Contact Manager

This brand new tab in the Contact Manager collects all outgoing email correspondences sent from within Caterease. These emails can be saved with a single mouse click, or can even be set to save automatically.

Now you can choose to group your Contact History Report by User or by history note Category. Thus, you can see, for example, all history notes for a date range that had a Category of "Follow Up" versus "Confirmation", etc.

A new tool in Event Manager lets you quickly review all reminders and history notes related to a particular event from right within the Event Manager itself! (See Event Manager Features.)

Event Manager

Optionally attach various files (a scan of the signed contract, an image of the venue layout, etc.) to an event for future reference. File types include: Adobe Acrobat, Word Documents, Rich Text, Bitmaps, Jpegs, and Excel Spreadsheets.

Use this powerful tool to manage restaurant tables, bowling lanes, delivery vans, tents - or a host of other unique items. Create a list of items to be scheduled (or create multiple lists), and then select them into a particular sub-event. Any time conflicts (double-bookings) of the items will be reported. A new Scheduled Items Report helps you track your items, and you can even see a handy graph of item usage in your Scheduler - including the ability to add more items right from there! (See Scheduler section for more details.)

As with the Payment window enhancements, this Event Deposits window also now allows you to customize the financial fields, as well as leave the window "floating" as you scroll from event to event - reviewing schedule deposits for each event.

The "Audit Trail" has been completely rewritten to incorporate most event level changes, and to collect those changes onto a detailed event print. Specific changes including edits to menu item quantities or prices, payments posted, employees and shifts added and more are all identified on this powerful new document.

The Event Staffing print has been enhanced to include more details about the shifts your employees are working, including the shift times as well as how many employees are required for each shift.

This tool is similar to the Quick Query described in the Menu Managers Features, above. Here you can see a "mini" Food/Service Activity Query results grid listing every menu item ordered for a particular sub-event. All the same powerful query tools apply, including customizing the grid and generating numerous menu item reports. You can even review the items in a chart or graph, as well!

There have been two big changes to the Event Payments window. First, you now able to customize the financial fields displayed on this window. More importantly, however, this window is now able to "float" - meaning you can keep the payments window open as you scroll through events in Event Manager, to see payments for the parties as you go!

A new button in Event Manager lets you quickly review a list of all reminders or contact history notes related to a particular event. The list will be displayed in a "floating" pop-up window - so you can scroll through your various events leaving this window open as you go!

This slick new tool is a great way to easily navigate through your events. The Related Events window lets you see a list of all parties that are related to each other in one of several ways - they have the same client, they have the same sales rep, they have the same theme, etc. - and then hop from event to event easily, or even open separate events in separate Event Manager windows! For example, any sales rep can see a list of all parties with her name for the upcoming week and navigate to each record quickly and easily!

Conflicts with staff will be reported even if the staff times do not match the times of the sub-event.

Similar to the tool above, this feature lets you see a "mini" Staffing Activity Query results grid - listing all employees scheduled to work a specific sub-event. Like the full Activity Query, you can customize the grid, print or export the data, batch email the employees or even review the staff in a chart or graph format.

General Program

Any files you have attached to an event using the powerful new Attached Event Files feature (see Event Manager Features) can also be attached to outgoing emails generated by the program. File types include PDFs, Word Documents, BMPs, Excel Spreadsheets and more - and can even be attached and sent in a batch of emails from your query results grids!

The contact person's "Telephone" and "Email" have been added as search criteria to the popular "Finder" tools - so now you can search for clients or events based on those details.

The Sub-Event Activity Query now offers the fields "Booked" (the date on which the related EVENT was booked) and "Revised" (the date on which it was last revised).

You can choose to have any email correspondence sent from Caterease automatically saved in your Contact Manager.

You can choose to have Caterease automatically create a history note in your Contact Manager whenever you send an email from the program.

Now you can have your company's logo appear in the splash screen that flashes up as your program is loading. In addition to all of the other screen displays you can customize, this is another opportunity to make this your Caterease program your own!

