For Restaurant Owner-Operators ·
What you'll accomplish
Delivery orders show up as sales, but the payout that lands in your bank is a different number. You will upload one month of statement data to ChatGPT and get a plain answer to a question most owners answer on feel: after fees, promotions and refunds, what does a delivery order really leave you? You also check one total yourself, so you trust the answer before you act on it.
What you'll need
Before you upload anything. Platform exports can carry guest names, phone numbers and delivery addresses. Your question is about money, not guests, so delete those columns first. Also remove any bank account digits and your tax ID if they appear in a header. For ChatGPT, open its data controls in Settings and check whether your chats may be used to improve models. Decide that once, as the owner, before payroll or bank files ever go in.
Pick a full month that was typical for you. Avoid a holiday week or a promotion month for your first run.
What you should see: A file with one row per order, or a summary page with totals for sales, fees, promotions, refunds and payout. Troubleshooting: Menu names differ by platform and change often. If you cannot find it, search the platform's help page for "download statement" or ask your account rep.
What you should see: Only money columns and order IDs. Troubleshooting: If the file is a PDF with names on every line, copy only the summary totals into a new sheet instead.
What you should see: The file name shown above or inside the message box. Troubleshooting: If you do not see an attach option, your plan or app version may not support it. Check ChatGPT's help or try the computer version.
Paste the prompt in the next section. ChatGPT may write and run a small piece of analysis code behind the scenes. You do not need to read it. If it says it cannot read a column, tell it which column holds which figure.
What you should see: A short table with item sales, each fee type, promotions, refunds, and payout, plus a number showing what is left for every 100 of item sales. Troubleshooting: If a line is labeled in a way you do not recognize, ask ChatGPT to list the line and say so plainly when it is guessing. Then check the platform's own explanation.
Do not skip this. ChatGPT can mislabel a column or miss a negative number.
Example with invented round numbers: Item sales 2,000, fees 500, promotions 100, refunds 50. Payout should be 2,000 minus 500 minus 100 minus 50, which is 1,350. That leaves 67.5 of every 100 of item sales. Use your own numbers.
What you should see: Your sheet total and the statement total match ChatGPT's. A small gap can come from timing, tips or adjustments, so ask about it instead of guessing.
Fee rates depend on your platform, your plan and your contract. Do not use a number from an article or from another owner. Ask ChatGPT to quote the fee lines exactly as they appear. Then compare them to your contract, or ask your account rep what each line covers.
Item-level pricing question
Using the order-level data, which items appear most often on delivery orders? For my top five, list how many were sold and how many had a refund or adjustment. I will compare these to my dine-in prices myself.
Promotion check
Add up everything I paid for promotions and discounts this month. Compare it to the item sales on orders that used a promotion and tell me what was left on those orders versus orders with no promotion.
Two-month comparison
Here are two cleaned statements, one for each month. Show how item sales, fees, promotions, refunds and payout changed, and list the three biggest changes with the columns that drive them.
Questions for my account rep
Based on the fee lines in this statement, write six short questions I should ask my delivery platform rep about what each fee covers and what can be negotiated or changed.