Delivery-order margins: include packaging, promotions, and refunds

Delivery can add sales while leaving little contribution to rent and the rest of the restaurant's costs. The order has food and packaging costs, may carry a merchant-funded promotion, and can generate later refund charges. A platform payout shows only part of that picture. Start with the order and attach the relevant costs before judging the channel.

Choose a clear margin definition. An incremental contribution view includes the revenue and costs that change with the order. A fully allocated view adds an explicit share of other costs. Both can be useful, but a manager should know which one is on the screen before deciding to extend delivery hours or run another offer.

DoorDash's merchant statement guidance distinguishes sales, commissions and fees, marketing spend, and amendments. It also distinguishes transaction dates from payout dates. Use the actual contracted plan and transaction detail rather than applying a remembered headline percentage to every order.

Identify who funded each discount. A platform-funded offer and a restaurant-funded offer can look identical to the guest while having different effects on the merchant's proceeds. Preserve any third-party contribution and the corresponding charge so the report shows the restaurant's net cost without hiding how it was calculated.

A delivery meal may include a different portion, an extra sauce, or a package that is not used in the dining room. Build its cost from the actual ingredients and materials. Toast's recipe documentation supports ingredient quantities, preparation batches, and yield; those records can supply the food-cost portion of the calculation without determining the platform fees.

Include packaging that is consumed per order as well as per dish. A three-dish order may need three containers but one outer bag. Allocating a complete bag to every dish overstates one comparison; leaving bags out understates another. Record the unit and quantity so a reviewer can repeat the calculation.

Assume a hypothetical order has $30 of food sales before tax and tips. The restaurant funds a $3 discount, the actual assumed platform charge is $6, food costs $8, packaging costs $1.50, and additional preparation labor costs $2. The defined contribution is $9.50: $30 less those five amounts.

The $6 charge is an illustration, not a published platform price. A real agreement may use a different fee base, rate, or additional charge. The example also excludes other restaurant labor and overhead, so the $9.50 is not net profit. Keep those boundaries in the report rather than adding an unexplained margin percentage.

If a later adjustment charges the restaurant another $5 refund and $1 fee for that order, the same contribution falls to $3.50. Link the adjustment back to the original order cohort for analysis while retaining its actual accounting date. This shows the commercial outcome without rewriting the bank history.

An extra order during a quiet period may use available kitchen capacity. A larger delivery program might require another cook, longer opening hours, or a dedicated packing station. Keep the next step in capacity separate from the per-order calculation, then estimate the additional order volume needed to cover it using realistic contribution assumptions.

Compare like periods and menu mixes. A weekend with larger family orders can have a different packaging and fee profile from a weekday lunch promotion. Track average contribution per order alongside total contribution. Higher sales can coexist with lower total contribution if the promotion changes the mix or adds costs faster than revenue.

Use the review to identify an action: revise a bundle, change packaging, adjust a merchant-funded offer, or remove an item that travels poorly and creates repeated remakes. Check the effect on the guest experience and order demand before assuming a cost reduction improves the overall result.

At month-end, reconcile the analyzed order population to platform transactions, then bridge transactions to payouts and outstanding adjustments. The reconciliation confirms completeness; the food and operating records explain contribution. Keeping both views lets the restaurant answer two useful questions: whether it received the expected proceeds and whether those orders were worth fulfilling on the stated terms.