Packages

Create pre-configured packages that bring items, staff, and equipment together so you can build detailed quotes in just a few clicks.

What Are Packages?

Many caterers price their quotes based on packages rather than individually pricing every item. A common example is a buffet package: the customer pays a set price per guest and can choose from a selection of mains, sides, and desserts. Packages in Puree let you define all of that once and then add it to a quote with just a couple of clicks — automatically populating all the items, staff and equipment you’ve configured.

A package or a bundle?

A package is priced per guest and describes an event. A Bundles is a single item made of other catalogue items, a platter or a boxed lunch or a bar kit, priced once and ordered by the dozen. If you would order twelve of it, it is a bundle, not a package. The two work together: a package’s fixed and flexible items can be bundles, so the platter stays one line to price and pack while the package handles the day around it. The four ways of putting a line on a quote are compared in our article Options, Includes, Bundles and Packages: Which One Do You Mean?.

Do you need a package at all?

A package earns its place when it does one of two things: it carries a price per guest, or it gives someone a choice (“choose three canapés from this list”). If neither is true — you already know exactly which items are going on the quote, and each one is priced (or not) on its own — don’t use a package. Add the items to the quote as normal items instead.

It is tempting to use a flexible package as a shortcut, picking one item from each group because you already know what you want. It is slower, not faster. The package was set up to ask for a certain number of choices from each group, so it keeps asking: pick one where the package wants two and it still shows the group as incomplete. You end up working around the package rather than using it. Searching for items and adding them directly is quicker after the first few.

Before You Start

Before creating a package, you need to have your items set up. Packages pull from your existing Items & Categories, so make sure the food, beverages, equipment, and any other items you want to include in the package have already been created. You’ll also want your Event Staff roles configured if you plan to include staffing in the package.

Creating a Package

Navigate to Items → Packages and click New Package. Give the package a name (e.g. “Wedding Buffet” or “Corporate Lunch”), set the price per guest, and specify the minimum number of guests. You can also add an optional description that will appear in the quote.

Fixed Items

Fixed items are items where the customer doesn’t get a choice — they’re simply included in the package. For each fixed item, you set a quantity type: either per guest or fixed. Per-guest items scale with the number of guests on the quote (e.g. 1 bread roll per guest means 100 rolls for 100 guests). Fixed-quantity items stay the same regardless of guest count (e.g. 2 water jugs no matter how many guests).

You can also assign a menu header to each item and set the delivery temperature if the item requires one. The quantity per guest can be a decimal — for example, 1.5 champagne flutes per guest.

Give a Fixed items card an optional Rule header, a short noun label such as “Grazing” or “Savoury”, to gather its items under one heading on the quote and online menu, above any menu headers. Usually leave it blank, so the items group under their own categories; set one when the card’s items span several categories. See How Quotes Are Grouped & Ordered for how rule-header blocks sort and drag.

The item picker footer has a Hide items from quote toggle. Items you hide are still part of the package — and still appear on your internal dockets and run sheets — but are kept off the customer’s quote, your online menus, and the online order form. It’s ideal for behind-the-scenes inclusions like crockery, napkins, or serving equipment that you don’t want the customer to see listed.

Flexible Items (Customer Choice)

Flexible items let the customer choose from a category. For example, “select 3 items from Canapés” or “choose 2 mains from the Buffet category”. You define the category, how many selections the customer can make, and which items from that category are available to choose from.

Flexible items have two display modes on the quote:

• Show items — Lists all available items so the customer can see the full selection
• Placeholder — Shows “selections pending” until the customer has made their choices

Once the customer has chosen, you edit the quote, go to the items page, and swap the placeholder items for the actual selections. The quantities, menu headers, and delivery times all carry across.

Staff

Packages can include staff roles that scale with guest numbers. You define how many of each role are needed per 100 guests, along with the number of hours they’ll work. Puree automatically calculates the right number of staff when you set the guest count on the quote. For example, if you set 2 chefs per 100 guests and the quote is for 150 guests, Puree will round up to 3 chefs.

Equipment

You can also include equipment items in a package. Equipment follows the same per-guest or fixed-quantity logic as food items. Packages can’t include venue hire: add a venue booking to the quote separately.

Adding a Package to a Quote

When creating or editing a quote, go to the items page (step 2). You’ll see a Packages tab alongside the master category tabs (Menu, Beverages, Staff, Equipment, etc.). Click it to see your list of packages.

Select a package and a summary of everything it includes will appear. Enter the number of guests and all quantities will update automatically. You can also adjust the package name and price per guest if needed for this specific quote. Click Add to Order and all the items, staff and equipment will be populated across the relevant categories.

You can add multiple packages to a single quote. For example, you might have one package for the buffet, another for beverages, and a third for equipment — keeping things modular and easy to manage.

Choosing fewer or more than the package asks for

Each choice group shows a live count, such as 2 / 3 selected. It turns green when the rule is exactly met and stays amber while it is short. You can go over: pick more than the package allows and the group is marked over limit in amber, but nothing stops you. That is a reminder that the quote now includes more than the package promises, so check the price.

If you want fewer choices than the package asks for, or none at all, don’t leave the group short. Remove the whole group with its × and add the item you do want separately — see Use two choices instead of three on one quote below. If you find yourself doing this every time, the package is probably the wrong tool for that job (see Do you need a package at all? above).

One-off packages

To package something just for one quote, without it coming from your catalogue, click Create one-off package at the bottom of the Packages tab. Give it a name and a price per guest, then add the items you want with the search. It is saved on this quote only and never appears in Items → Packages. It suits a one-off per-head price for a single event; for anything you will quote again, create a catalogue package instead.

