Budget tool · Free to use
Food and beverage minimum calculator: will you meet it?
Enter the minimum from your contract, your guest count and your per-guest prices, and see whether the order meets it, the shortfall if not, and what would close the gap.
How do you know if you will meet a food and beverage minimum?
Multiply your per-guest food and drink prices by your guest count, add anything priced as a total, and compare the result with the minimum in your contract. If the order is lower, the difference is the shortfall. Check whether your contract counts the service charge and tax toward the minimum, since that changes the answer.
Your entries are kept in this browser so they are here when you come back. Clear entries removes them from this browser. They are not uploaded unless you add them to your planner. This calculator uses USD and does not read your contract.
The calculation, in plain sight
- Order = (food per guest + bar per guest) × guests + any other food and drink you enter.
- Counted toward the minimum = the order, or the order plus its service charge and tax, as you choose.
- Shortfall = minimum − counted, and 0 when the order meets the minimum.
- Service charge and tax = each rate × its base (the order, or the order plus the shortfall), each rounded once to the nearest cent; tax includes the service charge when you say it is taxed. When the minimum counts the charges, they are worked out on the order and the shortfall is added as it stands.
- Guests that would meet it = the smallest count at the same per-guest prices whose order is counted at the minimum or more. Per-guest spend that would meet it = the smallest per-guest food and drink amount, to the cent, that does the same at your guest count.
How this is calculated, beside the other free tools
Illustrative example — not a customer result
For the labeled example, take a $15,000 minimum, 100 guests, food at $85 and a bar at $35 per guest: an order of $12,000, $3,000 short. With the charges worked out on the minimum, a 20% service charge is $3,000 and 8% tax on $18,000 is $1,440, for a total of $19,440. With the charges on the order instead, they are $2,400 and $1,152, for $18,552. At the same prices, 125 guests would meet the minimum, or $150.00 per guest at 100 guests. If the contract counts the charges toward the minimum, the same order counts as $15,552 and meets it.
Where this model stops
Your contract decides what counts toward the minimum, how a shortfall is billed, and whether a service charge or tax applies to it. The calculator asks rather than assumes, and does not decide any of them. Ask the venue or caterer in writing if the contract does not say.
It applies one service charge rate and one tax rate. It does not model items that do not count toward the minimum, a minimum that changes by date or room, discounts or per-item rounding. To see what a ++ menu price comes to, use the ++ pricing calculator. The result is arithmetic on your inputs, not a quote.
Common questions
How do you calculate a food and beverage minimum shortfall?
Add up your food and drink order: the per-guest prices times your guests, plus anything priced as a total. Subtract that from the minimum. If the order is lower, the difference is the shortfall; if it is the same or higher, there is none.
Do the service charge and tax count toward the minimum?
That depends on your contract. A contract may measure the minimum on food and drink alone, or count the service charge and tax toward it. Read the minimum clause, ask the venue in writing if it is unclear, and choose that answer in the calculator; it shows the difference.
What happens if you do not meet the minimum?
Your contract says. It may bill the shortfall as its own line, as a room fee or by another name, and it may or may not add a service charge or tax to it. The calculator lets you choose whether the charges are worked out on the order or on the minimum.
How many guests do I need to meet the minimum?
Enter your per-guest prices and current count, and the calculator shows the smallest guest count at the same prices that would meet the minimum, and the per-guest spend that would meet it at your current count.
Do the example figures reflect real minimums or prices?
No. The example figures are invented illustrations, not research about minimums, prices or tax rates. Replace them with the figures in your own contract.