If your restaurant or cafe takes orders through Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Just Eat, you already know that these platforms do a lot more than bring in extra customers. They also introduce a layer of financial complexity that many owners do not fully understand until something goes wrong, whether that is a VAT return that does not add up, a bank balance that never seems to match the till, or a food cost percentage that looks fine until delivery commission is taken into account. Getting delivery platform accounting right from the start protects your margins and keeps you compliant with HMRC.
This guide is written for restaurant, cafe and takeaway owners across the UK who use one or more delivery platforms and want to understand exactly how commission, VAT and payouts should be recorded. If you are looking for a broader overview of restaurant accounting first, our complete guide to accountants for restaurants and hospitality businesses in the UK and our dedicated guide to restaurant accountants in Uxbridge and across the UK cover VAT, payroll and bookkeeping in more general terms. This guide goes deeper into one specific area, the accounting side of delivery platforms.
What This Guide Covers
- Why delivery platform income needs different accounting treatment
- How Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat commission actually works
- VAT on delivery platform sales and commission
- How to reconcile multiple delivery platforms in your bookkeeping
- The cash flow impact of delayed platform payouts
- Recording refunds, chargebacks and marketing deductions correctly
- Choosing accounting software that reconciles delivery platforms automatically
- Common delivery platform accounting mistakes to avoid
Why Delivery Platform Income Needs Careful Accounting
For a restaurant or cafe with no delivery platforms, accounting is fairly straightforward. Cash and card sales land in the till or the bank, and the numbers largely reconcile themselves. Once Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Just Eat enter the picture, that simplicity disappears. Each platform charges commission before it pays you, deducts refunds and marketing costs at source, and pays out on its own schedule rather than daily. The amount that lands in your bank account is never the same as the amount your customers actually paid, which means the bank statement alone cannot tell you what your restaurant has really sold.
This matters for three reasons. First, HMRC expects your VAT return to reflect the value of what you sold, not simply what you were paid after commission, so getting the treatment wrong can lead to underpaid or overpaid VAT. Second, your true food cost percentage and profitability depend on knowing how much commission each platform is taking, which can range from around twenty percent to over thirty percent of an order depending on the platform and the contract you have negotiated. Third, cash flow forecasting becomes far harder if you are not tracking what each platform owes you between payout dates.
Proper delivery platform accounting solves all three problems at once, and it becomes even more important once a restaurant or cafe relies on delivery for a large share of its total revenue rather than treating it as a small side channel.
How Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat Commission Works
Although each platform structures its agreements slightly differently, the basic mechanics are similar. A customer places an order and pays the full menu price, sometimes with a delivery fee and service charge added on top. The platform then deducts its commission, which is usually a percentage of the order value, along with any marketing spend you have opted into and the cost of any promotional discounts offered to the customer. What is left is paid into your bank account, typically on a weekly basis, sometimes with a short delay or a rolling reserve held back.
It is worth requesting a detailed breakdown or statement from each platform rather than relying on the headline payout figure. Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat all provide downloadable reports showing gross sales, commission, refunds and any other deductions for each period, and this report, not the bank deposit, is the correct source document for your bookkeeping. Restaurants and cafes that only look at the amount hitting their bank account often underestimate their true sales figures and underestimate how much commission is really costing them.
VAT on Delivery Platform Sales and Commission
VAT treatment for delivery platform sales follows the same underlying food and drink rules that apply to any other sale from your restaurant or cafe, which our dedicated VAT service can help you apply correctly. Hot food sold for immediate consumption is generally standard rated at twenty percent, while some cold takeaway items can be zero rated, and the exact treatment can vary depending on what is being sold. You can review current VAT rates on the UK government website for further background. The important point for delivery platform accounting is that VAT is due on the full value the customer paid, not on the reduced amount you receive after commission has been deducted.
