Export Dietary and Access Counts for Caterers

Your RSVP form let guests type anything in the food box: "veggie", "no nuts pls", "gluten free (coeliac)", "non-veg", "carries EpiPen". The caterer wants a number per diet by Thursday, and counting by hand is how a severe allergy gets lost between row 31 and row 32. Dietary and Access Summary reads the typed notes in your guest list and turns them into counts, flags the safety-critical ones and produces a one-page sheet for the kitchen and a separate list for the venue.

The principle behind it is respectful as well as practical: food and access needs are personal data. The sheet shows counts by default, and names only when you tick the box, because the kitchen needs names only if it labels individual meals.

Where the data comes from

Each guest in Guest List Tracker has two typed fields: Dietary and Access. The summary reads them from the shared project in your browser tab, so a fix in the tracker shows up in the summary at once. A dropdown chooses which guests to include: Confirmed and attended guests, Everyone except declined, or Every guest. Use confirmed and attended for the caterer's final numbers and Everyone except declined when you are still negotiating the menu.

How the notes are read

The tool splits each note on commas, semicolons, slashes, ampersands, the word "and" and new lines, then matches each part to a set of categories: Vegan, Vegetarian, Jain, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten and coeliac, Dairy and lactose, Nut allergy, Peanut allergy, Shellfish and fish allergy, Egg, Soy and Sesame allergy. The gluten, dairy, nut, peanut, shellfish, egg, soy and sesame categories are marked as safety items and flagged "check with kitchen". One person can appear under several categories.

Some careful behaviour is built in. "Non-veg" and "not vegetarian" are not counted as vegetarian; they are counted separately as no restriction. "Eats eggs" and "ok with dairy" are not allergies, and "no restrictions", "none" and "n/a" mean nothing to count. A note that mentions "severe", "anaphylaxis", "EpiPen" or "life-threatening" adds a "severe" count to the categories it matched. Anything that matches nothing, such as "low sodium", appears under Other notes with how many guests wrote it. Plus-ones are added to the people to feed, but the page says plainly that their needs are not known.

A worked example: a 15-seat dinner

Thirteen guests are confirmed and two of them bring a plus-one. Their notes: Priya "vegetarian, no nuts"; Tom "gluten free (coeliac)"; Leila "halal"; Marco "vegan"; Sue "severe peanut allergy, carries EpiPen"; Omar "non-veg"; Anita "Jain"; Karl "no restrictions"; Grace "lactose intolerant" with level access; Yuki "low sodium"; Dina "kosher" with a hearing loop and front row; Raj "vegetarian"; and Pat with no food note but a wheelchair space. Zoe, invited but not confirmed, and Ned, who declined, are left out by the default choice.

The food sheet for the caterer reads: 15 guests to feed, 13 guests and 2 plus-ones. Three have no food needs noted. Then the counts: Vegan 1, Vegetarian 2, Jain 1, Halal 1, Kosher 1, Gluten 1, Dairy 1, Nut allergy 1, Peanut allergy 1 with 1 severe, and Non-vegetarian 1 with no special meal. Priya appears under both Vegetarian and Nut allergy, which is why the sheet says a person can appear more than once. Under Other notes: "low sodium: 1" and "carries EpiPen: 1".

That last line is worth a look. The comma in Sue's note split "carries EpiPen" into its own part, so it shows as an other note. The severe flag still counted correctly, because it reads the whole note. To keep it tidy, write "severe peanut allergy carries EpiPen" without a comma, or accept the extra line.

The access list for the venue shows three guests: Dina Cohen, hearing loop, front row; Grace Mensah, level access; and Pat Kelly, wheelchair space. Tick "Include names in the food sheet" and the kitchen version adds a by-person list with allergies and intolerances first, and the table number beside each name where tables are assigned.

Steps

1. In Guest List Tracker, fill the Dietary and Access fields. Ask guests for plain phrases: one need per phrase, "severe" when it is.
2. Open Dietary and Access Summary and pick which guests to include.
3. Read the three cards: To feed, With food needs and Access needs. Check them against what you expect.
4. Read the Other notes line. Fix notes that did not match a category by rewording them in the tracker.
5. Decide on names. Leave the box off for the caterer's first brief. Tick it only when meals are labelled, and send that version to the people who serve food.
6. Press Copy text for an email, Download PDF for a one-page attachment or Download CSV with the columns Name, Table, Food note, Matched needs, Allergy or intolerance and Access note.
7. Send the access list to the venue, separate from the food sheet.
8. Save the project and re-run the summary when RSVPs change.

The PDF and CSV downloads count as one usage each. The tool is a Professional Tool, with 10 trial uses a day before a day pass or plan applies. Copy is not metered.

Common mistakes

Reading a count as a headcount: it counts needs, so one guest with three needs adds three. Sending names and allergies to everyone on the team instead of the kitchen. Trusting the parser for a dish-by-dish menu; it helps count, and the caterer still needs to confirm anything flagged as safety. Forgetting that plus-ones have unknown needs, which is where a surprise vegan turns up. Rebuilding the summary after the headcount changes and forgetting to send the updated sheet, which is why the date on the PDF matters.

Summary

Put short, plain notes in the guest list, let the summary count them, send the kitchen counts with the safety items flagged and the venue its own access list. Dietary and Access Summary also feeds the catering planning in plan catering quantities from guest count, which uses Catering Quantity Calculator, and the Event Checklist Planner is the place to add "confirm allergy list with kitchen" as a task. More planning tools are listed under event tools.

Open Dietary and Access Summary→

Which diets or access needs do your guests write that the summary should recognise next? Tell us on the contact page.