Set up a catering brand
A catering brand is a virtual brand with its own website and its own ordering rules. Use it when some orders need planning ahead, such as platters, party food or office lunches, while your main website keeps taking normal orders.
A catering brand can:
- Make customers order a set number of hours ahead, with no ASAP option.
- Limit how far ahead customers can book.
- Set a minimum order value for that brand only.
- Take card payments only, so every order is paid when it is placed.
Your main brand keeps your store's normal ordering times and payment options. The rules below only apply to orders placed on the catering brand's website.
Note: Everything on this page is set at Company level (no store selected in the store switcher).
Step 1: Create the brand and give it a website
- Create a virtual brand, for example "Smith's Catering", and choose the stores it trades from. Follow Steps 1 and 2 of Setup Guide: Virtual Brands.
- Choose which products the catering brand sells, and set its prices if they differ from your main menu. See Step 3 of the same guide. Larger items, such as platters and sharing boxes, make a minimum order easier to reach.
- Ask us for the brand's website address. Email help@myfoodfast.com with the brand name and the address you want.
Step 2: Set the ordering rules
- Go to Setup > Online Ordering > Website & App > Settings.
- Choose the catering brand in the Virtual Brand picker at the top of the page. Check the picker shows the catering brand before you save, so the rules go on the right brand.
- Scroll to Ordering Rules and fill in:
- Minimum notice (hours): how far ahead customers must order. For example, 24 means an order placed at 6pm today can be for 6pm tomorrow at the earliest. When this is set, the website hides ASAP and customers pick a date and time.
- Take orders up to (days ahead): how far ahead customers can book. For example, 14 lets customers choose any of the next 14 days. This is always at least one day longer than the notice, so there is always a day to choose.
- Minimum order value: the smallest basket the brand accepts, for both delivery and collection.
- Click Save Changes.
Enter 0 in any of these boxes to turn that rule off.
Note: The Ordering Rules section only appears when a brand other than your Default brand is selected. Your main brand always uses your store's normal times.
What your customers see
On the catering brand's website:
- A message near the top of the menu and at checkout says how much notice is needed, for example "Orders need 24 hours' notice."
- There is no ASAP option. The first time offered is the first slot after the notice period, within your store's opening hours.
- The date picker only shows days inside the booking window.
- If the basket is under the minimum, the basket shows how much more to add, and Checkout stays greyed out until the minimum is reached. This applies to delivery and collection.
- Checkout only offers card payment, including Apple Pay and Google Pay. There is no cash option.
- There is no Table option. A brand with a minimum notice takes delivery and collection orders only.
- Only the products the brand sells are shown, including in Featured items. A product you have switched off for the brand can't be added to the basket.
- If something can't be added to the basket, the website says why, for example "Beef Lasagne isn't available on Smith's Catering."
- My Orders and the live order banner only show the customer's orders from the catering brand.
Minimum order and delivery charges
The brand's Minimum order value is added on top of your delivery area rules. A delivery order has to meet both: the brand's minimum and the minimum for the customer's delivery area. Delivery charges still come from your store's delivery areas.
The store page on the brand's website shows the delivery area's minimum. The brand's minimum is shown in the basket.
The rules are checked again when the order is placed
The notice, booking window, minimum order, card-only payment and the brand's stores are all checked again when the customer pays, not only when they browse. A customer can't get round them with an old basket, a page left open overnight, or an old order repeated with Order again. If a rule isn't met, the order isn't taken and the website tells the customer what to change, for example to choose a later time.
Orders you take on the POS or kiosk are not affected by these rules.
Card payments on brand websites
Online orders on every brand website other than your Default brand are always paid by card. This is not a setting you can switch off. It means every catering and brand order is paid when it is placed, so you are never left preparing a large order that nobody has paid for.
Your Default brand's website keeps whatever payment options you have set for it, including cash if you allow it.
Delivering from the catering brand only
You can let the catering brand deliver from a store while your main website offers that store for collection only. Store choices are set separately for each brand, including your Default brand.
- Go to Setup > Online Ordering > Website & App > Virtual Brands.
- Click the eye icon next to your catering brand. Under Store Assignments, tick the store under Delivery Stores. Click Save Assignments.
- Go back to Virtual Brands and click the eye icon next to your Default brand. Untick the same store under Delivery Stores, and leave it ticked under Collection Stores. Click Save Assignments.
Your main website then no longer delivers from that store, and if no store delivers for it at all, the Delivery option disappears from it. The catering website delivers as normal.
Customers can only collect from the stores ticked under Collection Stores for the brand they are ordering from, and a brand only delivers from its ticked Delivery Stores.
Note: A brand can't have its own delivery areas or delivery charges. When a brand delivers from a store, it uses that store's delivery areas, charges and minimums. If your store uses map delivery zones (Google Maps Polygons), the catering brand uses the same map zones as your main website. If the catering brand needs a wider area, contact us at help@myfoodfast.com.
Frequently asked questions
Does the catering brand get its own Google listing? Its website does. Each brand website has its own page title, description and web address in Google. Set them under Setup > Online Ordering > Website & App > Settings, with the brand chosen in the Virtual Brand picker, using Meta Title and Meta Description. Upload the brand's own logo and images on the same page so its site and link previews don't look like your main business.
What happens if a customer reorders an old order on the catering site? The new order belongs to the catering brand, whichever website the old order came from. It follows the catering brand's notice, minimum order and card-only payment, and only includes products the catering brand sells.
A customer switched their basket from Table to delivery. Do they still pay the table service charge? No. The table service charge is removed as soon as the order is no longer a table order.
Will my main website start asking for 24 hours' notice? No. Ordering rules only apply to the brand you set them on.
Can I use different opening hours for catering? No. Every brand uses the opening hours of the store it trades from. The notice period and booking window decide which of those hours customers can choose.
Do catering orders count towards my per-slot order limit? Yes. If you use Capacity Management, orders from every brand count towards the same limit, because they come from the same kitchen. See Set up Capacity Management.
How do I see how the catering brand is doing? Go to Reports > Sales Reports > Operations and choose the brand in the Virtual Brand filter. See Reporting on a single virtual brand.