Commission charged by Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Just Eat is itself a service subject to VAT, and if the platform is UK VAT registered, this VAT should appear on the invoice or statement it issues you each period. If your restaurant or cafe is VAT registered, this is input VAT you should be reclaiming, provided you hold a valid VAT invoice from the platform. Missing this reclaim is one of the most common ways restaurants and cafes quietly lose money on delivery platform accounting, since commission can easily run into thousands of pounds a month for a busy site.
Could Delivery Platform Sales Push You Over the VAT Threshold?
Because delivery platform sales are added to your total turnover for VAT purposes, a restaurant or cafe that adds Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Just Eat can find itself approaching the current VAT registration threshold of ninety thousand pounds of rolling twelve month turnover faster than expected. Many owners only think about VAT registration when reviewing till takings, and forget that gross delivery platform sales, not the smaller net amount paid out, count towards this figure.
If you are close to the threshold, it is worth reviewing your combined turnover regularly rather than waiting for your accountant to flag it at year end, since late VAT registration can lead to penalties and backdated VAT liabilities. This is another area where accurate delivery platform accounting pays for itself, by giving you early warning before a registration deadline is missed.
Reconciling Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat Payouts in Your Bookkeeping
Good bookkeeping for a multi platform restaurant means recording gross sales, commission and any other deductions separately for each platform, rather than simply logging the net amount that arrives in the bank. This gives you an accurate turnover figure for VAT purposes, a true picture of how much each platform actually costs you, and a clean audit trail if HMRC ever asks questions. Our bookkeeping service builds this reconciliation into your monthly routine, so nothing is missed and your management accounts reflect what is genuinely happening in the business.
In practice, this means matching each platform’s own sales report to the corresponding bank deposit, checking that commission, refunds and any promotional deductions line up, and posting the gross sale, the commission expense and the VAT correctly rather than netting everything off. Doing this every month, rather than trying to reconstruct twelve months of Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat statements at year end, saves a significant amount of time and reduces the risk of errors creeping into your accounts.
Cash Flow Impact of Delayed Delivery Platform Payouts
Because delivery platforms typically pay out weekly rather than daily, and sometimes hold back a rolling reserve against future refunds or disputes, there is often a gap of several days to two weeks between a sale being made and the cash actually reaching your bank account. For a restaurant or cafe with tight margins, this timing difference can create real pressure, particularly around supplier payments, payroll and rent, which do not wait for platform payout schedules.
Tracking what each platform owes you as a debtor balance, rather than only looking at cash in the bank, gives you a much clearer picture of your true financial position at any point in time. This is especially important during busy periods such as Christmas or summer, when delivery platform sales can spike sharply and the gap between selling and being paid becomes more pronounced. Restaurants and cafes with several sites, or those considering funding or additional finance, particularly benefit from this level of visibility, which is exactly the kind of oversight our outsourced CFO services are built to provide.
Recording Refunds, Chargebacks and Marketing Deductions Correctly
Refunds for incorrect, late or missing orders are a normal part of running a delivery business, but they need to be recorded against the correct period and the correct platform rather than simply accepted as a lower payout figure. The same applies to any in app marketing spend, boosted visibility fees or promotional discounts you have agreed to, all of which reduce your net receipts but should be visible as separate costs in your accounts rather than hidden inside a smaller bank deposit.
This level of detail matters at year end too, since your statutory accounts need to reflect an accurate picture of turnover, cost of sales and marketing expenditure rather than a single blended delivery platform figure. It also helps you compare the true cost of each platform over time, which is valuable information when deciding whether to renegotiate commission rates or reduce your reliance on one particular app.
Choosing Accounting Software That Reconciles Delivery Platforms Automatically
Manually keying in figures from three separate delivery platform statements every week is time consuming and easy to get wrong, which is why most growing restaurants and cafes move to cloud accounting software with automated reconciliation. Platforms such as Xero and QuickBooks can connect to hospitality specific apps that pull Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat data automatically, breaking each payout down into gross sales, commission, refunds and VAT without manual data entry.
