Business lunch: How to dine

• Definition, Explanation
• Tips, Checklist

Talks with clients, suppliers, associates, as well as with project teams and fellow workers are all well to do at a business lunch. The chance is that you will not only talk about business but also get to know the others personally. The relaxed atmosphere and the joy of eating help, in addition, to resolve one or the other deadlock, difference or difficult relation. Sometimes it is just about celebrating successes or start new projects motivated.

For that to work well, some rules of conduct should be regarded. Otherwise, a business lunch can be a disaster and result in the opposite of what was intended. That is why those conduct rules are becoming standard social competencies. These competencies might also be tested in the process of application for an executive job or a job in clients care / in the field.

Business lunches belong to work. The employer normally takes over the expenses and can set them off against tax.

Business-Etiquette

• Carefully choose a suitable restaurant, which best you already know. Take into account, if known, the preferences of your guests – vegetarians, Biergarten, gourmet restaurant
• Invite your guests telling the time and place. After a talk on the phone, you should send an email with the data and driving directions
• If you are the host, be the first one to wait for your guests at the location
• As a host, introduce your guests to one another. Usually, higher ranked persons are the one who the others are introduced to. For equal ranks, the age decides. Mention people’s full names and their jobs, positions
• Let your guests choose their seats for themselves and let them sit down first. Possibly place men and women alternately
• The ordering is done everyone for themselves, though the host may of course make some recommendations. As a host, you order last. The tasting of the wine and the signal to start eating are the host’s job, too
• The number of courses of the meals should have a common basis. A working break lunch usually comprises few components, while a client lunch or motivation meal is usually multi-course
• Begin to eat when everyone has been served
• Cutlery is used beginning at the outside. Used cutlery is put on the plate, not back on the table cloth. For several drinks, use the glasses from the right to the left. Grab the glass at the stem
• Use the napkin to cover your knees when you start eating
• If you do not know how to eat e.g. lobster, sea food or poultry, observe the others, or ask the waiter for help
• Do not mash potatoes or mix the food altogether
• Drinking alcohol is not necessary. Even as a host, you can do without alcohol while your guests are having beer and wine
• Mishaps and embarrassing things are brought to an end quickly and without a big fuss. Apologize at once, and once again one day later writtenly
• Mobile phones have no place in business lunches
• Dress and appear appropriately
• Communicate by small talk. Avoid politics, gossip, finance, jokes
• If you eat bread before the main meal starts, break it into small pieces and put butter on the single pieces
• Crossed cutlery on your plate signals a break of yours, while positioning it straight on “five o clock” means that you are finished. The napkin is put beside the plate folded used-side-in, after the meal
• The payment is done discreetly by the host by credit card or at the counter. A tip of 5 to 10 per cent are usual
• Note: Business women behave just like male hosts, today

Tax

• Turnover tax for the expenses of a business lunch is completely refunded by the revenue. 70 % of the eating costs can be set off against tax
• Being catered in the own residence is not refunded
• Expenses have to be proved by bills. They must contain date, place, occasion of the event, the catered persons, possibly the company and the payer’s signature
• The expenses must be appropriate. The approved amount depends on the company’s turnover and on the importance of the invited for the business
• The costs for employees are refunded completely. That is also for snacks or cookies in company meetings
• The bill must be machine-printed
• The over-night stay of associates does not count as entertainment expenses, it can be refunded completely, but must be billed in the name of the hosting company, not the guest
• Invitations to employees are a money-equivalent benefit-in-kind (perquisite), unless it is a work lunch. The free amount of benefits-in-kind per month is 44 €. Once that is exceeded, the whole amount is income- and social-security-taxed