A restaurant schedule usually starts with a daypart. A catering roster starts with a commitment: one venue, one guest window, one load-in, and one finish. If the sheet only records 15:00-21:00 service, the paid setup and cleanup work disappears before the manager has checked the week.
Five role layers make the event reviewable
Separate setup, kitchen, bar, service, and cleanup even when one employee moves between two of them. Name the event lead as its own responsibility. The role column is not a job-description exercise; it lets the manager see whether the event has access, food, beverage, guest, and close ownership before counting heads.
- Setup: venue access, tables, equipment, and room readiness.
- Kitchen: prep, finishing, holding, service support, and kitchen close.
- Bar: stock, setup, service, countback, and secure return.
- Service: guest handoff, table or passed service, and reset.
- Cleanup: dish, waste, pack-down, load-out, and equipment return.
The example includes two Saturday events on purpose
The garden wedding and gallery reception overlap as events, but no employee appears on both Saturday rosters. That is the correct first pass. If Maya were added to the gallery at 16:00 while her wedding assignment finishes at 22:00, the conflict check would flag the overlap even though the two venue cards look individually complete.
Time overlap is only the mechanical check. Add travel, parking, equipment return, breaks, and a realistic reset buffer before approving two non-overlapping assignments. Qualifications also matter: an empty bar lead role cannot be solved by moving any free employee into the row.
Connect the event roster to the operating week
Catering staff may also work the dining room, prep kitchen, bakery, or cafe. Once the event assignment is approved, enter its full arrival-to-finish window in the restaurant schedule maker so normal shifts and event work contribute to the same employee total. Use the roster for venue detail and the weekly schedule for the person-level week.
The downloadable Restaurant Weekly Operations Pack workbook keeps the staff schedule, opening and closing checklist, catering event roster, tip handoff, and payroll handoff as five separate sheets. The printable PDF pack provides the same five blank operating records for pen-and-paper use.
Replace the sample with a real event in seven passes
- Add the real date, venue, guest window, access time, and named event lead.
- Write the minimum role coverage before assigning employees.
- Add arrival and finish around the event, including load-in and return work.
- Calculate planned hours from arrival to finish for every assignment.
- Compare each employee against other restaurant and catering work that week.
- Check same-day assignments for time, travel, reset, and qualification conflicts.
- After the event, preserve the published plan and record actual worked time separately for payroll review.