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Delivery app integrations

What this is for​

Orders arriving from outside delivery platforms, and how to get them into Restodesk so your kitchen, your reports and your margins all see them.

The realistic starting point​

Platform orders don't flow into Restodesk on their own. They arrive on the platform's own tablet and someone enters them.

That's how most restaurants run it, and it works. The setup is:

  1. An order type per platform, marked Is Delivery.
  2. Staff enter incoming orders under that type.
  3. Send the KOT so the kitchen sees them alongside everything else.

You're paying for that in staff time and getting one kitchen queue plus complete reporting in return. See Third-party delivery apps.

When manual entry stops making sense​

Judge it by volume and by error rate.

Manual entry is fine when: you take a handful of platform orders a day, and someone is at the counter anyway.

It stops being fine when: platform orders are a real share of your business, or wrong entries are producing wrong food. At that point double entry is costing more than an integration would.

The tipping point is different for everyone. A useful test: if someone is regularly retyping orders during a rush, you've passed it.

What an integration would do​

A direct connection between a platform and Restodesk means orders arrive automatically, tickets print without anyone typing, and status updates flow back.

Two routes:

  • The platform's own API, if they offer one, connected to Restodesk's API.
  • A middleware service — several exist specifically for connecting delivery platforms to POS systems.

Both are developer projects. Before commissioning one, get clear on:

  • Which platforms, and whether each actually offers integration to restaurants your size.
  • What flows — orders in, and do statuses flow back?
  • Menu synchronisation — will your menu and prices push to the platform, or stay separate?
  • Who maintains it when a platform changes its API.
  • What it costs to run, against the staff time it saves.

Talk to us before you start — see Getting support.

What to do regardless of integration​

These pay off either way, and they're worth doing this week:

Separate order types per platform. Without them, platform revenue at 30% commission is blended with your own at nearly full margin, and the combined number is meaningless. This is the single highest-value thing on this page.

Platform-specific pricing, where your contracts allow it, so commission doesn't come out of your margin. Set per order type on the menu item.

Read the delivery app report. Net revenue per order, platform against your own. That comparison decides whether a platform is growth or a treadmill.

Push your own channel. A card in every platform bag with your own ordering address on it costs almost nothing and is the highest-return marketing a delivery-heavy restaurant can do.

Good to know​

  • Platform orders entered manually behave exactly like any other order — kitchen tickets, the order journey, reports.
  • Mark platform orders paid in the way that matches how you're settled. The platform pays you, not the customer.
  • Turning off a platform's order type keeps its history. Don't delete a type with orders against it.
  • Webhooks can push your order events outward, which is sometimes half of what an integration needs.

Next​

That's the whole guide. If something isn't covered, or isn't clear, tell us — Getting support.