We conclude our discussion on the idea that Food &Beverage (F&B) is a budget challenge because there are several meals; each meal is composed of several parts; each part has several variables.
Now we will now look at the some variables of each F&B event.
Packages
Venues typically offer “packages” where multiple F&B event costs are combined and determined by a per-person rate. A typical meeting package might combine a continental breakfast, morning break and afternoon break rather than estimating costs based consumption and/or cost-per-quantity methods.
Buffet/Plated
Many factors, including budget, influence the option you choose for a lunch or dinner. Buffets are less expensive but may not be conducive to programming or space. Plated meals are a better option if there is a speaker or presentation during the meal or if time is a factor.
Per Person or By Tray
Purchasing based on per person in which a venue provides sufficient quantity for the number of attendees might be more expensive but there are certain advantages to being able to anticipate the cost and not worry about ordering too much (or too little). For example, you might be better off ordering a cheese tray or vegetable crudités based on anticipated attendance rather than trying to estimate how many trays would be sufficient.
Consumption
Ordering based on actual use is a challenge to estimate for budget purposes because we simply do not know how much people will consume. If we ordered a break as part of a package we estimate the number of people and build a budget around that. Then we would not care if everyone chose bottled water and a granola bar or if half chose coffee and a bag of pretzels. When ordering based on consumption your job of estimating increases in importance, especially if there are different costs per item. Now for that same break it suddenly matters that everyone chose a $3 bottle of water and a $2granola bar instead of half opting for the $40/gallon cup of coffee and the $1 bag of pretzels.
Service
Of course you would expect to serve hors d’oeuvres at a reception but how they are served is another budgetary variable. While passed hors d’oeuvres can upgrade a reception and is particularly helpful when attendees are likely to be more engaged in discussions (versus networking events where a trip to the food station allows people to mingle) there is an additional expense because more servers are needed to pass the trays.
And these are just a handful of F&B variables that must be determined.
As we have tried to demonstrate establishing a good estimate for Food and Beverage requires a lot of work on the back pages of the budget. To facilitate better budget estimation establish each F&B event as its own sub-total. As we have discussed today, the sub-total approach can be advantageous to accommodate the numerous variables with each of the parts of an F&B event.
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