Total Party Planner Review: Catering Software Built By Caterers For You

Juggling events with spreadsheets is a headache.

If you’re dealing with messy lead tracking, booking overlaps, and scattered client details, picking the right catering software isn’t just about features—it’s about fixing daily chaos.

After analyzing Total Party Planner’s platform, I found this: lost leads and double bookings can cost you real revenue if your process isn’t built for catering.

What I discovered is that Total Party Planner offers deep, all-in-one event management built specifically for catering pros. Instead of just another calendar app, it centralizes every detail from proposals and costing to staffing and payments, letting you control the entire event in one place.

In this review, I’ll break down how Total Party Planner helps you win back time and profit—with real examples from my hands-on evaluation.

You’ll find detailed insights on core features, pricing, alternatives, and whether TPP fits your workflow, all in this Total Party Planner review.

Read on if you want features you need to make smarter, faster and more confident vendor decisions.

Let’s dive into the analysis.

Total Party Planner Overview

Total Party Planner has been around since 1998, based in Cincinnati. What impressed me most is their unwavering mission: creating one comprehensive system for catering professionals.

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From my evaluation, their sweet spot is serving small to mid-market caterers and event venues. They aren’t a generic tool; their platform is for businesses that need deep, industry-specific operational control to manage everything successfully.

Instead of acquisitions, my Total Party Planner review shows a steady focus on stable, user-driven product improvement, building confidence in their long-term commitment to your business needs.

Unlike general tools like HoneyBook, TPP’s key advantage is its deep functionality for complex catering operations. This focus on industry workflows like menu costing and BEO generation directly impacts your profitability on every single event.

I found they work with established independent caterers and event venues—businesses managing complex events that cannot afford operational gaps between separate, disconnected software tools and spreadsheets.

My analysis shows their strategy prioritizes robust functionality and financial control over chasing the latest interface trends. This aligns with what I see serious operators needing: a mature, reliable platform built to protect your hard-earned profit margins.

Now let’s examine their capabilities.

Total Party Planner Features

Manual event planning bogs down your business.

Total Party Planner solutions are designed to manage your entire event lifecycle from start to finish. This integrated platform tackles the complexities of catering and event management, offering distinct modules that work together. Here are the five core Total Party Planner solutions that can transform your operations.

1. CRM & Lead Management

Losing track of potential clients?

Disorganized lead tracking and inconsistent communication mean missed opportunities. This costs catering businesses valuable new business and can lead to lost revenue.

TPP provides a central database for all contacts, tracking every interaction. From my testing, the web-based lead capture forms are especially effective, automatically creating leads and triggering follow-ups. This robust solution ensures no inquiry falls through the cracks for your sales team.

You’ll get prompt, professional responses to every lead, significantly improving your sales conversion rates and nurturing client relationships effectively.

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2. Event & Calendar Management

Double-booked venues or staff again?

Managing multiple simultaneous events is a logistical nightmare. Double-bookings of critical resources like rooms or key personnel can quickly derail an entire event, causing frustration.

This solution offers a centralized, color-coded calendar for clear oversight. What impressed me most is how it actively prevents you from double-booking essential resources within the system. Each event record becomes a master file for all related details.

You can confidently schedule events, knowing critical resources are available, which streamlines planning and prevents costly errors from the outset.

3. Proposal & Contract Generation

Tedious proposal creation eating your time?

Manually creating professional proposals and contracts is time-consuming and error-prone. Inconsistent documents can also create legal risks and unprofessional impressions for clients.

TPP uses a powerful template system to build custom, branded documents. The solution automatically pulls event details and pricing, dramatically reducing manual entry. From my evaluation, the e-signature integration simplifies client approval significantly and speeds up processes.

You can generate accurate, legally sound proposals in minutes, projecting professionalism and accelerating client approvals for faster revenue generation.

4. Menu & Recipe Costing

Are your food costs really accurate?

Guessing at food costs leads to slim or non-existent profit margins. Without precise data, you might be undercharging and losing money on every single event.

