Weddings and private functions, run on the same system as your course

Functions are often the largest single bookings a golf club takes, and they tend to run on the least software. The enquiry comes in by email, the date lives in a diary in the office, the menu sits in a Word document and the deposit is a line in a spreadsheet someone reconciles at month end. When two couples want the same Saturday in June, whoever answers the phone decides who gets it.

Each kind of function you sell gets its own page on your club website, whether that is weddings, anniversaries, society dinners, corporate days or whatever else your rooms are good for. A couple picks a date and sees it marked Available, Limited or Unavailable for the rooms that event uses, then sends an enquiry with their numbers and a note. It arrives in the private events pipeline with its source recorded and an owner on your team, and it follows the stages every function passes through: enquiry, quoted, option, confirmed, final numbers, played and settled.

Dates are where function sales go wrong, so holds work the way an experienced events manager would run them. Hold a date and the room is that couple's until the hold expires. A second couple wanting the same day takes a second option and waits in line. When you need an answer, set a challenge. The first couple get a deadline to sign or release, and if it passes the second option is promoted automatically, with the couple and your sales owner both told. Rooms can be split into parts, so hiring half the dining room takes those seats off the restaurant's covers for the evening, and the host stand shows the space as a private event.

The proposal comes from your own price list: menu packages in tiers, a minimum spend for the room, and the charges functions carry, such as a service charge, gratuity or admin fee, each taxed under its own category. Preview it as the client will see it, then send it. The client accepts and signs the exact version they read, with your booking terms attached, and a later change goes back to them as a new version to accept. The payment schedule follows the terms you set for that event type, perhaps a deposit at signing, a percentage a few months out and a per-head balance when numbers are final. The client pays each milestone online and is reminded as one falls due. Deposits sit as a liability until the function is delivered, then become revenue, with VAT or sales tax taken at the point your country requires.