The right setup depends on your EPOS system, the number of sites you operate and how many delivery platforms you use, so it is worth getting advice before committing to a particular combination of software and integrations. We help clients choose and set up an accounting system that fits how their restaurant or cafe actually operates, so delivery platform accounting becomes a five minute monthly check rather than a recurring headache.
Reconciling Delivery Platform Sales Alongside Till and Card Payments
Most restaurants and cafes are not purely delivery businesses, so delivery platform accounting cannot be treated in isolation from the rest of your daily takings. Dine in customers pay by card, cash or contactless at the till, while delivery customers pay the platform directly, and both revenue streams ultimately need to appear together in your management accounts to give you an accurate view of total turnover, total food cost and overall profitability.
The safest approach is to keep delivery platform sales as their own clearly labelled income stream in your bookkeeping, rather than merging them into general sales figures. This allows you to compare margins across dine in, takeaway and delivery separately, which is particularly useful when deciding how much menu prices should be adjusted to absorb commission, or whether a particular platform is still worth the cost once delivery platform accounting reveals its true impact on profit.
Common Delivery Platform Accounting Mistakes UK Restaurants and Cafes Make
We regularly see the same handful of mistakes when we take on a new hospitality client that uses delivery platforms. Avoiding these is one of the simplest ways to improve the accuracy of your delivery platform accounting.
Recording Only the Net Bank Deposit
Logging the amount that lands in the bank as your total sale, rather than the gross amount the customer paid, understates turnover and can lead to VAT being calculated incorrectly, which becomes a bigger problem the longer it goes uncorrected.
Losing Commission VAT Invoices
Commission invoices are often emailed separately from the payout statement or sit inside a platform’s own portal, and they are easy to lose track of, which means VAT registered restaurants and cafes miss out on input VAT they are entitled to reclaim.
Not Reconciling Every Platform Every Month
Leaving reconciliation until year end makes it far harder to trace discrepancies back to a specific order, refund or promotional period, and increases the risk of errors going unnoticed for months at a time.
Ignoring the True Impact on Food Cost Percentage
Menu pricing that looks profitable on paper can quickly become unprofitable once delivery commission is factored in, so it is important to calculate food cost percentage separately for delivery sales rather than assuming it matches your dine in figures.
Why Choose NS Accounting for Restaurant and Cafe Delivery Platform Accounting
At NS Accounting, we work with restaurants, cafes and takeaways across Uxbridge and the wider UK, and delivery platform accounting is a routine part of how we support hospitality clients. We understand how Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat structure their commission, how the VAT treatment should be applied, and how to build a bookkeeping process that reconciles every platform accurately every month. You can read more about how we support the sector in our complete guide to accountants for restaurants in the UK and our dedicated guide for restaurant accountants in Uxbridge and across the UK.
Our clients trust us because we combine hospitality specific knowledge with genuinely responsive service, which is reflected in over two hundred five star Google reviews and an Excellent rating on Trustpilot. You can read what our clients say for yourself on our testimonials page, and find out more about our team and our approach on our about us page.
How to Get Started With Delivery Platform Accounting Support
Getting your delivery platform accounting under control does not need to be complicated. Here is how working with us typically starts.
Book a free consultation. Contact us to talk through which delivery platforms you use and how your books are currently kept.
We review your current setup. We look at your existing bookkeeping and accounting software to see what is working and what needs to change.
We build your reconciliation process. We set up or improve the process that matches each platform’s statements to your accounts every month.
You get clear, accurate numbers. Ongoing support means delivery platform income never becomes a mystery again, and you always know exactly where your restaurant or cafe stands.
Final Thoughts: Delivery Platform Accounting for Restaurants and Cafes
Deliveroo, Uber Eats and Just Eat have become an essential part of how many UK restaurants and cafes generate revenue, but the accounting behind them is more complicated than it first appears. Getting delivery platform accounting right protects your VAT position, gives you an accurate picture of profitability, and helps you manage cash flow with confidence.
If you would like help setting this up properly, or want a second opinion on how your delivery platform income is currently being recorded, contact us today to arrange a free, no obligation consultation.