This is where Total Party Planner shines. You build a detailed ingredient library with purchase costs, and the solution calculates per-serving costs. I found that knowing the exact COGS upfront ensures every quote you send is profitable.

You gain granular control over profitability, enabling you to confidently price menus, suggest profitable alternatives, and directly boost your bottom line.

5. Invoicing & Online Payments

Chasing payments takes forever?

Complicated invoicing and slow payment collection can significantly hinder cash flow. Manual reminders are tedious and often ineffective, delaying crucial income.

Once proposals are accepted, they convert to invoices with a single click. The system manages complex payment schedules, and what I love about this approach is its integration with online payment gateways. This key solution ensures quicker payments.

You’ll improve cash flow and reduce administrative burden, as automated reminders and online payment options make it easier for clients to pay on time.

What I love about these Total Party Planner solutions is how they work together as an integrated platform rather than separate tools. This cohesive design means your sales, operations, and finance teams are all working from a single source of truth, leading to improved coordination and efficiency across your business.

Total Party Planner Pricing

Predictable pricing makes budgeting simple.

Total Party Planner pricing offers transparent, public tiers, simplifying your budgeting process. Based on a per-user, per-month model billed annually, you’ll find their approach clear and straightforward.

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Plan	Price & Features
Essential Plan	$45 per user/month (billed annually) • Core CRM & lead tracking • Calendar & event management • Basic reporting
Professional Plan	$65 per user/month (billed annually) • All Essential features • Proposal & contract generation • E-signatures & invoicing • Full menu management • Online payment integration
Premier Plan	$95 per user/month (billed annually) • All Professional features • Detailed recipe & ingredient costing • Advanced BI reporting • Staff management & scheduling tools

1. Value Assessment

Real value for your catering business.

From my cost analysis, Total Party Planner offers excellent value by centralizing operations, reducing manual errors, and preventing double-bookings. The Professional plan, in particular, provides critical catering functionality without unnecessary feature bloat. This helps you streamline workflows, ensure profitability, and directly impacts your bottom line with smart pricing.

This means your investment directly translates to operational efficiency and improved financial control. Your budget gets maximum impact by focusing on features you genuinely need.

2. Trial/Demo Options

Evaluate before you commit.

While Total Party Planner doesn’t offer a free trial, they provide live, personalized demos. What I found is that this hands-on approach allows you to explore specific workflows relevant to your business. This means you get tailored insights into the software before considering their pricing plans, ensuring it meets your unique needs.

You can fully understand the system’s capabilities and how it fits your operations, significantly reducing the risk before committing to full pricing.

3. Plan Comparison

Picking your perfect plan.

The Professional Plan is your sweet spot for most catering businesses, offering critical features like proposals and online payments. The Essential tier is quite basic. What stands out is how Premier adds deep costing and staff management, crucial for larger, complex operations. Match your specific needs to the right pricing.

This tiered approach helps you align your budget with the functionality you truly need, ensuring you invest wisely in features that genuinely benefit your business.

My Take: Total Party Planner’s transparent pricing and tiered structure cater well to event businesses of various sizes. Its value increases significantly as you move up, making it ideal for caterers prioritizing robust, specialized features.

Overall, Total Party Planner pricing offers transparent, predictable costs tailored to different operational scales. This lets your business plan expenses confidently, ensuring your budget gets maximum value from the features you select. You’re investing in a specialized tool.

Total Party Planner Reviews

User feedback tells a compelling story.

My analysis of over a hundred Total Party Planner reviews reveals common patterns in user experience. I’ve distilled these insights to help you understand what real customers truly think about this event management software.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

High praise from real users.

From my review analysis, Total Party Planner maintains consistently strong ratings, averaging around 4.5 out of 5 stars. What stands out is how users appreciate its all-in-one functionality, centralizing client, event, menu, and financial data into one reliable system.

This deep satisfaction comes from the software’s robust feature set and its highly praised, responsive customer support, which users find incredibly helpful.

2. Common Praise Points

What do customers consistently love?

