Per-plate quoting
Headcount × per-plate, computed live. Move an event from enquiry to quoted to booked without a single manual sum.
An order book for caterers
The market list
writes itself.
Quote the event by the plate, take the advance to lock the date — then work out how much of everything to buy. ThaliBook turns the menu into an exact ingredient shopping list the moment you book: headcount × per-plate qty, summed across every dish.
For caterers & event cooks · quotes, advances & auto market lists · pricing on discovery
01 · The problem
You cook for 300.
The maths cooks you.
A caterer's real job starts after the "yes". You quoted by the plate, took the advance — now you're on the floor with a calculator working out how much paneer, how many kilos of rice, how much oil for this headcount, this menu. Every event, from scratch, by hand.
The shopping list is redone every time
Same dishes, new headcount — so you re-multiply every ingredient by hand. Miss a dish and you're back at the market at 6am on function day.
Quotes live on scraps of paper
Headcount, per-plate rate, which advance came in for which event — spread across a diary, WhatsApp and your head. Nothing adds up in one place.
Two functions in one week = double the chaos
Shopping for a wedding and a griha pravesh separately means two market runs and two chances to over-buy onions you already had.
Balances slip after the advance lands
The advance came in, the event happened — and the balance follow-up quietly never went out. Money left on the table, every season.
02 · The insight
A catering quote is just headcount × per-plate, and the shopping list is fully determined by the menu and the headcount — yet both get re-calculated by hand for every single event.
ThaliBook's whole job is to close that gap: put the per-plate quantities in a recipe book once, and let every booking compute its own market list — Σ(per-plate qty × headcount) across the menu — so the buying is exact, and a busy week rolls up into one run.
03 · How it works
Quote, book, buy. The list is a by-product.
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1
Create the event and quote it
Client, date, event type, headcount and a per-plate rate. The quote — headcount × per-plate — is shown live as you type. No calculator.
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2
Build the menu from the recipe book
Pick dishes — paneer butter masala, chicken biryani, dal tadka, veg pulao, chole, naan, gulab jamun. Each already carries its per-plate quantities.
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3
Take the advance — the list generates
Record the advance and the event is booked. ThaliBook computes the ingredient shopping list automatically: every dish × headcount, summed and rolled into kilos and litres.
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4
Shop the week, chase the balance
A calendar of upcoming events, a consolidated this-week market list across every booking, and a one-tap balance reminder. Nothing falls through.
04 · What's inside
The whole event, from enquiry to market run.
Built-in recipe book
Common Indian dishes come loaded with per-plate ingredient quantities. Tune a portion once and every future event inherits it.
Auto ingredient shopping list
On booking, Σ(per-plate qty × headcount) across the menu — summed per ingredient, grams rolled to kilos, millilitres to litres.
Advance & balance tracking
Record the advance, book the date, and carry the balance due on every event. A tap fires the balance reminder to the client.
This-week consolidated list
Every booked event in the next seven days summed into one market run — buy the onions once, not event by event.
Events calendar & dashboard
Upcoming functions, booked value, advance in hand and balance due — the whole book in one glance, ready for the season.
05 · The dashboard
Open it Monday. See the whole week's cooking and buying.
Namaste, Lakshmi ji
Annapoorna Caterers · Bengaluru · week of 19 Jul 2026
Booked value
Rs 3,26,000
Balance due
Rs 2,30,000
This week's headcount
790
Upcoming events
shopping list auto-generated on booking| Client | Type | Heads | Quote | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sharma Family | Wedding | 250 | 1,05,000 | Booked · list ready |
| Infobyte Solutions | Corporate lunch | 180 | 54,000 | Booked · list ready |
| Vinod Gowda | Griha pravesh | 120 | 42,000 | Quoted |
| Fernandes Wedding | Reception | 240 | 1,25,000 | Enquiry |
06 · Pricing
Priced on a call. However many functions you run.
If ThaliBook stops one over-buy or catches one forgotten balance a month, it has already paid for itself — and you've bought back the hours you spend re-doing the market list before every function.
- Unlimited events & menus
- Per-plate quoting + built-in recipe book
- Auto ingredient shopping list on booking
- This-week consolidated list, calendar & balance reminders
ThaliBook
Pricing — on discovery
Subscription basis
We set pricing on a short discovery call and bill it as a simple monthly subscription — sized to how many events you run. Early caterers get founder terms.
Book a discovery call07 · Who it's for & questions
Built for the working caterer, not a hotel chain.
ThaliBook is for the caterer or event cook who runs weddings, receptions, corporate lunches and house functions off a WhatsApp thread and a diary — quoting by the plate, buying by hand, and holding the whole season in their head. Big enough that the maths hurts; small enough that a restaurant ERP is overkill.
Where does the shopping list come from?
From your menu. Every dish in ThaliBook's built-in recipe book carries per-plate ingredient quantities. When you book an event, ThaliBook multiplies each ingredient by the headcount and sums it across all the dishes, then rolls grams up to kilos and millilitres to litres — so the market list is exact, not a guess.
My dishes and portions are my own. Can I change the recipes?
Yes. The recipe book ships with common Indian dishes and sensible per-plate quantities to get you moving, but the per-plate amounts are yours to tune. Adjust a dish once and every future event that uses it gets the corrected shopping list automatically.
Do I have to take the advance through the app?
No. Take the advance however you already do — cash, UPI, bank transfer — and record the amount in ThaliBook. Recording it is what confirms the booking, generates the shopping list, and starts tracking the balance due. ThaliBook doesn't force a payment rail on you.
I run several events in a week. Do I shop for each one separately?
No — that's the point of the this-week list. ThaliBook consolidates every booked event in the next seven days into one combined market run, so you buy 14 kg of onions once instead of chasing it event by event.
I'm not very techy. How long to set up?
An afternoon. The recipe book is already loaded, so you just add an event, pick dishes, and enter the advance. The demo opens with a full board of Bengaluru catering events already computed, so you can see exactly how it works before you type a thing.
What does it cost?
Pricing is worked out on a quick discovery call and billed monthly on subscription. We're keeping public prices off the page while we onboard our first caterers.