I love the versatility of this software. It allows you to input information once and send it to many. It also provides real time reports, invoicing and event orders with one click! Because we use the web based software, I can access it anywhere I have internet connection or phone service. It allows smooth exporting to the calendar that our entire organization uses and allows others to read or print any set up information they need. Since it is similar to Microsoft office in it's layout, it is very user friendly from the beginning. Service has been outstanding. with the chat feature and emails and FAQ sections for technical assistance there is virtually no wait time when you need help.

Only 2 things I don't like: There is sometimes a lag when Google updates are released for Caterease to catch up. This causes headaches with my public event calendar. To run caterease you have to have citrix installed and that can conflict with some programs causing your computer operation to slow down. (Especially with older models.)

I really do love this system. You can check overlapping of events.. it has flags that identify each event as "Tentative" if they have not yet committed, "Definite" if they have and other important markers. You can customize HOW you want to see or view most things. I really could not imagine that anyone would not just love this system.

It covers just about anything you could want it to do. There have only been a few things ever I wished it could do and it couldn't. It is easy to use and reports are easy to obtain. I really love this software.

No Quickbooks interface. It would be nice to be able to transfer an invoice into the accounting system. Instead, I literally have to re-type every event over again into Quickbooks. This can be frustrating when you are receiving deposits or payments on events that are two or three years down the road and need to enter the event to apply the payment to it; along with all of the other daily invoices you have to do. And then keep up with all the menu / rental / room changes and updating THOSE in quickbooks. I do wish the notes and comments section on events would automatically place the initials of whom ever made the comment and the DATE . This could be tied to your log in. Often times there could be 3 or 4 people working on an event and if they forget to put their name.. and the date.. you dont know who they are. Also anyone can CHANGE or EDIT another persons notes or comments which I dont like. There is an "audit report" you can produce that will tell you who did what... but its not that easy to read and it takes some experience of looking at it to understand what the report is telling you.

If it was operational 100% there be many but every week there something going wrong

The concept is great tool for caterers, though you have to pay for every add on When its operational - i love it

- Very over priced!!! - Forever having issues with the program not working. I lose too much time having to followup with customer service to fix issues. - Is hosted on a 3rd party platform and its forcing a new download access everytime. this make it slow as.. Other CRMs have been smoother operationally. - You have to pay for every addon... completely stupid idea and makes for costly program. the Web forms are hosted on a separate website which means you cannot customise without using customer service. - every update seems to create more issues - its slow in operation to change to different screens - it doesnt communicate with zapier so creating external forms or merging data is all manual

The software has changed my life and given me thousands of hours of time to better manage my business and my employees. Caterease has allowed me to take many companies from paper and pen to the cloud. Caterease has put many of my clients businesses back in their control.

The ease of use and windows familiar aspects of Caterease are perfect. Mark and the sales team have helped me as a food service consultant serve many of my clients needs. Customer Support is always available and knowledgeable. The software is not just a program but a catering operational system. I am able to customize so many parts that makes the system adapt to any company with comfort. I started using caterease years ago and the company has made updates many times and has made it exciting to look forward to. Years ago i would spend countless days and weeks making complex spreadsheets to calculate so many informational needs that i had to repeat weekly. Caterease has been built with so much functionality that my weekly repetitive work has dropped down to almost zero and my time as well as my employees time has spiked in productivity. This Software is priceless!!!!

What i like least about the software was that i had little access to information on events without my computer!! BUT they recently released the Caterease APP.... Now me and my team access event info on our phones and cant be happier.

This software produces professional proposals, contracts, and invoices with ease that my staff and the clients love. It also produces very specific paperwork that helps my culinary team and event staff produce and orchestrate the best events possible. The friendly, efficient customer service at Caterease is exceptional!

We have used this amazing catering software for over 24 years! It has grown and evolved with the industry over the years and remains the best catering software on the market - that I have ever seen. This product pays for itself and the cloud based version allows my staff to work on the fly from any venue, which saves time and money. My staff loves using the Caterease program. The help desk is always friendly, efficient, knowledgeable, and far exceed my expectations of customer service in today's market. They truly go the extra mile!!

I do not have any cons for this product or the support staff - give it a try - you, your staff and your clients will be glad you did!

