> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://guide.garde.app/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Bookkeeping Guidelines

> Bookkeeping guidelines for delivery revenue — how to book it on an accrual basis and reconcile payouts.

Delivery platforms complicate the books: the POS records the order on the day it happens, but the platform pays you days later in a lump sum with commissions and fees buried inside. This page describes the accrual method Garde recommends — recognize delivery revenue from the platform statements, then reconcile the payouts against your bank.

The goal is a P\&L where delivery revenue and fees show up in the right period, and a bank feed where every delivery payout clears cleanly.

## The method

1. **Leave third-party receivables out of the sales journal.** In your [daily sales journal mapping](/accounting/daily-sales-journal/accounts-setup), do **not** map the third-party delivery tenders (`Doordash`, `Uber Eats`, `Grubhub/Seamless`, and so on) to a receivable account. Delivery revenue is recognized from the platform statements in the next step, not from POS tenders — booking it in both places would double-count it.

2. **At end of month, upload the delivery statements.** When the month closes, download each platform's statement and upload it under **Delivery Deposits**. Garde creates the paired delivery journals — a sales entry and a deposit entry — that break each payout into sales, tax, tips, commissions, and fees. See [Delivery Journals](/accounting/delivery-journals/introduction).

3. **Check the P\&L against expected revenue.** Open the P\&L and confirm the numbers line up: **POS revenue** matches your dine-in and pickup sales for the month, and **delivery revenue** matches what the platforms reported. A mismatch usually means a statement wasn't uploaded, or a delivery mapping is missing.

4. **Categorize delivery bank deposits to Undeposited Funds.** As delivery payouts land in your bank feed, categorize each one to **Undeposited Funds - \[Delivery Platform]** (for example, `Undeposited Funds - DoorDash`). This is the account the delivery deposit journal posts to, so the deposit and the journal offset each other.

5. **Reconcile the weekly payouts against the delivery journals.** Match each weekly payout in the bank feed to the corresponding delivery deposit journal. When they agree, the `Undeposited Funds - [Platform]` balance clears to zero — that's your confirmation that what the platform paid equals what it reported. Investigate any leftover balance.

## Known limitation

<Warning>
  **Delivery revenue is not accrued to the exact day it was earned.** Platform payouts are weekly and sometimes straddle a month boundary — a single payout can cover orders from the last few days of one month and the first few days of the next.

  Because revenue is recognized from the payout statements rather than day by day, a few days of delivery sales can land in the wrong month. For most restaurants the amounts are immaterial, but if precise month-end cutoff matters to you, review the payouts that overlap the close and adjust manually.
</Warning>

## Related

* [Delivery Journals: Accounts Setup](/accounting/delivery-journals/accounts-setup) — the accounts these entries post to.
* [Daily Sales Journal: Accounts Setup](/accounting/daily-sales-journal/accounts-setup) — where you leave the third-party tenders unmapped.