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The meeting Management Blog

Meeting catering that
moves when the
meeting moves

Order breakfast, lunch and coffee in the same Outlook invite as the room. When the meeting moves, the order moves with it. When it is canceled, the kitchen is told.
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One invite, one meeting

Catering belongs to the meeting, not to an email thread

Too often, meeting catering still runs on emails and spreadsheets. The organizer writes to the kitchen, the meeting moves to 11:00, and nobody tells the kitchen. Breakfast for 12 arrives at 10:00 in an empty room. AskCody puts the order in the meeting itself: the organizer orders in the Outlook invite, the kitchen sees every order with its room, time, items and quantities, and when the meeting moves or is canceled, the order follows without anyone writing a word.

A catering order through one working day. At 08:00 the organizer adds breakfast for 12 to the Outlook invite for a board meeting at 10:00 in Meeting Room 5. The kitchen sees the order with its room, time and quantities and accepts it at 08:05. At 09:10 the meeting moves to 11:00 in Outlook, and the breakfast order moves with it, with no email to the kitchen. The kitchen readies the breakfast within the preparation deadline and serves it at 11:00 as the meeting starts. At 12:30 another meeting, a team workshop, is canceled, and its coffee order is canceled and the kitchen notified. At month end, every settled order sits in one report with its cost center.

Order in the Outlook invite

How do you order catering for a meeting in Outlook?

Open the meeting in Outlook and choose the AskCody Services add-in, next to AskCody Bookings and AskCody Visitors. Pick the kitchen or caterer, choose the items and quantities, and set when they should arrive: before, during or after the meeting. Add a comment for the kitchen, such as dietary needs, and send the invite as usual.

One meeting can carry several orders, for example lunch at 12:30 and coffee and cake at 14:00. The add-in works in the new Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac and Outlook on the web.

See how to order catering in Outlook

An organizer plans a meeting in the Outlook invite and opens the AskCody Services add-in, next to AskCody Bookings and AskCody Visitors. Two orders are added to the same meeting: lunch for 4 at 12:30 and coffee and cake for 4 at 14:00, with a comment to the kitchen about one vegetarian and one gluten free. In the AskCody portal, the kitchen sees both orders with the meeting, the room and the time, and accepts them. When the meeting is moved or canceled, the orders follow the meeting.
The kitchen's day

Your kitchen sees every order with its meeting

Kitchens, canteens and caterers work from one live overview in the AskCody Services Management Portal: what to deliver, in what quantities, to which room and at what time. Tabs for today, tomorrow, pending and readied orders turn the day into a checklist.

Accept or reject each order, or switch on auto-accept so orders are accepted without a manual step. Print every order, or a compact list for the round, and create orders on behalf of employees who call or email.

Learn how the Services Management Portal works

The AskCody Services Management Portal listing today's catering requests with meeting, requester, delivery location and time, one request opened to show the ordered items and quantities
Deadlines that hold

Every order gives the kitchen the time it needs

Every kitchen needs time to prepare. AskCody lets you set it once, and every order respects it.

  • Opening days per kitchen or caterer, so nothing is ordered for a day the kitchen is closed.
  • A preparation deadline per provider, and a longer one for items that need it, like a hot lunch for 40.
  • Buffer time before and after meetings with services, so there is time to set up and clear away between two meetings in the same room.

Notes for the kitchen

Dietary needs or a late arrival go in the comment on the order, so the kitchen reads them with the order itself.

Recurring meetings

Weekly team meetings get their catering too. Order services for the occurrences that need them, in Outlook or in the Services Management Portal.

How preparation deadlines work

For finance

Every catering order can carry its cost center

Cost centers, VAT and your own fields travel with each order, from the Outlook invite to the kitchen and on to finance. Add the fields your organization needs, for example a project code or a client matter number, as text, number, checkbox or drop-down fields.

At month end, Finance and Reports gives you a condensed or detailed report of every settled order for the period, available as CSV for your ERP system, or through the AskCody Services API.

Read how cost centers work in AskCody

The AskCody Services add-in in an Outlook meeting invite with a required Client Matter Number field and a cost center on the catering order
When plans change

What happens to the catering order when a meeting is moved or canceled?

Meetings move all the time. Because the order lives in the meeting, the kitchen always works from the current plan.

  • Move the meeting in Outlook, and the order moves with it, to the new time and room.
  • Cancel the meeting, and the order is canceled. The kitchen and the organizer are notified.
  • If the kitchen has already readied the order, the deadline has passed, or the new room is not served by that kitchen, the order is not changed silently: it is detached and the organizer is told, so a person decides.

One system, not two

The order is tied to the meeting in Microsoft Exchange, so there is no separate catering system to retype into and nothing to keep in sync. Built into Outlook and Exchange, so every Microsoft Teams meeting gets the right room, services and visitor setup, with no extra app to deploy.

Included in the AskCody Platform

Meeting catering is part of the AskCody Platform, from $5,149 per year, including 1 reception, 5 meeting rooms and 10 workspaces. See pricing

Ordering room setup or AV too? Same invite, same overview. See facilities services for meetings.

