When the caterer bills more covers than ordered

What happens in Achekam when a caterer invoices more meals than were ordered and served, how the invoice is held, and how the agreed amount is posted.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Events businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

The gala dinner went well. Two weeks later the caterer's invoice arrives, and the number of covers on it is higher than the number you ordered. Perhaps late registrations pushed numbers up on the night. Perhaps the caterer billed the minimum number set in their quote, not the final count you sent. Perhaps someone simply typed the wrong figure.

Whatever the reason, the organiser should not pay for meals nobody ordered or ate, and should not refuse to pay for meals that were genuinely served. This article explains how Achekam handles a caterer's invoice that does not match the order, and how to get from disagreement to the right amount in the books.

The order, the delivery record and the invoice

Three documents decide what you owe a caterer:

The purchase order. What you ordered: the number of covers, the menu, the price per cover. In Achekam, a purchase order is raised from the selected quotation of an approved requisition, and the person who raised it cannot approve it.
The delivery record. What was actually served. Deliveries are recorded against a purchase order line by line, part deliveries included, and a goods-received record is kept.
The supplier's invoice. What the caterer is asking you to pay.

When all three agree, paying is simple. When they do not, the delivery record is usually what settles it, which is why it has to be made on the night, not reconstructed a fortnight later. AccountingTools explains three-way matching, where accounts payable compares the supplier invoice, the purchase order and the receiving report before paying.

Held until someone writes a resolution note

When the caterer's invoice is recorded against its purchase order, Achekam matches it with what was ordered and what arrived. If the price or the quantity differs, the invoice is held. It stays held until someone writes a resolution note explaining how the difference was settled.

That hold is the useful part. A busy finance team cannot pay an over-billed invoice by accident, because it will not go through until a person has looked at it and recorded why the final figure is right. And the note stays with the invoice, so anyone reviewing the event's costs later can see what was disputed and how it ended.

Recording the actual covers served

The delivery record is only as good as the count behind it. For catered events, agree in advance how covers will be counted and by whom:

the final confirmed number you sent the caterer, with the date and time you sent it;
a head count at the start of service, taken by your own staff, not the caterer's;
any additional covers approved on the night, with the name of the person who approved them;
the meals actually plated, if the caterer reports them.

Record the covers served against the purchase order line the next working day, while the count sheets are still on someone's desk. If extra covers were approved on the night, that is a real increase, and the record should show it.

Posting the agreed amount

With the facts in front of you, settle the difference with the caterer. The usual outcomes are:

The invoice is wrong. The caterer issues a corrected invoice or a credit note for the extra covers. Record the corrected figure and note the reason.
The extra covers were genuine. Late guests were served with your approval. Write the resolution note accordingly and let the invoice through.
The quote set a minimum. The caterer's quote set a minimum number of covers and billed that minimum. Check what your order accepted; if the minimum was agreed, you owe it, and the note should say so.

Once the difference is resolved, posting the matched supplier invoice puts it in the ledger as expense, input VAT and trade payables. Bills can then be paid in full or in parts from a chosen bank account.

Stopping the same invoice being posted twice

Disputed invoices have a habit of arriving twice: the original, and then a "revised" copy with the same number while the dispute is still open. Achekam uses the supplier's invoice number to stop the same matched invoice being posted twice. Enter the caterer's invoice number exactly as printed, every time, so that this safeguard can do its job.

If the caterer issues a genuinely new invoice with a new number to replace the old one, make sure the old one is cancelled on their side and not posted on yours. Ask for that cancellation in writing and keep it with the event's purchasing records, so an auditor reading the file later can follow what happened.

Bills that arrive with no purchase order behind them are handled differently: a bill without an order waits for approval before it posts, but it has nothing to match against. That is the strongest argument for raising an order for every caterer, however small the function. How orders to vendors are set up is covered in purchase orders to event vendors, and the effect of approved orders on your event budget in committed vendor spend.

Before the next catered event

Raise a purchase order with the confirmed cover number and price.
Send the caterer the final number in writing, with a deadline for changes.
Count covers yourself on the night.
Record the covers served against the order the next working day.
When the invoice arrives, let the hold do its work.

Agree the counting method with your caterer at the tasting, not after the invoice.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.