Recording GrabFood and foodpanda Sales in Accounting Software

Why the bank deposit isn't your sales figure

Suppose customers ordered S$1,000 of food through a delivery app this week. You might receive S$700 after commission, a promotion you co-funded and a refund. If you record S$700 as sales, three things go wrong: revenue is understated, commission (a real cost) never appears in your expenses, and you can't check whether the platform charged you correctly.

The fix is the same in Xero, QuickBooks and Zoho Books: record the gross sales and each deduction on separate lines, through a clearing account that represents money the platform owes you. Xero's developer guide on handling payment processor receipts describes exactly this approach for lump-sum remittances, including moving fees out of the clearing account into an expense account.

The lines to separate on every payout

Each platform labels these differently, but the categories are the same. Set up one account (or tracking category) for each.

Grab's help article on checking refund charges says refund charges for regular orders are deducted daily and appear in the financial report's Transactions tab with Main Category 'Adjustment' and Subcategory 'Deduction - Eater Compensation'. That is the line you map to Refunds.

GrabFood: reports and payout timing

Grab's help article When will I receive my payment says payments for completed orders are processed within the next 48 hours, with bank processing time on top, and that compensation for orders is paid the following week (Wednesday for DBS, Thursday for other banks).

• Settlement report: Grab says it has a Summary tab, whose amount matches your bank statement for each paid date, and a Details tab with order and settlement details.
• GrabMerchant Financial Report (GMFR): Grab's GMFR guide describes an Excel report with a breakdown of earnings, transaction-level details and cash transfers.
• Where to download: the Finance section of the GrabMerchant Portal or app.

Because Grab pays frequently, most outlets post one summary entry per day or per week from the settlement report, rather than one invoice per order.

foodpanda: what to check in your agreement

foodpanda's partner FAQ says it works on a commission-based model and that the rate depends on factors such as location and cuisine type. foodpanda doesn't publish its Singapore payout schedule or report format on its public pages, so confirm three things in your partner agreement and partner portal before setting up the software:

Once you have one real payout report, map each column to the accounts in the table above. The method is the same as for Grab, only the column names differ.

Setting it up in Xero or QuickBooks

This structure works in Xero, QuickBooks and Zoho Books. It takes an hour to set up and a few minutes per payout afterwards.

1. 1

   Create a clearing account per platform

   For example 'GrabFood clearing' and 'foodpanda clearing' as current asset accounts. In Xero, tick 'Enable payments to this account'.

2. 2

   Create the revenue and expense accounts

   Delivery sales (or one sales account with a tracking category per platform), Commission, Promotions, Refunds and Advertising.

3. 3

   Post one summary per payout period

   From the settlement report, record a sales invoice or journal: gross sales to revenue, each deduction to its expense, and the net to the clearing account.

4. 4

   Reconcile the bank deposit to the clearing account

   When the payout arrives, match the bank line to the clearing account. Xero's guide notes the clearing account should then go back to zero.

5. 5

   Check the clearing balance weekly

   A balance that doesn't clear means a missing payout, a timing difference or a deduction you didn't post.

6. 6

   Keep the source reports

   Save each settlement report and tax invoice with the entry, so your accountant can trace every figure.

Daily or weekly summaries vs per-order entries

Per-order entries look precise but create hundreds of transactions a month and add little. Summaries per payout period are what most accountants expect for delivery platforms.

If you also sell through your own ordering site, our guide to your own online ordering vs delivery apps compares what each channel really costs, and QR ordering for hawkers and cafés covers dine-in.

Do it yourself or get help?

If you have one outlet on one platform, the six steps above are manageable in a spreadsheet plus your accounting software. It gets harder with several outlets, both platforms and your own ordering channel, because each report has different columns and payout timing.

Our Sales & Payout Sync (S$490) connects up to 3 sales channels to your accounting software, posts each payout as a summary with sales, fees and refunds split out, brings in marketplace or platform payouts from their settlement reports, agrees the account and tax mapping with your accountant, and checks one month of payouts against your bank. It doesn't include bookkeeping, and connector fees, if any, are paid by you.