Aprio Offers Solution to Untangling 3P Delivery Sales

At a glance

• The main takeaway: Delivery has changed the way restaurants do business. Restaurants now leverage third-party delivery services to reach a wider audience, expand their reach, and diversify new revenue streams.
• Impact on your business: Delivery is an extension of your brand. Meeting your guest with this convenience offers them this flexibility. However, understanding the profitability of these platforms will be key to driving revenue to your bottom line.
• Next steps: Reach out to Aprio’s Restaurant, Franchise & Hospitality team to learn more about Loop and how it can help untangle your third-party delivery accounting.
  

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The full story:

Delivery has changed the way restaurants do business. Most restaurants now leverage third-party delivery services to reach a wider audience, expand their reach, and diversify new revenue streams. This has provided convenience and opened more ways to not only engage with but retain guests.

However, third-party delivery has also completely disrupted the revenue cycle, creating more work for restaurants’ back offices, driving restaurant owners to focus on optimizing delivery menus, utilizing online ordering systems, and leveraging AI to cater to guest preferences. As the industry evolves, restaurants must be flexible and continue adapting to remain competitive in the current delivery-driven landscape.

Most restaurant owners use a variety of third-party platforms, such as DoorDash, Grubhub or UberEats, to deliver mobile orders to their guests. Utilizing disparate platforms can trigger a range of challenges, including:

1. Different fee structures and reporting processes.
   Each third-party delivery company has its own fee structures and reporting processes for line
   items such as sales taxes. Reconciling the monies received with the sales charged in addition to incorporating the fees and taxes remitted can be complex — particularly for multi-unit restaurant operators who need to reconcile multiple third-party delivery sales across several locations.
   
   
2. Chargebacks
   Chargebacks are refunds that guests request on their delivery orders. This can be due to any number of reasons, such as an error on the restaurant’s part (incorrect order), on the delivery company’s part (order took too long to arrive), or even fraud on the guest’s part.
   
   Unless disputed, chargebacks are automatically considered lost revenue and deducted from the restaurant’s bank account. Very often, operators are not devoting any resources to disputing these chargebacks and just accepted these as part of doing business in this new environment. But what if those “few lost sales” add up to several hundred dollars a month per store? That can be real money and could prove to be a game-changer in the profitability of this revenue stream. But how can operators find the resources to chase this money?
   
   
3. Lack of visibility
   When dealing with several different third-party delivery partners, it can be challenging for
   restaurant owners to gain visibility over data and insights critical to efficient decision-making.
   Logging into each third-party platform is time consuming so many restaurant owners do not
   devote any time to bolstering the operations team with data that could drive revenue. Comparing
   stores of equal volume or guest traffic is daunting when looking across all the services.
   Transparency is key to not only finding delivery issues but to resolving them before they impact
   the guest’s experience.
   

Resolve 3P delivery challenges with Loop powered by Aprio

Aprio’s Restaurant, Franchise & Hospitality team knows that managing and reconciling transactions from various delivery partners is a time-consuming and intricate task, often leading to delays and inefficiencies in handling chargebacks and refunds, and eventually the overall review of third-party delivery services as a revenue stream.

Loop‘s cutting edge technology streamlines this process, offering automated solutions for reconciling transactions and promptly resolving delivery chargebacks. By integrating seamlessly with popular accounting systems such as QBO and Sage Intacct, Loop streamlines operations and helps restaurant owners solve challenges by providing unprecedented transparency and insights into their delivery revenue cycle.

Loop’s advanced technology offers clients the business solutions they need for clear financial visibility, enhancing transparency and reporting capabilities that empower restaurant owners with valuable insights for trusted advisory and strategic decision-making. This is why Aprio has collaborated with Loop — we believe this collaboration is a significant step forward in addressing a critical pain point for restaurant businesses, particularly in the face of burgeoning delivery sales.

Join us to learn more about Loop and how we can make sense of delivery in this new era for our
guests: Loop. ai Collaboration.

Katie Salerno
Director, Client Services
Restaurant, Franchise & Hospitality