The riders are waiting. Here’s how to keep the money straight.

A different kind of sale

A delivery app order looks like any other at the counter. It isn’t. The customer has already paid, but not you: they paid the app, and the app pays you later, less its commission. The order is collected by somebody who isn’t your customer. And the only record of it, unless you keep one, is on the app’s side.

That’s fine as long as you treat it as a different kind of sale. It’s when app orders get mixed in with the counter that the trouble starts.

Before you join

Each app, Bolt Food, Glovo and Chowdeck, has its own sign-up for food businesses. Before you join, find out from each one, in writing:

• what they keep from each order;
• how often they pay you, and into what;
• who pays when an order is refunded, late or wrong;
• whether you may charge more on the app than at your counter;
• what packaging they expect.

The answers are different for each app and change over time, so we don’t quote figures here. Ask, and keep what they send you.

Keep app money out of the drawer

This is the one rule that matters most. An app order is never cash. If it’s rung up as a cash sale, the drawer is expected to hold money that never arrived, and the count at closing reads short every day you’re busy on the apps. Nobody stole anything, but somebody will be suspected.

In Tabworthy, every sale says where it came from. Tap the line under the sale and pick the app by name. The sale is checked out as Paid on the app, and it never counts as cash in the drawer.

Tell the kitchen where it’s going

A plate for the table and a plate for a rider are made differently: packed, sealed, the sauce separate. When the kitchen knows an order is for Chowdeck, it gets packed right the first time.

On the kitchen board, every ticket shows where it’s going: in the shop, takeaway, delivery, or the app by name. The receipt shows it too.

Check every payout

The app will tell you what you sold. Believe your own list instead. When a payout arrives, set the app’s statement against your record of that app’s orders, order by order:

• an order you made that isn’t on their list;
• a refund you weren’t told about;
• a commission higher than you agreed.

The report adds up each day by where the sales came from, so you have Bolt Food’s day, Glovo’s day and Chowdeck’s day to check against, apart from the counter. If you’re on paper, give each app its own column.

Prices on the apps

Some businesses charge more on the apps to cover the commission. Whether you can is up to each app’s rules, so check first. If you do, keep both prices written down, and make sure whoever rings up the order knows which is which. An app order rung up at the counter price loses the commission twice.

What Tabworthy doesn’t do

It doesn’t connect to the apps. Their orders come in on their tablets and phones, and you ring them up on the till so the day adds up and the kitchen sees them. It doesn’t read the apps’ payouts for you, and it doesn’t know their commission. It keeps your side of the record straight, which is the side you’ll need.