Placing an order

Placing a catering order takes you through a short series of steps: choosing an occasion, building your menu, providing event details, letting the caterer know about dietary needs, and reviewing your order before you send it off. This article walks through each step.

1. Choose an occasion

When you start a new order, you'll see Create a new catering order with the prompt "Select an occasion below and we'll guide you through the rest." Your caterer sets up one or more occasion types (for example, a regular canteen order versus a special event form), each shown as a tile with a name and description. Select the occasion that matches what you're ordering for.

If you aren't logged in yet, you'll be asked to log in before you can go any further — right after choosing an occasion, or as soon as you open the ordering page if your caterer hasn't set up any occasions for this site.

2. Build your menu

Next you'll see Let's build your perfect menu — "Select items from each category to build up your cart." Categories are listed on one side, items in the middle, and your cart on the other side (on a phone, tap View Cart at the bottom of the screen instead).

For each item you add, you can adjust the quantity using the plus and minus buttons, or type a number directly. Some items have a minimum order quantity set by the caterer — if so, the quantity won't go below that minimum.

Some occasions have a minimum spend. If your cart subtotal is below it, you'll see a message telling you how much more to add, and the Continue button stays disabled until you reach it.

When you're happy with your cart, select Continue.

3. Tell us about your event

The next step is Tell us about your event — "We'll need a few details to get started." Depending on how your caterer has configured this occasion, you may see some or all of the following fields (your caterer chooses which are shown, which are required, and what order they appear in):

Event Name — always required.
Event Description — what the occasion is for.
Event Date — if the occasion has a cut-off time, you'll see a note such as "Orders must be placed at least [X] before the event," and you won't be able to pick a date/time that falls inside that window.
Expected Attendees — must be at least 1.
Site Location — shown only if your school has more than one location; you'll pick from a list.
Event Location — a free-text field for the room, area, or address.
Event Start Time
Food Arrival Time and Food Collection Time — if your caterer has turned these on.

If your school has cost centres set up, you'll also see a Billing & Approval section where you choose a Cost Centre and, if that cost centre has approvers assigned, an Approver.

Select Back to return to your menu, or Continue (or Review Order, if this is the last step before review) to proceed.

4. Dietary requirements

On the Help us accommodate everyone's allergies and dietary needs step, you add each guest who has a requirement, so the kitchen knows exactly what each person needs. You only need to add guests with requirements; everyone else is assumed to have none.

Select Add guest.
Enter the guest's Name.
Choose any Allergens (for example, Peanut, Egg, Milk, Wheat, Crustacean) and Dietaries (for example, Vegetarian, Vegan, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free) from the drop-down lists.
Use Other requirements for anything that isn't in the lists, such as "No pork" or "Low FODMAP".
Select Save guest. Each guest needs at least one allergen, dietary, or other requirement.

Use the edit and remove icons next to a guest to change or delete them before you submit.

Anything else we should know? — a free-text field for special preparation needs, cross-contamination concerns, or other requests. Your caterer decides whether this note is optional, required, or not shown at all for a given occasion.

This step only appears if your caterer has it turned on for the occasion you selected.

5. Additional questions (if applicable)

Some occasions include an extra step with questions specific to that occasion — your caterer names this step and chooses what to ask. Questions can appear as short answer text, longer paragraph text, drop-down or multi-select lists, single or multiple choice options, or date/time pickers. Each question may be marked optional or required.

6. Review and submit

The final step, Almost there! Let's review your order, shows everything you've entered:

Event details
Billing & approval (if applicable)
Dietary requirements (if that step was shown)
Answers to any additional questions (if that step was shown)
Your order items, with subtotal, GST, and total

Check everything looks right, then select Submit Order. You can still select Back to make changes before submitting.

Leaving before you finish

If you navigate away or select Discard partway through, you'll be asked to confirm — discarding clears your selected items and event details, and this can't be undone.