Run sheets

Principles⁠

One run sheet, many audiences⁠

The kitchen, the floor, the client and the crew all need the same event described differently. That is one document with audiences, not four documents drifting apart.

The run sheet comes from the event⁠

Timings, guest numbers, packages and staffing already exist. A run sheet that has to be typed from them is a copy that will be out of date by Friday.

Lock it before it runs⁠

At some point the plan stops changing. Locking the run sheet makes that moment explicit, so the version on the floor is the version everyone agreed to.

Get it countersigned⁠

A client who has signed the run sheet cannot be surprised by it. Agreement on the detail is worth more than agreement on the total.

Changes are change orders⁠

Forty extra guests on Wednesday is not an edit, it is a change with a price. Treat it as one and the invoice follows the event instead of arguing with it.

Versions matter more than tidiness⁠

Keep every version and who changed what. When two people remember Tuesday differently, the document should settle it.

Practices⁠

Generate the run sheet from the event⁠

Create it against the event and it arrives populated with the timings, numbers and packages already recorded, ready to edit rather than to write.

Give each audience its own version⁠

Set the audience per briefing so the kitchen sees covers and allergens, the floor sees timings, and your client sees neither the purchase prices nor your staffing plan.

Let the assistant draft it⁠

The assistant writes a first briefing from the event and keeps its own history, so you are correcting a draft rather than starting from nothing.

Send it for signature⁠

The client reads the run sheet and countersigns it from their phone. The signed version is stored against the event with its date.

Lock the version that runs⁠

Lock the run sheet once it is agreed. Later changes are deliberate and visible, and there is an explicit override when something genuinely has to change.

Apply a change order⁠

Late changes become a priced change order against the event, which flows through to the invoice without a separate negotiation.

Keep the versions⁠

Every version is retained and comparable, so a dispute about what was agreed is a document lookup rather than a memory test.

Put it in the crew's hands⁠

Your crew opens the run sheet in the worker app on the day, so nobody is working from a printout of an earlier plan.

Chase the balance before the event⁠

A run sheet with an outstanding balance is followed up automatically ahead of the date, which is a much better time to discover it.