When a meeting moves in Outlook, the catering order follows to the new time and room. When it is canceled, the order is canceled and the kitchen and organizer are notified. If the order was already readied, the deadline has passed or the new room is not served, the order is detached and the organizer decides.

Understand demand

See what your kitchen delivers, and when

Insights for Services shows requests per provider split by completed, canceled and rejected, requests over time and the most requested items, with up to 13 months of data. Plan staffing and menus from what meetings actually order.

Combine it with insights on bookings and visitors to see the whole meeting journey, from the invite to the room to the tray on the table.

Discover AskCody Insights and Analytics

AskCody Services Insights with key figures for catering requests, a chart of service requests per provider split by completed, canceled and rejected, and requests over time

Made to empower you

Hear how conference services teams, IT and kitchens run catering with AskCody
Henry Chace, CIO, Burns & Levinson
Henry ChaceCIO

Henry needs us to be user-friendly

"The pilot helped us understand just how much time we could give back to the attorneys and assistants and the price of that time. The POC helped us actively compare the cost of the solution, and the ease it was bringing to the cumbersome process we had before. My best advice is to try it. You will see quickly that the ease of use, ease of management, and overall time savings are worth it."

Burns & Levinson logo

 

Jesper Imhof Rosendahl, IT Project Manager, Skanderborg Municipality
Jesper Imhof RosendahlIT Project Manager

Jesper needs us to speed up booking processes

“AskCody's platform gives us an easy overview of available rooms, as well as quick access to book catering for our meetings. Without AskCody, booking premises are ineffective which results in a large waste of resources."

Read the Skanderborg Municipality case study

Skanderborg Municipality logo

 

Susann Holloway, Conference Services Manager, Eversheds Sutherland
Susann HollowayConference Services Manager

Susann needs us to support productivity

"We're finding that our secretaries may have been managing two or three attorneys and partners before. Now they're managing maybe five or six. It's only possible to manage that increased workload because they can handle everything in one spot with AskCody. "

Read the Eversheds Sutherland case study

Eversheds Sutherland logo
 

Common questions about
meeting catering in AskCody

How do I order catering for a meeting in Outlook?

Open the meeting in Outlook and choose the AskCody Services add-in. Pick the kitchen or caterer, choose the items and quantities, set when they should be delivered (before, during or after the meeting) and add a comment if needed. Send the invite as usual, and the order goes to the kitchen with the meeting, the room and the time.

The add-in works in the new Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac and Outlook on the web. See the step-by-step guide.
What happens to a catering order when the meeting is moved or canceled?

The order follows the meeting. Move the meeting in Outlook and the order moves to the new time and room. Cancel the meeting and the order is canceled, and both the kitchen and the organizer are notified.

If the order has already been readied, the preparation deadline has passed, or the new room is not served by that kitchen, AskCody detaches the order instead of changing it silently, and notifies the organizer. See all Services notifications.
How do kitchens and caterers work with AskCody?

Each kitchen, canteen or caterer is set up as a service provider with its own menu items, rooms, opening days and team members. They work in the AskCody Services Management Portal, with tabs for today, tomorrow, pending, accepted, readied and completed orders.

Providers accept or reject orders, or use auto-accept, print delivery lists and create orders on behalf of employees.
Can I order catering for a recurring meeting?

Yes. You can request services for recurring meetings and choose the occurrences that need catering, in Outlook or directly in the Services Management Portal. See how it works.
How are meeting catering costs allocated to departments and cost centers?

Every order can carry a cost center, and cost center groups control who sees which cost centers. Add your own custom properties, such as a project code or client matter number, as text, number, checkbox or drop-down fields.

Finance and Reports turns settled orders into condensed or detailed CSV reports for the period, and the AskCody Services API can deliver the same data to your ERP system.
How do preparation deadlines and opening days work?

Each provider has opening days and a preparation deadline, and individual items can have a longer deadline of their own. Item deadlines still respect the opening days, so a five-day deadline over a weekend becomes seven days. Read about preparation deadlines.
Can I control who can order catering, and in which rooms?

Yes. The AskCody add-ins are deployed to the users or groups you define in Microsoft Entra ID, and each provider serves only the rooms you add to it, so organizers only see the catering available for their room.
How much does meeting catering with AskCody cost?

Meeting catering is part of the AskCody Platform, from $5,149 per year, including 1 reception, 5 meeting rooms and 10 workspaces, with all features included. See pricing.
Does AskCody integrate with both Outlook and Microsoft 365? And what about Teams?

Yes, natively.

AskCody is natively integrated with Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft 365 and Outlook. There are no manual processes, outdated third-party tools, unintegrated SharePoint sites or paper-based booking. Everything works inside the familiar Outlook interface, built on modern integrations into Exchange and on Microsoft Azure.

And Microsoft Teams? AskCody is built into Outlook and Exchange, so every Microsoft Teams meeting gets the right room, services and visitor setup, with no extra app to deploy.

Meetings always stay in Microsoft Exchange: no middle layer and no duplicate system of record. See how AskCody integrates with Microsoft 365.

See meeting catering in your own Outlook

Book a demo and see how the order, the room and the kitchen come together in one meeting invite. Meeting catering is included in the AskCody Platform, from $5,149 per year.
Book a meeting catering demo