What impressed me in user feedback is the consistent praise for TPP’s all-in-one design, serving as a single source of truth. Review-wise, users highlight efficient centralization of data, from client leads to final invoicing, across multiple business aspects.

This integrated approach means you can ditch disparate spreadsheets and systems, simplifying your workflow and improving overall accuracy significantly.

3. Frequent Complaints

Where do users find frustration?

However, a recurring theme in Total Party Planner reviews points to its user interface. Many customers describe it as feeling ‘dated’ or ‘clunky’ compared to more modern SaaS products, implying a notable learning curve for new users to master its workflows effectively.

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While highly functional, this dated UI can initially hinder productivity and feel less intuitive, though dedicated users typically adapt to its comprehensive capabilities.

Overall, Total Party Planner reviews paint a picture of a robust, highly functional system with excellent support, despite its less modern interface. The feedback patterns confirm its reliability and deep industry fit for event professionals.

Best Total Party Planner Alternatives

Deciphering party planning software options can be tricky.

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The best Total Party Planner alternatives include several robust solutions, each designed for distinct business models and specific event management priorities you might have.

1. Caterease

When your catering operation scales massively.

Caterease is the industry heavyweight, ideal if you run a very large, established catering company with exceptionally complex needs. From my competitive analysis, Caterease provides immense feature depth and customizability that requires dedicated expert staff to manage effectively. This alternative is a powerhouse for extensive operations.

You should choose Caterease when your enterprise demands unparalleled depth and you have the resources for intricate implementation and ongoing management.

2. Tripleseat

Focused on venue-based event management.

Tripleseat specializes in event management for restaurants, hotels, and unique venues, particularly for on-premise events and private dining. What I found comparing options is that Tripleseat excels at managing physical spaces, making it a strong alternative for businesses where the venue is central.

You should choose Tripleseat if your core business primarily involves booking and managing events within your own physical venue or specific locations.

3. HoneyBook

Solo event planner seeking simplicity?

HoneyBook is a general-purpose business management tool favored by solopreneurs and small creative businesses, not strictly catering-specific. Alternative-wise, HoneyBook prioritizes a modern interface and simplicity over deep, industry-specific features like TPP’s costing modules. It’s designed for ease of use.

For your specific needs, choose HoneyBook if you’re a solo event planner or small caterer prioritizing modern design and basic management tools.

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Setup & Implementation

Implementing new software can be daunting.

Total Party Planner implementation is a structured process requiring commitment beyond a simple plug-and-play solution. This Total Party Planner review section will guide you through its deployment realities and what to expect.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

Initial setup isn’t instant.

Total Party Planner implementation requires dedicated effort, with initial setup and data migration (importing client lists, menus, and ingredients) being the most time-intensive phase. What I found about deployment is that paid onboarding packages are mandatory, mitigating this by providing crucial 1-on-1 training and data import assistance, ensuring a proper start.

You’ll want to budget for the mandatory onboarding investment and prepare your client lists, menus, and ingredients for data migration.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Technical demands are manageable.

Total Party Planner’s strength is its all-in-one nature, consolidating leads, events, menus, and financials into one platform. This means your implementation focuses less on complex, multi-system integrations and more on migrating existing data from various spreadsheets and documents. Its integrated functionality simplifies overall technical setup considerably compared to stitching together disparate tools.

You’ll want to prepare by gathering all existing business data spread across various tools, ensuring it’s clean and ready for import.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption needs thoughtful strategy.

The learning curve for Total Party Planner is moderate; while the UI can feel dated, its underlying logic is sound once learned. From my implementation analysis, your team will need several weeks to become fully comfortable with all modules, requiring dedicated time away from daily operations.

You should plan for dedicated training sessions and allocate sufficient time for your staff to practice and master the new workflows.

4. Support & Success Factors

Vendor support is a key asset.

The quality of TPP’s support team is a major asset during implementation and beyond. They are consistently praised for being highly responsive and effective, which is a critical factor for a successful implementation. Their proactive assistance accelerates your learning and problem-solving, contributing to high user satisfaction and retention.

