MARKETPLACES AND SELLING PLATFORMS · QUICKBOOKS ONLINE & XERO
How to Categorize DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub in QuickBooks and Xero
Last Updated: October 5, 2026Delivery marketplaces are the clearest example of why net deposits destroy a set of books. A restaurant’s delivery payout arrives after commission that can take a very large share of the ticket, after marketing fees, after refunds granted to customers you never spoke to, and after sales tax handling that differs by platform and state. Book the deposit as sales and you cannot answer whether delivery makes money — which, for many restaurants, it does not.
The Short Answer
| What the charge actually is | Gross order value, minus commission, minus marketing or promotion fees, minus customer refunds and adjustments, minus equipment or tablet fees, with sales tax handled differently by platform. |
| Where each belongs | Gross order value → revenue, by channel. Commission → its own cost-of-sales account. Promotions → advertising. Refunds → against revenue. |
| QuickBooks Online default | Separate income accounts per channel; a custom Delivery Commission under cost of sales; Advertising for promotions. |
| Xero default | Separate revenue accounts per channel; a custom Delivery Commission direct cost; Advertising. |
| Expense or balance sheet | Commission and promotions are expenses. Sales tax collected may or may not be your liability depending on platform and state — it must not sit in revenue either way. |
| Bank feed descriptor | Commonly contains DOORDASH, UBER EATS or GRUBHUB with a payout reference. One deposit covers many orders. |
Channel Separation Is the Whole Point
If delivery revenue sits in the same account as dine-in and takeaway, the business has no way to evaluate the decision it most needs to evaluate.
Commission on delivery marketplaces is a large percentage of the ticket — far larger than card processing — and the food cost, packaging and labour are broadly the same as for a dine-in order. So delivery orders often carry little or no contribution, and sometimes negative contribution once packaging is counted.
None of that is visible unless revenue and commission are split by channel. With the split, the answer is arithmetic: gross delivery revenue, less commission, less food cost, less packaging. Many restaurants doing this exercise for the first time conclude they are buying volume at a loss, and adjust prices on the platform rather than leaving.
Refunds You Did Not Authorise
Delivery platforms issue customer refunds on their own judgement — for late delivery, missing items or quality complaints — and deduct them from your payout.
Those are a reduction of revenue, and they are worth tracking separately from your own comps and voids, because they measure something different: platform-side service failures and disputes rather than your own operational decisions. A rising platform refund rate is a signal, and it is usually invisible inside a net deposit.
Tracking them also gives you something concrete if you ever want to dispute a pattern with the platform.
DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub Categorisation FAQs
How do I know whether delivery orders are profitable?
By splitting revenue and commission by channel. Delivery commission takes a large share of the ticket while food cost, packaging and labour stay broadly the same as a dine-in order, so contribution is often very thin and sometimes negative. With the split the calculation is simple arithmetic; without it the question cannot be answered at all.
Should delivery sales go in the same income account as dine-in?
No. Separate income accounts per channel, with commission in its own cost account, is the minimum needed to evaluate the channel. Combined, a growing delivery business can increase revenue while reducing profit and nothing in the accounts will show why.
How should platform-issued refunds be recorded?
Against revenue, and tracked separately from your own comps and voids. Platform refunds measure service failures and customer disputes handled by the platform rather than your own operational decisions, so a rising rate is a signal worth seeing — and it is completely invisible inside a net payout.
This page is about where the transaction belongs in your books. Whether a cost is deductible, and how it is treated on a return, is a question for your CPA — and consistent categorisation is what lets them answer it without guessing. Dedicated bookkeepers from $75/month, extra hours at $15/hour, wholesale $10/hour for CPA firms, with a 100% money-back guarantee on your 1st retainer, refundable on the unused balance.
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