How Packages Appear on Quotes

The quote shows a Packages section with the package name, guest count, and total price. Below that, the individual items appear under their respective menu headers and categories, just as they would if you’d added them manually. The package holds the price — individual items within the package show a price of zero since the cost is covered by the per-guest package price.

P.O.A packages: if a package is built entirely from fixed Price on Application items (with no flexible choices), its per-guest price is ignored and it’s left off the Packages section of the quote altogether — its items still appear (each marked “P.O.A”) under their categories. We recommend giving these items their own Menu Headers (e.g. “Optional Extras”) so they read as a distinct section on the quote. See Price on Application (P.O.A) for how to set this up.

Editing Items After Adding a Package

Once a package has been added to a quote, you can still edit the individual items. Change delivery times, update chef notes, swap out flexible selections, or adjust menu headers — the items behave just like any other items on the quote. This gives you the speed of packages with the flexibility to fine-tune each event.

Remove and restore package items on a quote

After adding a package to a quote, you can remove included items or whole groups from that quote and restore them later. These changes do not remove anything from your standard catalogue package.

1. Edit the quote, go to its items page and open the package’s Update Package window.
2. To remove a whole group, such as Canapés, click the × beside that group under Package Items. To remove an individual fixed item, open that item’s Edit window and use its remove control.
3. Removed catalogue items and groups stay visible with crossed-out names, not on this quote, and a Restore link. Click Restore to include an item or group again. You can reopen the package after saving to do this; check the quantities and selections when restoring.
4. Click Update, then save the quote’s items page.

Removing an individual flexible choice clears that selection and can leave a pending slot; it does not reduce the rule’s required number of choices. Remove the whole choice group if it is not needed on this quote. Items you added through Add Extra Items can be removed and added again through the search; they do not use the catalogue item’s Restore control.

The Remove from order button at the bottom removes the entire package. Use the individual item or group controls when you only want to change its contents. Review the package description and price after changing inclusions.

For a worked example, see Change package choices for one quote.

Xero Allocation

If your account is connected to Xero or QuickBooks, the package edit screen has an allocation button next to the price, labelled Xero allocation, QuickBooks allocation or Accounting allocation depending on what you’re connected to. Because a package is priced per guest as a single thing, its price reaches your accounting system as one line coded to Miscellaneous. This lets you say what percentage of the package price belongs to Menu, Beverages, Staff and Equipment instead, and the invoice is split across those revenue accounts. Puree shows the dollar figure per guest next to each percentage as you type.

Every package starts at 100% Miscellaneous, so nothing changes until you choose to split one. Miscellaneous balances itself: whatever you assign elsewhere comes off it automatically, which is why you never type into it. It only affects accounting, and nothing about the quote, the customer view or the dockets changes.

One thing to know before you change a package that’s been in use: the split is read fresh every time a quote syncs, so re-splitting a package also re-codes the revenue on older quotes that use it, the next time one of them syncs. Invoices already paid or voided can’t be changed, so reconciled work is safe. To change the split for new work only, duplicate the package and re-split the copy.

Tips

• Spend time setting up your packages correctly — it pays off every time you create a new quote
• You can create large all-inclusive packages or break them into smaller, modular ones (e.g. separate packages for food, beverages, and equipment)
• Use flexible items when you want to give customers a choice, and fixed items when the selection is predetermined
• Remember that staff quantities scale per 100 guests, so test with different guest counts to make sure the numbers look right
• Packages can be marked as inactive if they’re no longer needed — they won’t appear in the package list when creating quotes

Tax on package prices

When item-level tax is enabled, choose Tax rate for the package price or leave it on the account default. The package’s tax band applies to its full price, including paid options, and overrides tax bands on included items and bundles. The contents’ tax rates do not split the package price into separate bands.

A bundle sold separately uses its own band for its full price and paid options, overriding the bands on its contents. When that bundle is included in a priced package, the package’s band takes precedence. Separately priced extras outside the package keep their own bands.

A quote can have its own package-line band, and Override all tax bands applies across package charges too. Whether tax is included in or added to the price comes from the quote’s Includes sales tax or Excludes sales tax choice. Online order forms have their own pricing setting.

See Tax Rates.

Use two choices instead of three on one quote

If a package is already on the quote and you know the two canapés to include, open Update Package on the quote’s items page. Remove the Canapés group with its × so it reads not on this quote, then use Add Extra Items to add the two wanted canapés inside that package. Check their quantities, update the description and review the price. Click Update, then save the quote’s items page.

This changes only that quote’s package and leaves the usual catalogue package unchanged. Clearing just the third selection can leave a pending slot. See Change package choices for one quote for the full steps.

For a reusable two-choice offering for future quotes, create a separate catalogue package, set the flexible-items card’s Number of selections to 2 and save. If the card has a rule header, make it a noun label such as “Canapés”, not “Choose 3”: the online order form already says “Select 2 from the following”. The choice count is separate from the quantity of each selected item: per-guest quantities scale with guest count, while fixed quantities do not.

Headings and existing quotes

A package price row appears in the Packages section; its included lines appear in their respective sections. Use Rule header for a card’s main heading and Menu header for an optional subheading. Leave Rule header blank if you want only the item’s menu header or category. A rule header is a short noun label such as “Mains”, “Savoury” or “Dessert”, never an instruction like “Choose 3” or “Please pick one dessert”: it heads the items once the choice is made, and the online order form already prompts “Select N from the following”. See How Quotes Are Grouped & Ordered for removing subheadings and Reordering Categories & Packages for moving whole blocks.

Quotes store their own package price, guest count and included order lines. However, rule headings and some ordering information still read shared package records. A catalogue edit does not automatically rebuild the quote, and it is not wholly isolated from existing quote presentation. Review the affected quote after changing a used package. For a new offering that should not change shared settings on older work, create a separate package.