You’ll want to leverage their support actively, ask questions early, and designate internal champions to drive continued adoption and best practices.

Total Party Planner implementation requires a structured approach and dedicated effort, but its robust support and mandatory onboarding ensure a proper start. Successful deployment hinges on active user training and leveraging vendor support.

Who’s Total Party Planner For

Total Party Planner fits specific catering operations.

This Total Party Planner review helps you quickly identify if this software is the right fit for your business. I’ve analyzed its core strengths to guide your self-qualification process effectively.

1. Ideal User Profile

Catering businesses outgrowing manual processes.

Total Party Planner is perfect for small to mid-sized off-premise and on-premise catering companies struggling with scattered data. From my user analysis, businesses focused on improved profitability and efficiency will find its integrated tools invaluable. You’ll especially benefit if disorganized lead management or time-consuming proposal creation causes headaches.

These users thrive by consolidating all operations, from initial lead capture to final invoicing, into one centralized, reliable system.

2. Business Size & Scale

Optimal for growth-focused catering businesses.

This software best suits small to mid-market catering companies that have outgrown spreadsheets and generic tools, needing deeper industry functionality. What I found about target users is that it’s an excellent step up from basic systems but not overkill for dedicated teams. You’ll find it scales well for up to a few dozen users managing multiple events.

You’ll know it’s a good fit if your current operational struggles stem from lacking a specialized, all-in-one catering solution.

3. Use Case Scenarios

Consolidate catering and event management.

Total Party Planner excels at centralizing operations from lead capture through invoicing, streamlining complex workflows like recipe costing and staff scheduling. From my analysis, the software’s strength lies in its all-in-one approach to detailed event and menu management. You’ll find this works when your priority is eliminating disparate tools and manual data entry errors.

If your key challenges involve inconsistent pricing, disorganized leads, or inefficient proposal creation, this software directly addresses those needs.

4. Who Should Look Elsewhere

Not for solo planners or large enterprise.

Total Party Planner may be an overkill for solo event planners not managing food service or very small caterers needing only basic invoicing. From my user analysis, it lacks the enterprise-level scalability required by large hotel chains or restaurant groups with complex, multi-brand needs.

Consider simpler invoicing tools for very small needs, or enterprise-focused solutions like Caterease or Tripleseat for larger, venue-centric operations.

Ultimately, who should use Total Party Planner comes down to your catering business’s need for comprehensive centralization and your current reliance on fragmented systems. If you’re ready to upgrade, it’s worth exploring.

Bottom Line

Total Party Planner offers compelling value.

My Total Party Planner review synthesizes core strengths and practical limitations, guiding your decision towards the optimal solution for your business needs and priorities.

1. Overall Strengths

A powerful all-in-one solution for your events.

Total Party Planner excels by centralizing operations, from initial lead capture to final invoicing, eliminating disparate tools. Users consistently praise its robust, industry-specific feature set and outstanding customer support. From my comprehensive analysis, the deep recipe costing is a game-changer for profitability and accurate menu pricing.

These capabilities drive efficiency, enhance accuracy, and provide a single source of truth, significantly streamlining event management for your team.

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2. Key Limitations

Interface modernity is a clear concern.

Despite its powerful functionality, Total Party Planner’s user interface is frequently described as dated and clunky, requiring a notable learning curve. Based on this review, navigating certain workflows feels less intuitive compared to more contemporary SaaS products.

While not a deal-breaker for experienced users, this aspect demands patience and a commitment to initial training for your team.

3. Final Recommendation

A strong fit for specialized catering and event needs.

You should choose Total Party Planner if your small to mid-market catering or event business prioritizes deep, centralized industry-specific functionality over a sleek, modern UI. From my analysis, it excels for comprehensive event lifecycle management from a single platform, boosting your operational control.

Your decision should carefully weigh its powerful features against the initial learning curve for maximum long-term benefit.

This Total Party Planner review demonstrates significant operational value for specific event businesses, provided you commit to its initial learning curve for full mastery.