Collecting dietary requirements — Help

Dietary collection in 1pm turns "how many vegans are we catering for?" into a number you can read off the screen. Turn it on for an event and every guest and crew member can pick their requirements from a list, either on their own share link or on their row in your attendee list. The BEO then shows an auto-totalled breakdown for the kitchen, and the run of show print carries a per-guest list staff can work from on the day.

This article covers setting up your dietary options, turning collection on for an event, how attendees answer, reading the totals on the BEO, and what prints for the kitchen.

Your dietary options list

Dietary requirements come from one shared list, not a per-event set. Find it under Contacts > Dietary options (/Contacts/Dietaries). Add the requirements your guests and crew pick from: gluten free, vegan, vegetarian, dairy free, halal, and so on.

One list across all your events is deliberate. It means the same vocabulary totals consistently from one event to the next, so "12 gluten free" means the same thing every time and you're not re-typing options for each event.

A few behaviours worth knowing:

Drag to reorder. The order here is the order attendees see when they pick, so put the common ones near the top.
Renaming updates everywhere, including on events you've already collected. Fix a typo once and it's fixed across the board.
Archiving hides an option from new selections but keeps the ones already made. Past events still total correctly; the option just stops appearing for new answers. Archive rather than delete when an option is in use.

Turning collection on for an event

Dietary collection is off by default and set per event, independent of RSVP. Open the event, click the pencil to edit it, and find the "Collect dietaries" option in the collection block (alongside Collect RSVPs and Collect attendee notes). Tick it and save.

That switches on a dietary picker in two places: on each guest's and crew member's share link, and on their row in your planner attendee list. From then on, anyone can record their requirements and the totals start building.

How requirements get recorded

There are two ways an answer gets in:

The attendee answers from their share link. A "Dietary requirements" card appears on their link where they tick what applies, add an allergy note, or confirm they have none. There's a separate crew-side article on this.
You record it for them on the planner. Expand a guest's or crew member's row in the attendee list and you'll find the same options plus an allergies note, so you can enter what someone told you by phone or in person.

Either way feeds the same record, and the planner list refreshes live as people submit from their links.

Every answer also has a free-text "Allergies / specifics" note that goes straight to the kitchen block on the BEO. That's where a severe allergy belongs ("severe nut allergy", "coeliac"), because it can't be reduced to a tick box.

Three states: has requirements, none, or no reply

1pm distinguishes three things, which is what makes the totals trustworthy:

Has requirements — they picked one or more options, or left an allergy note. A note on its own still counts as a requirement.
Confirmed none — they actively said they have no dietary requirements. This is different from silence.
No reply yet — they haven't answered at all. These are the people to chase.

The explicit "I have no dietary requirements" answer is what lets you tell "we're all good, nobody's a vegan" from "half the list hasn't replied". Don't read a blank as "none".

Reading the totals on the BEO

Open the event's BEO (the function sheet) and, when collection is on, a "Dietary totals" block sits near the top: an auto-totalled breakdown like "12 gluten free, 6 vegan", plus a count of how many have confirmed no requirements. The totals are a snapshot taken when you open the BEO; reopen it to recompute after more people answer.

The free-text dietary summary field on the BEO is separate and stays. Use it for specifics the totals can't carry, like "no peanuts on table 4" or "the bride is coeliac".

What prints for the kitchen

The run of show and BEO print includes a "By guest" list: one row per attendee who has a requirement, each with an empty square box staff can use however suits them (label the seat, tick it off as plates go out). Rows are sorted by seat where you've assigned table and seat numbers, with seatless attendees at the bottom. It prints in full black so it survives a photocopy.

This per-guest detail always shows on your own planner BEO and print. To put it in a kitchen or venue staff member's own printout, turn on "Full kitchen BEO" in their contact record. That's the switch that lets the people actually plating the food see who needs what, by seat.

A privacy note

Dietary totals are just numbers, but the per-guest list and the allergy notes name people. Those named details appear on your planner BEO and print, and on the printout of any contact you've given Full kitchen BEO access to, because the kitchen genuinely needs them to plate safely. They don't appear on ordinary crew links or the public read-only run of show. If you're handing a printout to someone who doesn't need the named detail, hand them a version without kitchen BEO access.