This software is fabulous - you can access your program from anywhere in the world when you have Caterease Connect. The reports/queries are easy to manipulate to find the requested data. The engineers listen to our specific needs - requests show up in the next build! The software is VERY simple to use and can be customized for specific needs. The mobile app is great to check upcoming events on the fly. You can run a query to see how much of each item on your menu you've sold for a certain period of time, the forecast what the change in revenue would be if pricing increases/decreases. You can compare sales for a certain month /period to previous years, forecast future time periods and more. The time savings is phenomenal. What used to take hours can be produced in minutes. Our company has used Caterease for so long, I don't know how we would function without it.

The ONLY problem I have is sometimes tech support doesn't answer the phone because they are tied up on another call. BUT, emailing the support desk usually gets an answer quickly.

It makes our work easier.

The software is great overall! It interfaces with so many different programs, and it's been a huge help that makes our job easier. There is always more to learn about the software, so it's nice to keep adding to the list of abilities. In the past, we used two different programs for booking and invoicing, so it's a huge time saver. Our team only has to make updates once, so it minimizes potential for error.

I've had a support ticket for what seems like a simple fix in for a few months, and haven't really received much feedback on it. Also, if there is an issue with the interface, the support staff for each different software says that it is a problem with the other software, so that has been a little difficult.

The sheer amount of features with Caterease is astounding. There is so much it can do from scheduling and pricing events to inputting menu items, and much more! The integrated tutorials are helpful.

The interface isn't as intuitive as I would like. It seems like it's in need of a facelift. I feel like we maybe use 20% of all the features we're able to use.

Overall, Caterease is a blessing in the event planning industry. From detailed client reports, to custom event prints, it truly covers all the bases and helps things to run more smoothly!

I like the fact that you can practically customize your Caterease; meaning you can easily add, subtract, and adjust drop-down menu options, event prints, and filters. It helps in making it more user-friendly according to my specific restaurant. Caterease also keeps me organized and helps me to avoid making costly mistakes such as double-booking or forgetting a menu item. I also enjoy it being directly linked to my email, to promptly send clients necessary documents.

I feel that the Caterease program tends to be a lot to look at and can get overwhelming if you do not know how to use it to its fullest potential. There are many tips and tricks you might not know about without reading through the large user's manual or getting proper training.

I know this is the best software out there for me at this point, but I just wish it was a little better.

There are so many layers to this program, it can do so many different things... CRM, email templates, invoicing, etc. The setup process is very time-consuming and difficult at times... but the guys at the help desk are typically VERY helpful! Thanks!

The training through the setup process. The software is a big investment and there is not a great place to watch videos from start to finish on getting everything setup. There are videos, but they are not comprehensive for the VERY beginner... For instance, I really wasn't even sure how to launch the program the first time I wanted to work on it! The other thing is that it is pretty buggy on macs. I have A LOT of time waiting between windows, etc.

We now own this catering software forever-more, so if anything happens with whatever else we're doing, I know we can at least fall back on this.

The Vantiv credit card processor was good value, it dropped out processing fees a bit... But that's a different company. The Caterease customer service started out okay; they were friendly at least.

Very convoluted software, difficult to use, leaves you wondering 'why would they do that??' when looking at the way it was designed. If you buy one of the 'cheaper' versions, they lock most of the useful features (unlike a service like Total Party Planner). The customer service was OKAY at first, but once I realized we were not told of the restrictions the desktop version has, I asked for a refund as we had not even owned it for 6 months yet. You know that didn't happen. I've been told we'll get a refund for the unused maintenance service.

A lot of events/venues to have access to the same information/database

The possibilities are endless (Creating kitchen prep list, cost, ordering, budgetting, creating BEO's, templates, financial possibilities)

The software is a little archaic and is not the most user friendly. A lot of the functionality would certainly be used more often if the software was easier to use. A lot of duplicate information has to be entered

The problem with Caterease is that I office out of my home and live in an area with satellite only internet connection. Caterease requires a stronger connection. This was never told to me in the beginning and not until I had paid for the software and tried to begin using it. After months and months and months of problems, I am finally starting to use the software (I purchased the software in September. This is now April.) They system is slow, at best, and I have to reboot it several times a day. I have to quit using it around 3 pm when apparently my satellite gets too busy. Had the Sales Manager told me the requirements of the system, I would not have purchased the system. The requirements listed in the original set up stuff is vague. My IT guy assures me that we comply with all the requirements. AT&T does not service my area. The only landline internet connection is through a shabby cable company who wants to charge me $$$$. I still believe the proper thing to do would have been to refund my money. I am using the software now because I paid for it and am going to make it work. I remain disappointed in the sales department, the customer service department and in the whole process. The software is slow and hard to learn. The tech support Caterease offers is great and I have so appreciated their assistance. But there is not training available with purchase (unless you pay more), everything is an upgrade and the whole experience has been less than pleasant.

