Payment costs for restaurants and food service.
Restaurants run on thin margins and take a lot of cards. Between dine-in, counter service, takeout and delivery apps, processing costs add up fast across every ticket, every shift, every week.
Typical card mix
High
A general description, not a hard number.
Average ticket
Low to moderate
Flat per-transaction fees hurt more on small tickets.
Cost driver
Volume + tips
Processing applies to the full charged amount.
Where restaurants lose margin.
These are the patterns we see most often when we review statements in this category.
Most sales are by card
Card payments make up most tickets, so your processing cost rises right along with sales.
Tips raise the total charged
Processing usually applies to the full amount charged, tips included.
Updating menus takes work
Changing printed menus, POS items and online ordering all takes coordination.
Costs vary by location
Different POS setups at each location make it hard to compare costs.
Illustrative model
Example | single-location restaurant
- Monthly card volume
- $120,000
- Average ticket
- $42
- Assumed rate today
- 3.05%
- Estimated monthly processing cost
- $3,660
- Estimated cost with a program
- Much lower
These numbers are for modeling only. They are not a quote or a promise of your results.
What we usually deploy first.
We set things up in order, so the change with the biggest impact happens before hardware or analytics.
Pre-set for a typical restaurant profile.
Adjust the inputs to match your own volume, ticket size, and current rate.
Inputs
≈ 2,857 card transactions per month
Total monthly processing cost ÷ total monthly card volume.
Residual cost retained by the merchant under a program structure.
Illustrative output
Estimated annual savings
$37,440
≈ 85% reduction in modeled acceptance cost
- Monthly processing cost
- $3,660
- Annual processing cost
- $43,920
- Estimated program cost / mo
- $540
- Estimated monthly savings
- $3,120
These are estimates only. Your actual results depend on your processing volume, interchange, card mix, processor fees, pricing and program setup.
Restaurants questions.
See the numbers for your restaurant.
Bring a recent statement and we will show you where your costs actually sit.
No obligation · Estimates are examples only