Click a button in Caterease to pass detailed event information - including individual menu items, prices and quantities - into your QuickBooks program. Even opt to pass over an entire batch of events with one mouse click! Detailed invoices are automatically created in QuickBooks for the appropriate client, or new clients can also be created dynamically in QuickBooks if desired.

The Guestrooms Query tool now allows you to email your customers directly from the query results window. If you own the Professional version of Caterease, you can even generate a batch of emails to multiple customers with a single mouse click!

New query criteria added to your Account Query will allow you to track the date customers first booked an event with you. Thus you can determine all customers who became active with your company during any date range.

As easy as the Caterease update process is, it just got easier! Now, as long as you have a currently active Maintenance Plan which is not set to expire within the next 30 days, you can simply update on your own by clicking Help > Caterease on the Web > Download Latest Update from Web. As long as the above conditions are true, you will not be prompted for a password.

The status bar at the bottom of your Caterease program shows such details as the username you are currently logged in under, the specific database you are in (for corporate installations with multiple databases) and whether your QuickBooks interface is currently active. To switch usernames or databases - or to disable your QuickBooks connection - all you need to do is double-click the appropriate spot on the status bar!

This dynamic new report lets you track revenue on the sub-event level, showing any date range of sub-events and optionally grouping the records by such details as Description, Type, Banquet Room or Site Location.

Interfaces

The Caterease-Quickbooks interface has been completely enhanced, including such amazing improvements as direct data transfer (as opposed to export-import), menu item transfer, detailed Quickbooks invoicing and a host of other powerful features.

Marketing Tools

You now have the ability to insert dynamic, custom tables into any merge document to include menu item details, staffing details, details of payments received or details of scheduled deposits. Combined with the ability to add or remove table borders and background shading, as well as the already existing capabilities of the Marketing Tools Package, this new feature allows you to create virtually any event print (contract, invoice, etc.) from scratch!

Preview any custom merge letter before printing it by double-clicking on a small thumbnail image at the bottom of the Letters & Envelopes window. A preview of the selected letter will appear in a separate window that can be moved and resized as you want. As you click from letter to letter, the preview will update with the appropriate text.

With all the powerful new tables you can now play around with, this button makes it easy to remove them if you need to!

Now any document you create in your Marketing Tools Package can include the following food/service "Type" subtotal merge fields: Food Subtotal, Beverage Subtotal, Liquor Subtotal, Equipment Subtotal, Labor Subtotal, Room Subtotal, and Other Subtotal

Like the Menu Manager, the buttons for adding and deleting Marketing Tools documents have been moved to the top of the window itself.

The dynamic new tables, described above, can also have custom filters established. For example, you can develop a custom table to list only menu items with a Type of "Food" - or even only items with a Category of "Dessert". The possibilities are limitless, and the flexibility is amazing!

In your Marketing Tools window, you can now zoom in or out of a document as you create it - so you can see the whole letter you are creating no matter how much screen space is available.

Menu Manager

This extremely handy tool lists all events that use the currently highlighted menu item. Keep the window open and highlight one menu item after another, or zig-zag right into any event instantly!

When updating menu item costs based on changes to your Ingredients List, you can now elect to extend that update to the cost of packaged menu items (items used within a menu item package) as well.

This one is so cool that it deserves its own bullet point! In addition to the general menu item details listed above, you can also reformat the fonts of an entire batch of Descriptions, Recipes, Labels or Notes simultaneously! For example, you can make all of your Descriptions Arial, 14 point and center-justified - all with one mouse click!

This quick-query tool mirrors the popular Food/Service Activity Query. Highlight any menu item (or items) in your Menu Manager, and use this tool to list all events that include those selected items. Unlike the Booked Menu Item Tool (above), this query tool lets you highlight multiple items, as well as saving custom grid views and filters. You can even see the items in a chart or graph display, and generate popular menu item reports - just like in the regular Food/Service Activity Query.

Right click anywhere in your master Ingredients List, and make changes to an entire batch of ingredient items at one time! Change item details such as "Category", "Measure", "Cost" - or a host of other options - quickly and easily!