The tech support Caterease offers is great and I have so appreciated their assistance

no training available with purchase (unless you pay more), everything is an upgrade and the whole experience has been less than pleasant

If everything is working perfectly, bids are much easier to write.

We like that Caterease is can be almost endlessly customized. This becomes overwhelming at times. It seems like it works best for hotel and banquet facilities.

The customer service is often rough. There seems to be an attitude that everything is always user error. It might be, but we would like to hear a little more concern when we call in.

This saves so much time and basically pays for itself in the end! I love all the customizable features available and I recommend this to any event company/coordinator!

They charge for training which I am not a fan of. And also the customer service isn’t very accessible.

It's just not the best. I eventually moved to Gather, which as much better sales/lead management, event/team communication, and estimate sharing tools. Anything Gather doesn't do, I can fairly easily replicate manually.

Caterease offers some good basic tools for caterers, and expanded functionality for scheduling and pack lists that other events software lacks (it is really geared to offsite and large catering operations).

It is just OLD. Layered and complex software that inelegantly tied together in unintuitive ways. Took so much time to set up, and perhaps longer to train even clever people to use it.

Customer service is great, but they need to update their software and make it easier to work with clients. When you're doing private event business the ease of use and less steps is very important.

In the beginning I enjoyed how the software made it simple to work with the client to process contracts. Customer service was always knowledgeable and responsive. Our clients also seemed to have an ease of use as well.

I felt that the software could do more and offer more compatibility with our websites and clients. We ended up switching to Gather because they have a lot more options in producing documents, having clients digitally sign and provide payment and it integrates with a lot of other software. Caterase lacks in those departments and we needed something that provided less steps for the vendor and the client.

CataerEase is an all in one tool to manage every part of your business.

The ability to manage all aspects of an organization through one tool is a valuable feature that sets CaterEase apart from the rest.

Learning curve to get started was a bit more than I expected but through trial and error, training and provided resources, I was up and running in no time.

It was very functional for catering management. I liked how everyone could update it in live time.

It was a little clunky in some places. But I also think it could have been set up better on management end.

Caterease helped with keeping me organized and efficient. It was easy to search clients, message them, and set up Proposals.

It would be better if I could link my payroll to the app for a seamless transition.

I agree with Jamie, I have no idea how anyone could have a negative experience with Caterease. I’ve used their web-based software for 3 years and this is after spending about 2 years evaluating every catering software on the market. I can clearly state that Caterease is by far the best one out there and the easiest to use. It’s also incredibly fast. I can generate a contract in literally a fraction of a second. You do have to have a normal internet connection to use the software. Dial up speed is not adequate in this day and age. Also, everyone I have ever spoken to at Caterease have been wonderful to deal with – and I’ve talked to at least 10 different people at the company so far.

everyone I have ever spoken to at Caterease have been wonderful to deal with

We love the fact that we have all of our event information under one tool with the ability to generate so many different reports from the kitchen to our front of house teams. The professional display and consistent look and feel of the quotes we produce from Caterease gives us the edge over our competitors and the flexibility of the print design tools means we can customize to our individual customer requirements. The support of the Caterease help desk is also fantastic. When your business is so reliant on a program like this it is vital the back up support is quick and efficient. This is certainly the case with the Caterease support team - they always respond quickly with prudent advice or a solution to meet our requirements.

We did a lot of research, more than 10 years ago, to find the best program to suit our needs and 10 years later, we haven't been sorry for a moment. Caterease was easy to set-up way back then and today, continues to be easy to use and navigate. The help desk couldn't be better - they have even take our "wish lists" over the years and incorporated them in program updates. Software life does not get much better than that! We could not be more pleased with options within the program to customize forms and if I just have to have it the way I want to see it, Caterease is willing to create custom forms to make me happy.

Overall, my experience was positive. It does have many capabilities. However, we were ready for a change.

It was fairly easy to use from a brand new user standpoint. Our back of house staff liked it for recipe and menu complilation.

Sometimes it began to feel clunky and antiquated.

Caterease programming is well put together and streamlined for the functionality of day to day operations. Although the instructional videos cover every aspect and come across as intimidating, the support desk is always available for help and guidance and pleased to be there to assist. They all take the time to explain and instruct by utilizing a support link to share screens so they can control the mouse and teach the proper steps while you are sitting at your desk. It's a virtual private lesson!