The Number Nobody Writes Down
Ask a café owner what their billing app costs and you’ll usually hear the monthly fee. Ask what it takes from each sale and there’s often a pause. A percentage is easy to agree to on day one and easy to forget after that, because it never arrives as a bill. It just comes off the top.
So we worked it out. The numbers below use 2%, which is common for apps that charge per sale. Yours may be a little higher or lower.
The Maths
Here’s what a 2% cut adds up to at three sizes of kitchen, next to Tournant Pro on the monthly plan. Pro is ₹1,299 a month, or ₹18,394 a year once you add 18% GST.
At ₹5 lakh a month, the cut is ₹10,000 every month. Over a year that is ₹1,20,000, against ₹18,394 for a flat fee. On the yearly plan Pro comes to ₹15,339 with GST.
A cut grows every time you have a good month. A flat fee doesn't.
What a Cut Pays For
To be fair to per-sale apps, some bundle things in: a card machine, a delivery listing, a setup visit. If you use those, part of the cut is paying for them. It’s worth listing what you actually use.
One cost is the same everywhere. When a guest pays online by UPI or card, the payment gateway charges its own fee. That fee is separate from anything your software takes.
Gateway fees are added to your profit and loss statement by themselves, so the profit you see is what you actually made.
Check Your Own Numbers
- Find last month’s total sales, including cash.
- Find what your current app took, from its statement or your bank. Divide it by sales to get the real percentage.
- Multiply that month by twelve and compare it with a flat yearly fee.
The Short Version
A percentage looks small and behaves like a partner who takes a share of every good month. If your sales are above about ₹65,000 a month, a flat ₹1,299 costs less than a 2% cut. The busier you get, the wider the gap.