First, decide which report owns the sale
A Toronto restaurant may have the same order in its point-of-sale system and a delivery-app export. Importing both as new revenue doubles the sale. Choose a source for sales and use the other report to verify the order, channel and payment trail. Keep order identifiers where the systems make them available.
Use a separate clearing account for each platform. Post the activity supported by its reports, then match the payout against that clearing balance. An amount left at month-end may be a timing difference, reserve, refund or error. Record which it is and the expected resolution.
Illustrative settlement: the deposit is not the revenue
Assume the restaurant is an HST registrant, the sales are taxable in Ontario and the platform report confirms the restaurant’s tax responsibility. A sample batch contains $1,000 of sales plus $130 HST. It deducts a $50 sale refund plus $6.50 HST, and a $100 platform fee plus $13 HST. The bank receives $960.50.
The net deposit alone cannot tell you any of those components. The fee tax also needs appropriate supporting documentation before it is treated as an input tax credit. Actual contracts, tax collection arrangements and reports must be checked; this example does not establish how every platform handles tax.
Tips and promotions need separate explanations
Record who receives tips and how they are distributed. CRA’s controlled-tip rules can trigger employer withholding and T4 reporting; direct tips have different employer treatment. The fact that a customer used a card does not settle the question. Keep the policy and payroll review alongside the reconciliation.
Promotions also need an owner: was the discount funded by the restaurant or the platform? Tie the adjustment to the original order, including any later reversal. This prevents a marketing credit from being mistaken for an ordinary customer sale.
A practical weekly check
Give the closing manager responsibility for retrieving exports before the account or report period changes. Resolve small discrepancies while order details are still accessible.
- Match sales totals and refunds to the source chosen for each channel.
- List payout IDs that have not reached the bank.
- Reconcile tips owed or paid using the documented workflow.
- Carry explanations for reserves and disputed charges into month-end.
Put this into practice
Sources and current guidance
A practical next step
Bring the records you have.
We can identify missing information, agree on the scope and organize the next bookkeeping step.
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