Is your restaurant profitable on Swiggy and Zomato? A month worked line by line

The payout tells you what reached the bank. It does not tell you whether the month made money, because the food still had to be paid for. Working out profit on delivery takes a few more lines than the settlement shows — and once they are written down, it is also clear which lever would change the answer.

Start from gross sales

Gross sales is the item total plus the packing charges on completed orders: everything customers paid for the food and its packaging. Every percentage below is a share of it, so each line can be compared with the next and with last month.

A sample month

One outlet, one platform, one month. The figures are made up, and they add up:

“Entries made” is gross sales less every line above it — what the month should have credited. The amount actually credited here is ₹420 lower. A small gap like this is often timing or a line booked in a different week, and it is worth a look before the month is closed.

Markup and food cost

Most restaurants list dishes on the apps a little above their dine-in menu. With a 20% markup, ₹1,00,000 of item sales is ₹83,333 at menu prices. The month credited ₹61,005 — a menu price recovery of 73.2%: for every ₹100 of food at menu prices, ₹73.20 came back.

If food and packing cost 75% of the menu price, the food behind those sales cost ₹62,500. That is the break-even line, and the month credited ₹1,495 less than it — a loss of 1.4% of gross sales.

Net profit = credited after advertising − (food cost % × item sales at menu prices)

What would break it even

Every line moves in a straight line with its own percentage, so the change that closes a gap is a calculation, not a guess. Here, ₹1,495 is 1.42% of gross sales, so each lever has to move by a little more than that. Any one of these would close it on its own:

• Advertising at 4.57% of gross sales instead of 6.0%.
• Discounts at 8.57% instead of 10.0%.
• A menu markup of about 23% instead of 20% — the same item sales, from less food.

Platform fees are set by the contract, so they are not usually the lever to reach for — though it is still worth trying the number, to see how much of the month rests on them. The levers above are the restaurant's own.

Doing it every month

The sheet is simple once it exists. The work is filling the current column from the right figures each month, for each outlet and platform, and trying the alternatives without breaking the formulas.

MenuMetrics' profit calculator fills the month in from the brand report, shows every line as rupees and a share of gross sales, and works out the exact discount, ad budget or markup that breaks the month even.