed to average out.
Hourly cost is whatever you enter; include payroll taxes and benefits if you want a fully loaded figure.
No savings from templates, software or process changes are assumed; the result is your current cost, not a projection.

Frequently asked questions

How do I estimate time saved with a proposal or BEO tool?

Run the calculator with your current minutes, then run it again with the minutes you expect after the change and subtract. Be conservative with the second set of numbers; the difference is an estimate, not a guarantee.

Should I include time spent on proposals that do not close?

Yes. That time is a real cost and usually the larger share, because you send more proposals than you book. The proposals-per-month input should count every proposal sent.

What counts as a revision?

Any time you reopen a proposal or BEO to change headcount, menu, timing, rentals or pricing and resend it. Estimate the total minutes across all revisions for a typical booked event.

Why is the cost per booked event higher than the BEO time alone suggests?

Because the proposal time for every quote that did not close is spread across the events that did. If you book one proposal in three, each booked event carries the paperwork cost of two lost ones.

Link to this toolhttps://caterloom.com/tools/beo-paperwork-cost/

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More free tools from CaterLoom

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Catering Event Staffing Planner: Estimates how many servers and bartenders an event needs, plus total labor hours and labor cost, from your headcount and the staffing ratios you actually run.

From proposal to banquet order in one flow

Catering proposals and banquet event order generator.

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