How to use DietSync, start to finish.
DietSync collects dietary requirements from the people coming to your event, chases the ones who forget, and hands our kitchen one clear list. Watch the film, or read the steps underneath it. Both cover the same ground.
The whole thing in eight minutes
If you only do one thing on this page, do this. Every step below is in here, in order.
A guide to DietSync, for whoever organises the catering.
Chapters
Jump straight to a part.
The same material, split up
Handy if you have done this before and only need the bit that changed.
Set up your first event
Create an event, load your guest list, and send it.
2 min 31
What your guests see
One email each, two minutes of their time, and nothing shared between them.
1 min 13
When plans change
Dates move and people drop out. Nothing is quietly assumed.
1 min 49
Handing the list to the kitchen
The summary, what it deliberately leaves to you, and how it gets there.
1 min 44
Privacy and your guests’ details
What is held, how long for, and what a guest can do about it.
1 min 28
Five steps, in the order you will meet them
Every screenshot below is the real tool, filled in with an example event.
Create the event, and paste your list in.
Open your events and choose Create new event. Everything for a new event lives on this one form, guest list included, so there is no second screen to find.
- Event name is what your guests will see in the subject line. Something they will recognise beats something formal.
- Event date and time is when the food is needed, not when you are asking.
- Response deadline is your own cut-off for chasing. Give yourself a couple of working days before the event so late answers are not a scramble.
- Location and Description are optional, and both help a guest work out which meeting this is.
- Keep attendee details for sets how long names, email addresses and notes stay after the event: 90 days by default, or 30, or 7. After that they are deleted and only the dietary counts remain.
- Attendees takes one person per line, as name, email. Paste a column straight out of a spreadsheet, or load a CSV.
Example. The whole set-up is one form.Your guests get one email and a private link.
Everyone on the list receives their own invitation with a link that belongs only to them. Two large buttons cover the common case, so most people never open a form at all.
If they have nothing to declare they press I have no dietary requirements and they are done. If they do, the form is a list of tick boxes plus one free text box for anything the kitchen should know. It works on a phone, and it takes about two minutes.
They can come back to the same link and change their answer at any time. The new answer replaces the old one, and you and our kitchen both see the change.
Once they submit, they get a confirmation showing exactly what was recorded, so a misunderstanding surfaces immediately rather than on the day.
Example. The invitation, as a guest receives it.
Example. The form itself.
Example. The same form on a phone.
Example. What we have for you, confirmed back.Watch the answers arrive, and let it do the chasing.
Your event page counts four things: how many are on the list, how many have responded, how many are outstanding, and how many need a careful read.
That last one is the point of the whole exercise. Anything a guest has flagged as severe is pulled to the top of the summary rather than left in a row halfway down a table.
- Waiting means they have not answered yet.
- Responded means they have, and their answer is current.
- Needs re-confirming means they answered before something changed. Their answer is still there, but nobody has confirmed it since.
You do not have to chase anyone. Anybody still outstanding gets a reminder about two days before your deadline, and another inside the last day. People who have already answered are never emailed again, and nobody is reminded twice for the same thing.
Example. Every guest, their status, and their answer.Plans change. Nothing is quietly assumed.
If you move the event date, everyone who already answered is marked Needs re-confirming and you are told how many. Their answers are not thrown away, but they are no longer treated as settled.
Ask them to confirm emails just those people. Nobody else is disturbed.
- Add people at any time. Latecomers get the same invitation as everyone else, and only they receive it.
- Replace swaps one person for another when somebody sends a colleague instead.
- Remove takes a guest out of the numbers but keeps their answer, and can be undone with Restore. Nothing is destroyed.
After your response deadline passes, guests can still update their requirements for a while, up to the last moment a change can reach the food. Anything that changes in that window emails both you and our kitchen, so a late change is never something you find out about on the day.
Cancel this event stops all chasing and tells your guests. It keeps every answer and can be undone. Delete permanently is the one action that cannot.
Example. What you see after moving a date.
Example. A reminder, sent only to people still outstanding.Hand the list to the kitchen in one click.
The summary is written for the people making the food. Anything serious sits at the top under Needs a careful read. The plain counts sit underneath it, then any notes a guest added in their own words.
- Order reference is free text, and can hold several. It is purely so whoever reads the summary can tie it back to the paperwork. Nothing is calculated from it.
- Send emails the summary to our kitchen. You can send it more than once as answers firm up.
- Copy gives you a read-only link that always shows the current list, which is the one to forward to a colleague. Revoke switches that link off.
Example. The summary, and the two ways to send it on.Whose information this is, and how long we keep it
Dietary requirements are health information. The tool is built on that basis.
Each guest gets their own link
A guest can see and change their own answer, and nothing else. They cannot see who else was invited, or what anybody else said.
Details are deleted on a timer
You choose 7, 30 or 90 days after the event. Names, email addresses and notes are then deleted. The dietary counts are kept, so the numbers still add up.
A guest can withdraw
Every email and every form carries a link to remove their details there and then, without having to ask you or us.
Common questions
Someone says they never got the email
Check the address on your attendee list first, since a typo is the usual cause. Ask them to look in junk or clutter as well.
If the address was wrong, use Replace to correct it and they will be sent a fresh invitation. If the address was right, open Their form next to their name, which is the same link their email contains, and send it to them directly.
A guest wants to change what they said
They can, and they do not need you. The link in their original email keeps working, and a new answer replaces the old one. You will see it update, and so will our kitchen.
Someone will not use email, or does not have one
Open Their form beside their name on the attendee list and fill it in on their behalf. It is recorded exactly as if they had done it themselves.
Somebody is sending a colleague instead
Use Replace next to their name. The original person comes off the numbers, the new person is invited, and you are not left reconciling two lists.
My deadline passed and someone still has not answered
You have three honest options, and the tool will not pick for you.
- Move the response deadline. It is your deadline, and the reminders follow it.
- Chase them yourself, using Their form to hand them the link directly.
- Proceed without them. Say so in the summary rather than guessing on their behalf.
Guests can still update after your deadline, up to the last moment a change can reach the food. Anything that lands in that window emails you and our kitchen.
I entered the wrong date or details
Use Edit on the event details panel. If you change the date, everyone who already answered is flagged Needs re-confirming, and Ask them to confirm emails only those people. Their existing answers are kept either way.
Can I see exactly what my guests will receive?
Yes. Preview the email on the event page shows you the real invitation before anybody gets it. Adding yourself to the attendee list is worth doing too, so you go through it the way they will.
The event is off
Cancel this event stops the chasing and notifies your guests. Every answer is kept and the event can be reinstated. Tell us separately about the catering itself, since cancelling here does not cancel your order.
Delete permanently destroys the event and every answer in it. That one cannot be undone.
Ready when you are, and already paid for.
DietSync comes with your catering. If you have an event with us, it is waiting in your account.
Stuck on something this page does not answer? Email [email protected] or call (02) 9640 0366, Monday to Friday.