Conference and event enquiries to function sheet

How Achekam's Hospitality pack takes a conference or function from first call to proposal, signed event agreement, function sheet and final invoice.

By Achekam · 11 October 2026 · 4 min read · For Hospitality businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya

Launching soon. The Industry CRM add-on described in this article is launching soon. This article describes it as it will work at launch.

The call comes on a Tuesday. A company wants a one-day strategy session for its managers next month: a room set for discussion, a projector, two tea breaks and a working lunch, with some vegetarians and one guest who cannot eat gluten. By the end of the call you have a page of notes. Over the next few weeks, those notes have to become a proposal, an agreement, instructions for the kitchen, the floor staff and whoever sets up the projector, and finally an invoice.

Events go wrong in the gaps between those steps: a dietary note that never reached the kitchen, a changed start time nobody told the floor about, an extra coffee break that never made it onto the bill. Achekam's Industry CRM, with the Hospitality & hotels pack, follows each event enquiry from the first call to the final invoice. This article walks through the route for venues in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.

Event enquiries as their own records

The Hospitality pack keeps event enquiries separately from room reservations. A conference, a wedding or a year-end function is its own record, with its own route, even if the same client also books rooms.

The route runs from the first call to a proposal, then an event agreement signed electronically, then a function sheet and finally the final invoice.

From the first call to a proposal

Capture the essentials on the first call, while the client is on the line:

• the date, start and finish times, and any flexibility;
• the expected number of guests;
• the kind of event and the room layout it needs;
• catering: meals, breaks, dietary needs;
• equipment: projector, microphones, flipcharts;
• the budget, if the client will share it;
• who makes the decision and who pays.

The proposal is built from those notes. Keep it clear about what is included and what is extra, and about the date by which final numbers must be confirmed. A proposal that leaves those points vague usually leads to a dispute on the final invoice.

The event agreement, signed electronically

Once the client accepts, the pack has the event agreement signed electronically. Achekam's e-signing lets you place signature and initials fields, send to signers in order or all at once, set an expiry and send reminders, and files the signed PDF and a completion certificate back into Documents.

The agreement is where you settle the things that cause arguments: the deposit and the balance, the deadline for final numbers, the cancellation policy, responsibility for damage, and any rules about noise or finishing times. Every contract in the Industry CRM's packs is marked as starter wording the business must review before use, so make the event agreement your own before the first client signs it. In South Africa, check the deposit and cancellation clauses against section 17 of the Consumer Protection Act, which sets out when a supplier may take a reasonable deposit for a booking and what cancellation charge it may keep if the customer cancels.

Where a step in the workflow asks the client for documents, the client's reply moves the task on, so nobody has to watch an inbox to know something has arrived.

The function sheet

The function sheet is the document everyone works from on the day. It translates the agreement into instructions:

• the timeline, from setup to clear-down;
• the room layout, with a simple sketch;
• the menu and service times, with dietary counts;
• the equipment, who sets it up and by when;
• the client's contact person on the day and their phone number;
• billing notes: what is included and what is charged as extra.

Issue it to every department, and issue a revised one whenever something changes. A function sheet that is out of date is worse than none, because people trust it.

Changes arrive late. A client calls two days before the event to add guests and move lunch later. The events coordinator updates the function sheet, marks it as revised, sends it to the kitchen and the floor team, and notes the extra guests as a change to bill. On the day, nobody works from the old version, and the final invoice already knows about the extra covers.

The final invoice

After the event, the pack ends with the final invoice. Build it from the agreement and the function sheet, adjusted for the final confirmed numbers and any extras agreed on the day. Refer to any deposit already invoiced, and include only what is still to be billed; group booking deposits without a pro-forma explains how deposit and balance invoices fit together.

Drinks bought by guests at the bar on their own account are rung up at the till as usual, not on the event invoice, unless the agreement says the client is paying for them.

Who does what on the day

In the Industry CRM, tasks can have subtasks up to three levels deep, so "prepare the room" can carry its own checklist for each of these roles.

Events often come with overnight guests, whose arrival paperwork follows pre-arrival forms and signed group booking terms. Afterwards, the feedback and preferences steps in after check-out: the bill, feedback and preferences apply to them too.

Write down your first-call questions, review the starter event agreement, and draft a function sheet layout your departments agree on. When the next call comes, the notes on your page will have a clear route to the invoice.

General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.