Aggregator payout reconciliation India

Why aggregator payouts need reconciliation

Swiggy, Zomato, and other aggregators process millions of transactions daily. Despite automated settlement systems, payout discrepancies are common — and most restaurants never catch them because they do not reconcile. Common sources of discrepancies:

• Commission rate applied in the platform's system differs from your contract
• Promotional charges (platform-funded offers that you opted into) applied incorrectly
• GST on commission computed on a different base amount than expected
• TDS deducted at a different rate, or deducted when annual threshold not met
• Customer refunds for cancelled orders charged back to the restaurant when the platform should have absorbed them
• Packaging cost deductions not matching what was agreed in the contract
• Currency rounding errors accumulating across hundreds of small orders

Deductions explained: what the platform takes

• Commission. The platform's primary revenue. Swiggy typically charges 18–25%, Zomato 18–22%, Magicpin 12–18%, ONDC 3–8% depending on the buyer app. The rate depends on your city, cuisine, sales volume, and contract tier. Most restaurants are on a standard city rate; high-volume restaurants can negotiate custom rates.
• GST on commission (18%). The platform charges you GST on its commission — this is not optional and is a government-mandated tax. If the commission is ₹1,000, GST on commission is ₹180, making total commission cost ₹1,180. You can claim input tax credit (ITC) on this if your restaurant is GST-registered.
• Payment gateway fee (1.5–2%). The cost of processing the customer's digital payment (UPI, card, wallet). Some aggregators absorb this; others pass it through to the restaurant. Check your agreement to see if this is included in the commission or a separate charge.
• TDS (Section 194-O, 1%). Tax deducted at source on e-commerce transactions. Applies when annual payout from the platform exceeds ₹30,000. The TDS is deposited with the government on your behalf — you get credit when filing income tax. The platform must issue a TDS certificate (Form 16A) quarterly.
• Promotional charges. If you opted into platform-funded promotions (discounts, Swiggy One benefits, Zomato Gold), a share of the discount may be charged to the restaurant. Verify these against the promotions you actually opted into — uninstructed promotional charges are a common dispute.
• Packaging deductions. Some platforms deduct a nominal per-order packaging contribution if the restaurant uses platform-supplied packaging. Most restaurants in India use their own packaging — if you're seeing this charge unexpectedly, raise a dispute.

What to do when you find a discrepancy

1. Quantify and document. Use this tool to compute the exact discrepancy. Export the reconciliation CSV — this is your documentation for the dispute.
2. Raise a ticket immediately. Swiggy (via Swiggy for Restaurant app → Help → Payments), Zomato (via Zomato for Business → Support → Payments). The sooner the ticket is raised, the more likely a resolution — most platforms have a 90-day window to dispute charges.
3. Cite the specific deduction line. “My commission should be 20% but you deducted 22%” is actionable. “My payout seems less than expected” is not. The CSV export shows each deduction line — use the breakdown in your ticket.
4. Escalate if unresolved in 15 days. Platform support tickets have SLAs of 7–15 days. If unresolved, escalate to your Key Account Manager (KAM) or the platform's restaurant partner WhatsApp group. For amounts above ₹10,000, consider sending a formal email to the platform's grievance officer (a GST regulation requirement).
5. Reconcile every payout, every period. Running this check weekly (matching each payout to the expected figure) ensures discrepancies are caught immediately. A restaurant doing ₹10 lakh/month in aggregator revenue may have ₹5,000–15,000 in unrecovered discrepancies annually if reconciliation is not done.

Where this fits

• Aggregator margin calculator — compute your true net margin on Swiggy/Zomato after commission, GST, and packaging; use margin analysis to set pricing and minimum order values
• Daily collection report — payout received from aggregators is one channel in the daily collection; reconcile weekly payout to daily order totals for the period
• GST invoice generator — for B2B orders on aggregators, you issue a GST invoice; reconcile the invoice values against the aggregator's settlement for those orders
• TDS calculator — TDS deducted by the platform under Section 194-O feeds into your TDS credit for the year; track platform-deducted TDS here
• Bank reconciliation statement — aggregator payouts appear in the bank statement; the BRS reconciles the bank entry to the payout reconciliation
• P1 — Cash close pillar — complete guide to restaurant cash management and end-of-day reconciliation in India