Event Format / Miscellaneous Information: A Tabbed Update Slideover for PAX, Contacts, Timeline, Tables and Event Details

For years, the Event Format / Miscellaneous Information section on a quote has been a single rich text field. You'd type the day's timing, the dietary requirements, the bridal party, the table layout and everything else into one block. Useful, but unstructured — and it never made it onto the chef docket in any organised way.

We've rebuilt this section as a seven-tab update slideover that captures the most common pieces of event detail in their own structured tabs. Your existing free text isn't going anywhere — it now lives under the Notes tab — but going forward you have proper inputs for the data you've been jamming into prose.

Where to Find It

The Event Format section does not appear on page 1 of the order create flow. It only shows up on the quote show page — the page you land on after the order has been created and you're filling in the detail of it.

Scroll down past the menu items on the quote show page and you'll see the EVENT FORMAT / MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION header with an Update button next to it. Click that button and the new slideover opens.

Why not on page 1? Page 1 is for the bare bones: who, when, where, what's being delivered. Event format details are the kind of thing you fill in after the menu is locked, often after a planning call with the customer. Putting it on page 1 made the create flow feel heavier than it needed to. The Update button on the show page keeps it visible exactly where you need it.

The Seven Tabs

1. PAX

Total guests, plus an optional breakdown (adults, kids, staff, vendors, other) and an additional evening guest count for events with a separate evening reception. There's a live mismatch warning if the breakdown numbers don't add up to the total — non-blocking, just a quiet "Breakdown totals 34 — over by 4" message under the inputs.

A Show on chef docket toggle in the top right controls whether the PAX line appears on the chef docket. When you first fill in PAX it's ticked by default.

2. Important Contacts

A list of role + name + phone + email rows for the key people on the day — best man, maid of honour, MC, venue coordinator, photographer, or whatever else the event needs. Drag to reorder, blank rows are silently dropped on save.

3. Timeline

Start time + duration + description rows for the day's itinerary. Each row can optionally appear on the chef docket — useful for the canapé and dinner service times — and you can flip the whole timeline onto the docket with a single switch.

Timeline templates live under Settings → Templates → Timeline. Save a standard wedding day timeline once, then load it onto a new order from a dropdown at the top of the tab. The templates are per-account and reusable.

4. Room / Table Setup

A rich-text general notes field at the top for free-form seating notes ("Head table: Mary, Sandra, Billy Bob (GF). Bridal party seated nearest entrance.") — with a template dropdown so you can load a standard layout you've saved once — plus a row-based breakdown of each table type with name, seats, and an optional per-row description for things like "head table on the stage" or "round 4 — kids".

Per-tab chef docket toggle — turn it on and the whole room / table setup flows through to the kitchen.

5. Event Details

A list of question + answer pairs. Useful for the things customers always ask or you always need to ask them: "Will guests go straight to ceremony? — NO", "Would you like us to MC? — NO", "Is wedding cake to be served with evening buffet? — YES".

Manage your default questions once at Settings → Templates → Event details. Then on every order's Event Details tab, you'll see those default questions at the top as tick-the-box-to-include rows with an answer field next to them. Tick the questions that apply to this event, type the answer, and ignore the rest. Below the templates there's a Custom Questions section where you can add one-off questions inline.

6. Notes

The original rich text field, unchanged. Anything you'd previously typed into the Event Format / Miscellaneous Information field is preserved and lives under this tab. It hasn't been migrated, restructured, or split out — it sits exactly where you left it.

For new events you may still want to use the Notes tab for anything that doesn't fit one of the structured tabs — things like custom instructions, special allergies, or anything else freeform.

7. Exclusions

A simple list of "what's not included" — staff, drinks, cake-cutting, cleanup, whatever isn't part of the quoted package. Manage reusable defaults at Settings → Templates → Exclusions, tick the ones that apply to this event, and add one-off custom lines inline.

Where It Renders

Everything you enter shows up in three places:

• The quote show page — the same EVENT FORMAT section, with all the structured data rendered neatly under headed sub-sections (Guest numbers, Important contacts, Event details, Timeline, Room / Table setup, Notes).
• The customer's quote view (and PDF) — the same data renders inside the existing Event Format block on every quote template. It picks up the template's typography so it still looks like part of the quote.
• The chef docket PDF — only the bits you've explicitly flagged. PAX, room / table setup, timeline (per-row or whole-tab) and event details each have their own "Show on chef docket" toggle. Important Contacts intentionally isn't on the docket — it's a front-of-house concern.

Templates Save You Time

Several tabs have a template system so you can set up your defaults once and reuse them:

• Timeline templates — full reusable timelines (e.g. "Standard wedding", "Corporate lunch"). Loading one replaces the current timeline.
• Event details default questions — a single flat list of questions your team asks every customer. They appear as ticking-boxes on every order.

Both live in the same Templates UI as your existing Commentary and Terms templates, with a new "Event format / miscellaneous information" group in the sidebar.

In Short

The Event Format section is now structured where it makes sense and free-form where it doesn't. Hit Update on the quote show page, fill in the tabs that apply to the event, and the right data flows through to the customer's quote and the chef docket without you having to type it twice or fish it out of a paragraph.

Your existing data is right where you left it — under the Notes tab.