Guest Count Change Checklist for Venues (Free, Printable)

The checklist

Tick boxes as you go, or print it for the office wall. Printing prints only the sheet.

Guest count change checklist

One sheet per change

myvenuehq.com/guest-count-change-checklist

The change

Event and date
Count was
Count is now
Requested by, and when
Before the guarantee deadline?: Yes / No

Kitchen and bar

They cook and pour to the number. If they don’t hear, the count on the plate is wrong.

New total covers, and the new count for each entrée. The entrées must add up to the new total.
Dietary and allergy counts, rechecked against the new guest list rather than adjusted by guesswork.
Whether the change lands before or after your food order goes to suppliers.
Vendor meals, if the number of vendors changed too.
Toast pours and any per-head bar package quantities.

Room setup

The crew builds from the floor plan, so the drawing has to change with the count.

Tables needed at your seats per table, and which tables come in or out.
Chairs, place settings, linens, napkins and glassware.
The floor plan redrawn, keeping aisles clear: about 60 inches between round tables.
The new count checked against the room’s capacity limit.
Any outside rental company told if chairs, tables or linens come from them.
Servers and bartenders scheduled for the new count.

The BEO

It’s the copy every department reads on the day. An old version on the kitchen wall undoes everything above.

Guaranteed count, entrée split and table count updated.
Revised floor plan attached.
Version number raised, with the date and what changed.
Sent again to kitchen, bar, setup crew and the event captain.
Client approval on the revised version, if your process asks for it.

Billing

Per-person charges move with the count, and so can the rules in the contract.

Per-person food and bar charges recalculated, then service charge and tax on the new subtotal.
Whether the change came before or after the guarantee deadline in the contract.
If the contract bills the guarantee or the actual count, whichever is higher, which one applies.
Any food and beverage minimum still met if the count went down.
Balance due recalculated and a revised invoice sent.

Updated by, and date

Revised BEO version

Tables and billing, worked out

Put in the old and new counts. It tells you how many tables the room needs now and how much the bill moves. It assumes every guest sits at a table of the same size, so add a head table or sweetheart table yourself.

20 fewer guests

Tables: 10, down from 12

Bill changes by −$1,040.00

Why counts go wrong

The number changes in an email to one person, and the other three find out on the day. Usually it’s the floor plan: the count drops from 120 to 100, the kitchen plates for 100, the crew still sets 12 tables of 10, and two empty tables sit in the middle of the photos. Redraw the room in the free floor plan maker, re-seat guests with the free seating chart maker the same day the number moves, and recalculate your bar order and the food with the catering calculator for the new count.

One count change, four stops: 120 guests down to 100

Guest count 120 → 100 20 fewer guests
BEO Kitchen plates 100 A new version number
Floor plan 12 tables → 10 Tables of 10, no empty ones
Invoice −$1,040 At $52 a guest

The worked example from the calculator above. Done when the BEO carries its new version number.

Treat every count change as one job with four stops, and don’t call it done until the BEO carries a new version number. If you don’t have a BEO yet, start with our BEO guide or the free BEO template.