Introducing catering booking and management portal
Catering is the fastest-growing part of Canada's food service industry, and now it's built into Local Pass. Here's what's new & why we're excited about it.
A busy lunch rush might bring you 40 tickets. A single catering order can bring you an office of 30, booked days ahead and paid before you start cooking.
Today, catering booking and management is live on Local Pass. Every restaurant, bakery, grocer, butcher and caterer on Local Pass can now take catering orders from their own page, send quotes, collect deposits, plan the week and keep their books in order, all from the dashboard they already use.
We built it because catering is where the growth is, and because the work around a catering order deserves better than a notebook, an inbox and a spreadsheet.
Why catering, and why now
Statistics Canada reported that operating revenue for special food services, the group that includes caterers, rose 10.9% to $7.8 billion in 2024. That was the fastest growth of any part of food service, and Statistics Canada linked it partly to return-to-office requirements in both the public and private sectors.
Downtown Victoria feels that shift every day. The Globe and Mail reported that about a fifth of the province's 27,000 civil servants work remotely full-time, and that downtown businesses built on year-round foot traffic have felt it. Fewer people walk past your door at noon on a Monday. But when teams do come in, they eat together, and someone has to order for the whole room.
Catering on Local Pass is how that order finds you.
A catering page that books itself
Every business on Local Pass, except farms, now gets its own catering page at localpass.ca/your-store/catering, with a Catering button on the storefront you already have. Your page is also listed on localpass.ca/catering, where people in Victoria, Saanich, Langford and beyond look for caterers.
It shows what customers want to know before they call: your menu by section, photos and videos of your spreads, your notice, group sizes, pickup and delivery, and what comes with every order.
Customers book in one of two ways:
- Pay now. If the order fits your rules (your notice, hours, minimum, guest count and delivery towns), they pick their dishes, add the event details and pay by card. You confirm with one click.
- Request a quote. For a wedding, a custom menu or anything outside your usual rules, they describe the event, and you reply with a quote built from your catering menu. Every request arrives with the guest count, occasion, dietary needs and allergies already filled in. No more piecing an order together from a phone call.
Invoices that send themselves
This is the part we're proudest of. Every quote goes out as an invoice the customer pays online, by email and text.
- Deposits that hold the date. Set your deposit percentage once. The date is booked when the deposit is paid, and if it isn't paid on time, the date frees itself up automatically.
- Balances that collect themselves. Once the deposit is in, the balance invoice is sent on its own, with a reminder if it runs late.
- Changes without starting over. If the guest count changes after the deposit, revise the quote. The deposit stays and a new balance invoice replaces the old one.
- Cancellations by your rules. Set your cancellation policy once. Customers agree to it when they book, and when an order is cancelled, the refund it suggests already follows your policy. An unpaid date is a hope. A deposit is a booking.
Your books, done
Catering money is only finished when it's in your books. Each Local Pass payout splits into its parts (sales, GST collected, fees and the tax on them, card and refund fees) as one journal entry. Import it into QuickBooks Online or Xero, or hand a CSV to your bookkeeper. Every entry matches the deposit your bank sees.
Your week at a glance
Every request, quote and booking lands on one calendar, by month, week, day or list, with confirmed orders marked apart from tentative ones.
- Prep lists: print what to make for any day, with quantities, allergy notes and what each buffet guest picked.
- Daily capacity: set how many guests or events you can handle in a day, and quotes warn you before you overbook.
- Blocked days: close a holiday or a full day so nobody can book it.
- Allergens: every catering item has its allergens confirmed before it can go on sale, chosen from Canada's list of priority allergens.
What it costs
The Local Pass fee is 5% of the order before tax, never more than $25, plus GST and PST on that fee. There's no setup fee and no subscription.
| Order before tax | Local Pass fee | Tax on the fee | Share of the order |
|---|---|---|---|
| $150 | $7.50 | $0.90 | 5% |
| $400 | $20.00 | $2.40 | 5% |
| $500 | $25.00 | $3.00 | 5% |
| $1,200 | $25.00 | $3.00 | about 2.1% |
| $3,000 | $25.00 | $3.00 | about 0.8% |
Past $500, a bigger booking costs you no more in Local Pass fees. A percentage commission charges you for growing; a cap stops at $25.
Card processing is separate, and you choose who covers it. By default your catering prices show 3.5% higher, so customers see one all-in price with no fee line. Or you cover it yourself, at about 2.9% plus 30¢ a payment and 0.4% on invoices. Customers never see a Local Pass fee.
What stays yours
Delivery. Catering is pickup, or delivery by your own staff for your own fee, so drop-off and set-up fit the event.
Alcohol. It's never sold or billed through Local Pass.
Permits. Selling food online or for delivery needs a kitchen approved by Island Health. Our Food business guide links to the official rules. We're a marketplace, not a regulator, and we're not lawyers or accountants: if you're unsure, ask Island Health or your accountant.
Turn it on today
Setting up takes three steps in your dashboard: your notice and delivery towns, your first dishes with their allergens, then a preview of your page before you switch it on. A restaurant runs catering beside its regular menu from the same account. A business that only caters gets a dashboard that is only catering.
Next time someone asks if you cater, send them your link.
Turn on catering at business.localpass.ca → Catering.
