Five brands, one bank account
The burger brand has the most orders. The dessert brand has the best reviews. The vegan brand was launched because an app's account manager said there was demand. Everything is paid into the same bank account in weekly lumps per app, and at the end of the month you know the kitchen made some money, or did not.
Which brand is carrying the others? You have a feeling. The burger brand is busy but heavily discounted. The loaded fries brand uses cheap ingredients but sells few orders. The dessert brand uses expensive packaging. Without splitting the numbers, you cannot tell whether dropping a brand would free up the kitchen or remove the one thing that was quietly profitable.
Why brand profit is invisible
The apps pay per listing, so in principle each brand's income is separate. In practice, the payouts arrive as net amounts with commission, promotion funding, refunds and fees taken off, and the statements for fifteen listings arrive in three different formats. Nobody has time to split them by brand every week.
Costs are harder still. The same chicken goes into three brands. The same staff cook all of them. Packaging differs by brand. Food cost per brand needs a link from each menu item to the ingredients and packaging in it, which in most dark kitchens lives in the head chef's memory or an old spreadsheet.
Decisions made without the numbers
| Decision | What you need but lack |
|---|---|
| Keep or drop a brand | Margin per brand after all deductions |
| Which app to push a brand on | Brand margin per app |
| Whether a promotion paid | Promotion cost per brand and its effect on orders |
| Where to raise prices | Food and packaging cost per item |
| Whether a new brand is worth it | A clear baseline for the existing ones |
Busy brands feel successful, which is not the same as being profitable. A brand that fills the fryer with heavily discounted orders may be crowding out a quieter brand that earns more per order.
A margin view per brand
- We collect orders and payout statements for every brand listing on every app, through partner reporting where your accounts allow and statement exports where they do not.
- Each order carries its brand, app, gross value, commission, promotion contribution, refunds and fees in one common layout.
- With your head chef, we record the main ingredients and packaging for each menu item, with costs from your supplier invoices, so each order has an estimated food and packaging cost.
- Shared costs such as rent, utilities and staff can be split across brands by a rule you choose, such as share of orders or share of kitchen time, and the rule is shown on every report.
- A weekly page shows each brand's orders, gross sales, deductions, food and packaging cost and contribution, by app and combined.
- You can see trends over months, so a brand whose margin is shrinking is visible before it becomes a problem.
We show the numbers and how they were worked out. Accounting treatment and business decisions stay with you and your accountant.
Reviewing the brands on a Monday
The page shows that the burger brand's volume is high but its margin after promotions is thin on one app. The dessert brand makes a healthy contribution despite few orders, because its food cost is low even with the fancy boxes. The vegan brand barely covers its packaging. You end the vegan brand's promotion and give the dessert brand more attention, then check again in a month.
- Contribution per brand, per app, every week
- Food and packaging cost built into the view
- Shared costs split by a rule you can see
- Brand decisions based on margin, not volume
Could you answer this about your brands?
- You cannot say which brand is most profitable after fees.
- App payouts for all brands arrive and are never split out.
- Food costs per menu item are not written down anywhere.
- A brand was launched without a way to judge whether it worked.
- Busy brands are assumed to be your best ones.