Lower fees and money up front: keep more of every sale

You keep more of each sale by cutting the commission on orders, refusing per-cover booking charges, and making sure your money goes to your own account rather than sitting in a platform's balance. On Mosey you pay a published commission only when you sell, the payment goes to your own Stripe account at the point of sale, and Stripe pays it out to your bank on the schedule you set. It is not instant, but it is never held by Mosey and you never get a commission bill.

You can also take money before service, through vouchers, tickets and promotions, which helps cash flow more than any payout speed.

Where do restaurant fees actually go?

Add up a year of statements and most owners find their fees fall into five buckets:

• Commission on orders. Delivery apps commonly charge around 30% of each order.
• Per-cover booking charges. Some reservation systems charge for every diner, so the bill grows exactly as you get busier.
• Card processing. Unavoidable, but worth checking for markups.
• Monthly subscriptions. A till, a booking system, a loyalty app and a marketing tool, each charging in your quietest month too.
• Money held. Platforms that collect on your behalf and pay you later, sometimes with deductions you only see on the statement.

The first and the last tend to cost the most, and they are also the easiest to change.

What does 30% commission do to a €25 order?

As an example, using round illustrative figures:

• A €25 takeaway order at around 30% commission loses €7.50 to the platform.
• If food and packaging cost you €9, you have €8.50 left to pay staff, rent and energy.
• The same €25 collected at your counter, with no commission, leaves €16 before those costs.

The gap between €8.50 and €16 is often the difference between a takeaway that pays and one that only keeps the kitchen busy. That is why moving even some customers from delivery apps to collecting directly from you is worth the effort. Order Ahead on Mosey runs at 1.5% commission. See low-commission online ordering.

What does Mosey charge?

Being on Mosey is free: your profile, menu, photographs, ratings and local discovery cost nothing. You pay commission when you sell:

• Order Ahead (collection): 1.5%
• Delivery: 6%
• Mosey Pay and card payments on the till: 0.5%, capped at €149 a month
• Event tickets: 4%
• Gift vouchers: 4.5%
• Promotions: 4.5%
• Memberships: 8%
• Loyalty: free
• Tips and reservation deposits: nothing

Commission has 23% VAT added, which a VAT-registered business can reclaim. Stripe's card fee is passed through at cost, with no markup. Reservations are the one subscription: free up to 75 bookings a month, then €79.99 or €169.99 a month, with no per-cover charge on any plan. The full list is on our pricing page.

Is payment through Mosey instant?

No, and it is worth being clear about why.

When a customer pays for an order, a voucher, a ticket or a bill in your venue, the money goes to your Stripe account, an account in your name that you can log into. Mosey takes its commission out of the transaction at that moment and the rest is yours. Stripe then pays it to your bank on your normal Stripe payout schedule, which you control.

What that gives you in practice:

• No waiting on a platform. Your money is never sitting in a Mosey balance.
• No commission invoice. It is deducted at the point of sale, so there is nothing to settle at month end.
• A clear trail. Mosey shows what you sold. Stripe shows what was paid out, when, and what each payout contains.

If a figure in your bank does not match your sales, it is almost always timing: a payout covers a window that does not line up with your week. Our guide to payouts explains how to read one.

How do you get paid before service?

The best cash flow comes from selling the meal before it is cooked.

• Gift vouchers are bought now and spent later, often in your quiet weeks. A voucher bought in December pays for a table in January.
• Event tickets pay for a supper club or tasting as people buy, so you shop with the money already in.
• Promotions sell a set menu in advance, capped at a number and limited to the days you choose.
• Deposits on large or peak bookings protect the tables you can least afford to lose, and on reservations they carry no Mosey fee.

Who pays the booking fee?

The customer, on top of the price. On orders it scales with the order size (€0.30 under €10, €0.60 under €30, €0.90 under €50, €1.29 on orders of €50 or more), and vouchers, tickets and promotions carry a booking fee too. In-store payments through Mosey Pay carry no customer booking fee at all, so the customer pays the bill and nothing else.

That fee is not taken from your takings. Your figure is the price you set, minus the commission.

How can you raise what each customer spends?

Lower fees protect the margin on every sale. A higher average spend adds to it. A few honest ways to do that:

• Sizes and extras. On Mosey, menu items can carry sizes and extras, so a customer ordering ahead sees the larger portion and the side at the moment they choose.
• Bonus credit on vouchers. Pay €50, get €60 nudges buyers to a larger voucher, and the extra costs you its food cost rather than its face value.
• Deal Hours on the right dishes. Put the quiet-hour price on dishes with healthy margins or ones that use what you already prepped, not on your best sellers.
• Loyalty. Regulars spend more over a year than any upsell, and loyalty on Mosey is free.

Start by checking last year's statements for the five buckets above. Claim your business free or See pricing.