Admin Guidebook

One

The four statuses

Every booking sits in one of four stages. The status is what decides who gets told what, so it matters more than it looks.

Two

The services, and what makes them different

Every service is priced per guest, plus food per guest, unless it says otherwise. Minimum $800 on everything except Mahjong and retreats.

What actually separates them

• Essential — self-serve. No server unless they add one at $150.
• Signature — service included. This is the everyday answer for most dinners.
• Premier — plated or buffet, full service. The top of the house.
• Dinner Under the Stars — the per-guest price covers the light canopy, tiki torches, buffet setup, tables and chairs, and the full table setting, plus setup and breakdown. Never sell rentals on top of it. Add a bonfire for $800.
• Bonfire & Buffet — bonfire, covered buffet, and chairs around the fire only. No seated table, no light canopy. 30A only. At home or on the beach.
• Mahjong Table — $1,200 for eight, then $150 per extra guest added in fours so the tables stay even. Three hours, food included, host stays the whole session.

Servers

Included automatically on Signature, Premier, Dinner Under the Stars, brunch, lunch, mahjong and retreats. Not included on The Essential or Bonfire & Buffet — for those two we ask outright: self-serve, or add a server at $150?

What goes on top of everything

• Tax 7%, gratuity 20%, card processing 3% — all on the service subtotal only, never on food or décor.
• Gratuity and card processing are two separate lines, never combined. A client should never read a card fee as a tip.
• Children 3–12 are $35 flat on every tier. Under 3 are free.
• Change fee $15, once confirmed.

High per-guest cost on small outdoor parties is deliberate, not a mistake. Don't apologize for it or offer to adjust it.

Three

Menus and how food is priced

Where dishes come from

Every dish we offer lives in the Menu Book — the named set menus, brunch, the buffets, the wedding menus and the finger foods. The booking assistant and the help desk only ever suggest from it.

Sending a client the menus

Send the page, not a typed-out list — the pages are always current and yours won't be.

• Menu Selections — the full picture
• Dinner Services — the three tiers
• Brunch
• Bonfire & Buffets
• Dinner Under the Stars

Addresses for all of these are in Every link you need.

Allergies

Take every allergy in writing, with the severity, and get it onto the booking. It follows through to the BEO and warns the chef on every menu screen.

The 7-day lock

Menu, guest count and timing are final inside 7 days of the event. Say it at booking, repeat it when you send the menu link, and it's never an argument later.

When they hesitate over the price

Menus are where price nerves usually show up. Don't let them go quiet — see Only Jojo can for the words.

Four

Entering a lead by hand

Most inquiries arrive through the booking assistant or the intake form and create themselves. Use this when one comes in another way — a HoneyBook inquiry, a phone call, an Instagram message, a referral.

The easy way

1. Open the intake form with ?team on the end of the address. Bookmark that link.
2. Fill it in while you're on the phone, or from what's in the HoneyBook inquiry.
3. Use the team section at the bottom — who took it, how they found us, internal notes.
4. Submit. It creates the booking, the booking ID and their portal access, and emails them the link.

The five things you cannot leave blank

• Name, phone, email
• Event date and service time
• Guest count — adults and children separately
• Allergies — if there are none, write "none" so we know it was asked
• Where we cook — see Off-site cooking

The menu can wait. It's captured as a status, not a selection, because the menu is the slow part and holding up the booking for it helps nobody.

Five

Working a booking to Confirmed

1. Check the inquiry is complete. Anything missing, call them — don't guess and don't fill it in for them.
2. Price it. Straightforward events price themselves. Retreats, outdoor events over 20 guests, and anything unusual go to Jojo — never quote those yourself.
3. Build the invoice in HoneyBook. Deposit $500 plus any permits plus any bonfire — all non-refundable.
4. Paste the invoice link into the portal and send it from there. See The invoice. Move the booking to Waiting for Deposit.
5. When the deposit lands, mark it Confirmed. That one click creates the calendar entry, sends the BEO to assigned staff, and releases the detail to It's Lit.
6. Assign the team. Check off-site cooking first.
7. Chase the menu so it's settled well before the 7-day lock.

Six

The invoice

We build invoices in HoneyBook but we do not send them from HoneyBook. We copy the link and send it from the portal, so the client has one place to go and we control the wording.

1. Build the invoice in HoneyBook.
2. Copy its share link.
3. In the booking's Invoice panel, paste it into Deposit invoice or Balance invoice and click Save.
4. Click Send to client. They get an email with the invoice link and their portal link.
5. Their portal now shows a View & pay invoice button at the top.

Can't find the email? Use Resend — it doesn't create a new invoice.

Seven

Changes and approvals

The rule follows the money, not the status.

