Catering Billing Software with GST & Per-Plate Pricing.

Take the Sharma wedding. The contract guarantees 450 plates at Rs 900. On the night 486 guests eat, so you bill 486 and plates come to Rs 4,37,400. Two live counters at Rs 22,000 add Rs 44,000, and stewards, tableware and transport add Rs 48,000. Taxable value is Rs 5,29,400. GST at 5% is Rs 26,470, split into Rs 13,235 CGST and Rs 13,235 SGST, so the invoice total is Rs 5,55,870. Every step is arithmetic, and every step is a place where a tired accountant at 1 am can type the wrong plate count. The calculator in the workbook on this page rebuilds this bill from six inputs so you can check yours.

Everything on that bill sits under one 5% supply because staff, tableware and transport are part of the outdoor catering service. Décor, tent, sound or a DJ that you resell are different services at 18%, and they belong on separate lines with their own tax columns. If the client hires those vendors directly, they never touch your invoice. The rate follows what you supply and where. At specified premises, meaning hotels that provided accommodation above Rs 7,500 per unit per day in the previous year or opted in, catering is 18% with credit, and Notification 08/2025 reworded that definition. An outdoor caterer at an ordinary venue cannot choose 18% to claim credit. An Authority for Advance Ruling has said as much, and the 5% rate carries no input credit on your gas, vehicles or kitchen equipment.

Advances are where most caterer bills go wrong. Under Rule 50 you issue a receipt voucher when money arrives, and GST on services falls due on receipt, so the Rs 1,50,000 token and the Rs 1,00,000 second payment in our example each need a voucher. The usual working for an advance that already includes GST is amount times 5 divided by 105. Rs 2,50,000 of advances carries about Rs 11,905 of tax. On the final invoice you show the advances as adjustments, and only the rest of the tax, Rs 14,565, is new. Ask your CA how to handle an advance that is later refunded or forfeited, because that case is not settled by a formula.

If a Delhi caterer serves a Jaipur wedding, the place of supply for catering is generally where the service is performed, so the invoice carries IGST at 5% in one line instead of CGST and SGST. The same Sharma invoice moved to Jaipur still totals Rs 5,55,870, but the tax lines and the return entries differ. Where the client is a company registered in another state and books an event service, the place of supply can follow the client's location instead. Confirm the rule with your CA before your first inter-state event, because the wrong choice means tax paid to the wrong state.

Corporate and firm clients usually deduct TDS under section 194C, which became section 393(1) of the Income-tax Act 2025 from 1 April 2026. The rate follows you as the payee: 1% if you are an individual or HUF, 2% if you are a firm or company. It applies when a single payment goes beyond Rs 30,000 or the year's total goes beyond Rs 1,00,000, and when GST is shown separately the base is the value before GST. On our invoice that is 2% of Rs 5,29,400, or Rs 10,588. With Rs 2,50,000 already received, the client owes Rs 2,95,282 on the balance. Your bank credit will be short by exactly that TDS, which is why the month register in the workbook has a column for it. Match it to Form 26AS, or you will chase a client for money that has gone to the government.

E-invoicing applies once turnover in any year since 2017-18 has gone beyond Rs 5 crore, and since 1 April 2025 businesses at Rs 10 crore or more must report an invoice to the portal within 30 days of its date. Most event caterers sit well below Rs 5 crore, but a corporate client's finance team may ask, so know where you stand. The thresholds sheet answers it from your turnover. The same sheet checks your FSSAI licence type, and remember that every bill, cash memo and invoice needs the 14-digit licence number printed on it.

UPI has a cost rule from 15 October 2026 that changes how you quote collection. Under the Ministry of Finance and NPCI FAQs published in September 2026, person-to-merchant UPI payments above Rs 2,000 carry a merchant discount rate of 0.4%, capped at Rs 300, and the cap is reached at Rs 75,000. Merchants who receive up to Rs 1 lakh a month through UPI QR are exempt, UPI stays free for the customer, and bank transfers by NEFT, RTGS or IMPS carry no MDR. For a caterer that means the Rs 2,95,282 balance in our example would cost at most Rs 300 if it arrived as one UPI payment, and nothing if the client sent it by NEFT or RTGS. A QR on the invoice still sends the money straight to your bank account, but it does not make the payment free for you. Check with your bank how the charge reaches you, and tell corporate clients that large balances are better sent by bank transfer.

Search results for 'catering billing software free' are mostly general invoicing apps. They issue a tax invoice well and then stop: no minimum guarantee, no live counter lines, no advance voucher adjustment, no TDS line. If you raise fewer than 10 invoices a month and one person types them, a free invoicing app or the workbook may be enough. Once advances and corporate clients are regular, the hours spent correcting invoices are the real price of free. Kaliquid's catering billing covers the lines above, adjusts advance vouchers on the final bill and exports to Tally Prime. It does not replace your CA's judgement on treatment, and it will not decide a place-of-supply question for you.