Company
One legal entity
Brand
Menu and allergens
Unit
Where you trade
The three levels
- The company is the legal business: registered, insured, on the invoice, on file with an authority. Usually one, and it changes rarely.
- A brand is a trading name and a menu, what a customer sees on the awning. A company can run several, and one can be retired without anything else moving.
- A unit is a place where food is handled: a van, an event truck, a gazebo or marquee, a trailer, a bike, a shared prep kitchen, a static or dark kitchen. Equipment, water, waste and cleaning belong to it.
Why the unit holds the records
Almost every daily record is about a place, not a menu. The fridge is in the unit. So is the hand wash basin and the water tank. Attach the diary to the brand instead, and on the day two brands work out of one trailer you either write the fridge temperature twice or lose track of which set is real.
Menus go the other way. A dish, its ingredients and its allergen answers belong to a brand, because the same trailer serving a different menu next weekend has different allergen answers and the same fridges.
The shared prep kitchen is the test case
Three brands can share one room, one set of fridges and one cleaning schedule while keeping three menus, three allergen matrices and three sets of labels. A structure that cannot say that makes you duplicate either the equipment records or the menus, and duplicated records drift apart within a month.
Who signs what
A rule of thumb once you have more than one unit: people sign for the units they work at, managers see the brands they run, one or two people see everything, and somebody who needs to be on the training list but never signs anything does not need a login at all.
Be deliberate about the name on a record. "Signed by the manager" is not a record. "Signed by a named person, at a time, at a unit" is.
Common mistakes
- One brand per unit, forever. It works until it does not, and by then you have a season of records filed under a name you no longer trade as.
- A second company for a second trading name. Sometimes right for tax or liability, which is a question for your accountant. If the same people, fridges and insurance are involved, it is two of everything to produce when an organiser asks.
- Naming units after people. Clear this year, meaningless in three. Name a unit after what it is: event truck, street van, shared prep kitchen.
- Letting the structure follow the accounting. Splitting records for food safety and splitting them for VAT answer different questions. They can agree, but neither should drive the other.
Changing the shape after a season is a day of tedious work plus a period where old records are filed one way and new ones another. Doing it before you have records costs an hour.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between a company, a brand and a unit?
The company is the legal business: registered, insured, on the invoice. A brand is a trading name and a menu, what a customer sees on the awning. A unit is a place where food is handled: a van, a trailer, a gazebo, a bike, a shared prep kitchen. One company can run several brands across several units.
Why do daily records belong to the unit and not the brand?
Because almost every daily record is about a place. The fridge, the hand wash basin and the water tank are in the unit. If two brands work out of one trailer and the diary hangs off the brand, you either write the fridge temperature twice or lose track of which set is real. Menus and allergen answers go the other way and belong to the brand.
How should a shared prep kitchen be set up?
As one unit worked by several brands. Three brands can share one room, one set of fridges and one cleaning schedule while keeping three menus, three allergen matrices and three sets of labels. Set up any other way, either the equipment records or the menus get duplicated, and duplicates drift apart within a month.
Does every member of staff need a login?
No. People sign for the units they work at, managers see the brands they run, and one or two people see everything. Somebody who needs to be on the training list but never signs anything can be recorded without a login at all.
What this looks like in CaterPad
The three levels are there from the first screen rather than bolted on later. Units hold equipment, water, waste, checks and diaries. Brands hold menus, dishes and allergen answers. A brand can be linked to several units and a unit worked by several brands, which is what makes the shared prep kitchen behave. People get the brands or units they work with, and somebody who only needs to be on the training list can be added without a login.
Related: the records a mobile caterer keeps, and how the setup questions work.