When you delete a menu item that has been used for an event, the program will prompt you to confirm your choice. If you do confirm the deletion, Caterease will automatically (and instantly) copy the "Description", "Recipe", "Label", "Ingredients" and "Required Items" from the deleted items into the events themselves. (Note that if you have already overridden the default menu item fields for an item, that item will NOT be replaced.)

The Description field of Required Items has been expanded to 150 characters, allowing for significantly longer entries. In addition, there is now an option on the Required Items report to wrap descriptions if they become too long to print in the space the report provides.

Just like in an event, you can now highlight one or multiple menu items in your Menu Manager and copy them to another menu or menus. The copy will include any ingredients or required items associated with the original items.

Now the buttons in Menu Manager are more conveniently located right on the manager window itself. Add or insert new items, or delete existing ones, even easier than ever!

Just like with ingredients, you can click your right mouse button anywhere in your master Required Items list and change the "Category", "Measure" or "Comment" of an entire batch of items simultaneously!

This popular feature - the ability to create a hierarchy of menus and sub-menus, such as "Hot Hors d'ouvres" and "Cold Hors d'ouvres" both under a general "Hors d'ouvres" heading - is now available in the Standard version of the program.

This handy tool displays a pop-up window listing all packages that use the currently highlighted menu item. You can even change the price and/or the cost of the menu item in each package remotely right within the pop-up window.

Prospect Manager

The Proposal window in Prospect Manager has been completely redesigned to mirror the Event Manager screen. As mentioned above, in addition to having the ability to include specific menu items you now have the opportunity to assign tax, service charge and gratuity rates to a proposal, as well.

You can now format your Prospect Manager Proposal the same way you format Event Manager prints - including the new ability to customize fonts - using your Caterease Print Designer.

You can now include dynamic tax, service charge and gratuity rates on your Prospect Manager Proposals, just as you can on an event.

Required fields in Prospect Manager now reflect the "Account Required Fields" if the prospect becomes an active account, or reflect the "Prospect Required Fields" if it remains a prospect.

Scheduler

Use the Advanced Settings tool to disable any view on the Scheduler Screen (except the default Event View). Remove the Staffing Scheduler option, the Reminders option, etc., as desired.

Now you can right-click any reminder in your Scheduler screen and select it into any manager - just as you can from your "Active Reminders" pop-up window.

Your event Scheduled Items (tables, delivery vans, bowling lanes, etc.) can now be viewed and manipulated in the Scheduler window. Access a bar graph of Scheduled Items, and then drag and drop - or even COPY - items as needed!

This new toolbar is available as an alternative to right-clicking on any Scheduler screen, and mirrors the choices you would have in a right-click pop-up menu.

Now you can hold your Ctrl key down as you drag and drop reminders or notes to other dates or groups on the calendar, and rather than moving the item the program will make a COPY.

Right click on any party in your Scheduler and opt to change the status of that party from right there - without even having to retrieve the event!

Setup

The Print Designer now allows you to apply your own custom fonts to any print. You can modify the Section Captions, Field Captions and all Field Values – effectively giving you control of every font appearing on the print!

Anywhere there is a "tree" of headings on the left side of a setup window – such as the titles of your menus in Menu Manager, the names of your letters in Marketing Tools, the various lists in the Ingredients List and Required Items List windows, etc. - you now have a sophisticate indicator icon as you drag and drop these titles into new positions. You will see a yellow arrow in place if you drag a title to be a "child" or "sub-title", and a curved blue arrow to indicate if your title will go above or below another title on the list.

The popular Food/Service Line Item Report is now available in the Express Version of the program, so you can track your menu item usage no matter which version you own!

Global Settings in the program have been rearranged, and more have been made accessible to those using the Express version of Caterease.

The field "Cellular" has been added to Employee Manager for you to track all of your employees' cell phone numbers. This field (as well as Employee Fax and Employee Telephone) is now available in the Staffing Activity Query results grid, as well.

Now you can preview any event print from right within the Print Designer! As long as you have an event open at the time, you can click the Preview button in Print Designer to see a contract, invoice, BEO, etc. as you design it!