Approving a change

1. Open Pending Changes in the admin portal. You'll see what they had and what they're asking for.
2. Approve reprices it, rebuilds the BEO, applies the $15 change fee, flags any extra invoice needed, and emails the team.
3. Decline sends them a kind note. Nothing changes.

Eight

Tables, chairs and linen

Linen is not optional — a bare rental table under a plated dinner looks like exactly what it is. The question we ask reads "Yes, bring tables, chairs and linen" and the breakdown names all three.

Only offered on events whose package doesn't already include seating. Dinner Under the Stars already includes tables, chairs and the full table setting — never sell rentals on top of it.

Nine

Off-site cooking

On the intake form, "Where we cook" is a required question with four real answers:

• In the home kitchen
• Cooked off-site, served at the home
• Cooked off-site, served on the beach
• Cooked on the beach

Anything other than the first one raises an off-site flag on the booking, which follows it through to assignment.

Ten

Bonfire rules

Bonfires are run by It's Lit PCB. 30A only. Can be added to any 30A event.

What it costs

The rules that catch people out

• A bonfire added to a dinner at the rental carries no special food permit — the food is served indoors.
• The fire permit is never charged separately. It's inside It's Lit's fee. Don't add it.
• Beach access is never known at booking. It depends on the permit being approved and the county or It's Lit coming back. Tell clients this plainly rather than promising a spot.
• Cancelling inside 48 hours goes to It's Lit directly — 850-361-8078. Not through us, not by email.
• A $155 fire permit rebooking fee is It's Lit's and is passed straight through.
• If the fire was already set up before a cancellation, there's a $100–$150 attendant labor fee.
• Permits never transfer to a new date. Postponed events buy them again, whatever the notice.

Which permits each package needs

Beach setup counts

One 6-ft table per 6 guests, rounded up. Six chairs per table. Faux candles on each table. String lights over each table — the string lights are what the light permit is for.

So 15 guests is 3 tables and 18 chairs.

Eleven

Permits — who pulls what

• The special food permit is $150 up to 25 guests, $300 above 25.
• It applies to any outdoor event, or any event with a bonfire.
• Adding a bonfire to an event that already has a special permit costs another $150 — a second permit on the same date.
• All permits go into the non-refundable deposit, alongside the $500 and the bonfire cost.
• Permits are never refunded, at any notice period.

Twelve

Cancellations and postponing

Postponing

• Once, free, beyond 30 days.
• $100 fee at 15–30 days.
• Inside 14 days counts as a cancellation, not a postponement.
• Permits never transfer. They're bought again for the new date, whatever the notice.

Thirteen

Only Jojo can

These never get decided on a phone call. Take the request, say you'll come back to them, and bring it to Jojo.

• Refunds of any kind
• Discounts, or waiving any fee
• Approving a client's requested change
• Approving tables, chairs and linen
• Pricing a retreat
• Pricing any outdoor event over 20 guests
• Double-booking a date

When a client balks at the price

Never let someone walk away over price without asking the question. If they say it's more than they hoped, or they seem to be doing sums, say: "Tell us what you had in mind and we'll do our best to make it work."

Jojo would far rather build a menu to someone's number than lose the evening. But never invent a discount or quote a lower price — take the number to Jojo. The point is only to make clear the conversation is open and nobody should feel awkward for asking.

Fourteen

Every link you need

Bookmark the first group. Everything is on chefjojo30a.com.

Bookmark these — you'll use them daily

Send these to clients

• /menu-selections — the full menu picture
• /dinner-services — the three tiers
• /brunch
• /bonfire-and-buffets
• /dinner-under-the-stars

Nine area pages, for someone renting in that specific community — /private-chef- followed by alys-beach · rosemary-beach · seaside-fl · watercolor-fl · inlet-beach · grayton-beach · watersound · carillon-beach · santa-rosa-beach

Send to the team

• /the-books — everything a chef or server needs lives here. Jobs, the BEO, their rates, what they're owed, and the daily checkout after the event.
• A server must have Role = Server on the team tab or they cannot sign in. Misspell the role and they're locked out.

Send to the vendor

• /beach-events — It's Lit's portal, where they complete the permit checklist, the access point and the fire time.
• It's Lit PCB, 850-361-8078 — cancellations inside 48 hours go to them directly, by phone.

Ana's company — The Girl Who Wants Everything

• /tgwwe-order — password-protected, hidden from search. Food and drink only, no service fee, no gratuity. Their team runs the service and bills their own client.

Behind the scenes — Jojo only

• The bookings spreadsheet in Google Drive
• The Apps Script backend, "Chef Jojo Backend"
• HoneyBook, for building invoices and contracts