Swiggy & Zomato Settlements: What's Actually Being Deducted?
You open your Swiggy partner dashboard. Last week's orders totalled ₹1,20,000. Your bank statement says ₹82,000 was credited. That ₹38,000 gap is real money — and most café owners don't fully understand where it went.
Let's break it down.
The Four Deductions Every Aggregator Makes
1. Platform Commission
This is the headline number. Swiggy and Zomato typically charge 18–28% commission on each order's total value.
For a ₹300 order:
- Commission (24%) = ₹72
- Your gross payout = ₹228
2. GST on Commission
The aggregator's service to you is taxed at 18% GST. So you pay GST on their commission.
On the ₹72 commission above:
- GST (18%) = ₹12.96
- Your net after commission + GST = ~₹215
3. TCS (Tax Collected at Source)
The government mandates aggregators collect 1% TCS on your total order value and deposit it with the Income Tax department on your behalf.
- TCS on ₹300 = ₹3
- This is refundable when you file your ITR, but it's cash you don't have today
4. Packaging Charges (sometimes)
Some agreements allow deductions for packaging credits not reimbursed. This varies by your contract.
Why Your P&L Date Matters
Here's the part that trips up almost everyone.
Swiggy usually settles weekly. Zomato bi-weekly. The settlement date is NOT the order date. A customer who ordered on January 15 might result in a credit to your account on January 22.
If you track revenue based on when money hits your bank, your P&L is lying to you:
- January looks worse than it was (money arrives in February)
- February looks inflated (settlement for January orders)
The correct accounting: Revenue should be recognized on the order date. CafeSense handles this automatically — every aggregator settlement is mapped back to the exact date each order was placed.
Reading Your Settlement Report
Every aggregator provides a downloadable settlement report (usually Excel). Here's what to look at:
| Column | What it means | |--------|---------------| | Order Amount | What the customer paid | | Commission | Platform's cut | | GST on Commission | Tax on their cut | | TCS | 1% withheld for IT dept | | Net Payout | What you actually get |
The math should always hold: Net Payout = Order Amount − Commission − GST − TCS
If it doesn't, the report has an error (rare, but it happens).
The Bottom Line
Aggregators are a valuable channel, but their settlement complexity hides your true profitability. Manual tracking in a spreadsheet works — until you have 30+ orders per day across two platforms.
CafeSense processes your settlement Excel files automatically, maps every order to its correct date, and shows you your real daily P&L — including exactly what each aggregator deducted.