Delivery management software for restaurants and cloud kitchens

Delivery runs on details

A delivery order goes wrong in more ways than a dine-in one. The phone order is misheard. The address is half written. The kitchen forgets the raita. The rider leaves without the drinks, or comes back at midnight and nobody knows how much cash he should hand over. The office that orders lunch every day says it already paid last week's bill. These show up as refunds, free replacements and arguments.

ArfaPOS handles both sides. The order is entered once as a delivery order, the kitchen sees it, stock and packaging come off inventory, a rider is assigned and updates the status from his phone, and the money is tracked per rider and through customer ledgers. Rider management, inventory and customer credit come with the Growth plan at Rs 9,999 a month and the Business plan.

From phone call to doorstep

1. The order comes in by phone, WhatsApp, or on Business through your own online ordering system, website or app.
2. The cashier enters it as a delivery order with the customer's name, phone, address and delivery charge.
3. The order appears on the kitchen screen marked as delivery, so it gets packed rather than plated.
4. The order is assigned to a rider. He sees the items, total, address and landmark notes, opens directions in maps and can call the customer.
5. He marks picked up, on the way and delivered. The counter sees each step, and website and app customers can track it live.

Settling rider cash at shift end

Cash on delivery is where delivery money goes missing. ArfaPOS records the cash collected on each order against the rider who delivered it. A pizza shop in Hyderabad closes its evening shift like this:

Each rider hands over exactly his figure. If Bilal comes back with Rs 21,400, the Rs 500 gap is raised with him tonight, against a list of his 15 orders. The rider performance report later shows who delivers most and how long deliveries take.

Packaging is a real cost

Dine-in uses plates. Delivery uses boxes, bags, foil, sauce cups and raita containers, and they add up. A cloud kitchen in Karachi works out its packaging per biryani order:

At 900 delivery orders a month, packaging alone costs Rs 58,500. If you add these items to the recipes of your delivery menu, ArfaPOS deducts them as orders go out, and a low-stock alert tells you to reorder boxes before you run out on a Friday night. See recipe costing software for how recipes carry costs.

Office accounts and credit customers

Many restaurants deliver lunch to nearby offices, banks and shops that pay at the end of the week or month. In a notebook, these accounts are where money quietly goes missing. ArfaPOS keeps a customer ledger, so every order and every payment is on record. Here is one office's account for October:

Orders for the month total Rs 48,600, and Rs 15,000 has been paid, leaving Rs 33,600 due. When the office admin asks what the balance is made of, you send the account statement on WhatsApp instead of arguing from memory.

Reading your delivery numbers

Because delivery is its own order type, you can see how many delivery orders you took, what they brought in, and how that compares with dine-in and takeaway. Combine that with packaging cost and you have a fair picture of whether delivery is worth the effort. Once a month, look at delivery sales next to the packaging used and any free replacements you sent after complaints. If replacements keep coming from the same few items, such as soggy fries or a missing raita, fix the packing step for those items first. Delivery-only businesses can read more on the cloud kitchens page.