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Sometimes you bring your own customer to CaterCow: a phone call, a walk-in, or a regular you already know. A Direct Entry order lets you build their order for them, then send them a link to claim it and pay. The video above walks through the whole flow.
Create and send the order
1. Go to Direct Entry Orders, under Customer Relations in the sidebar. It lists the orders your customers haven’t paid for yet and the contacts you’ve saved. Click Create Order.
2. Add the customer. Search your saved contacts by name, email, or phone number, or click Create a New Contact. For a new contact, enter their name, email, and phone number, and choose the Kitchen that will serve them.
3. Click Create Contact. The contact is added to the order and saved for your next order with them.
4. Keep Direct-Entry as the order type. (To log an order for your own records instead, see placeholder orders.) Then enter the delivery address, date, time, and estimated headcount. If your kitchens offer pickup, you can also set Delivery Method to Pickup.
5. Under Choose Menu, pick the package the order is built from. If you take full-menu orders, you can choose A La Carte instead. Then click Create Order.
6. The order opens in a new tab. Customize the menu, choose any add-ons, and check the order details. If the order is below your minimum or outside your usual hours, you can check Bypass Minimum Order Amount or Bypass Availability.
7. When the order is ready, click Send To Customer to email your customer a link to claim it. The button changes to Resend To Customer and shows when you last sent the link. To share the link yourself, click Copy Customer Claim Link.
How Direct Entry orders work
- Direct Entry orders don’t carry your usual marketplace commission, because you brought the customer. They’re priced like orders from your Zero-Commission Link, and the order’s price breakdown labels the fee “Zero-Commission Referral.”
- Your customer signs up, or logs in if they already have a CaterCow account. Then they claim the order, review it at checkout, and pay. We explain this to customers in I got a link to claim an order.
- You can keep editing the order until your customer enters payment details and submits it. Once they claim it, you can no longer change the delivery address.
- If your customer’s organization is tax-exempt with CaterCow, the order is marked tax-exempt, and you can download their exemption certificate from the order. This comes from your customer’s account; you don’t set it when you create the order.
Find your orders later
Orders your customer hasn’t paid for yet stay under In Progress Orders on your Direct Entry Orders page. Click Edit Order to change one, or Send Email to send its claim link (Resend Email if you’ve sent it before). Once your customer submits and pays, the order moves to Recently Completed Orders.
What if…
I can’t send the link. You can send it once every 10 minutes, and the contact needs an email address. Add one by clicking Edit next to the contact on your Direct Entry Orders page.
My customer hasn’t claimed the order. On your Direct Entry Orders page, Unclaimed orders haven’t been claimed by your customer yet. If one is still unclaimed a day or two after you send it, reach out to your customer.