Why the deposit is smaller than the tickets
The tickets for the night are the gross. The platform keeps a fee before anything reaches the bank. If the books record only what landed, food sales look short and the fee never becomes a cost. Food cost then looks worse than the kitchen was, because the sales line was the net. The receipt the owner still has in hand is the gross. The payout notice is the bridge.
Tax the platform already sent to the state does not go into sales tax payable a second time. Putting it there makes the return count the same tax twice. Leaving it off the notice and also off the return is the other miss. The notice is the paper that says the platform already sent it. The books should show that amount as already remitted, not as a new liability and not as extra sales.
Three lines, then the deposit
Line one is gross food for that batch. Line two is the fee the platform kept. Line three is tax the platform already remitted, when the notice shows it. The deposit is what remains. It should empty the clearing bucket for that batch. A bucket that grows every week is a pile of payouts that were booked as one number.
Tips that rode in with the card batch are not a fourth sales line. They leave through the provider that already runs payday, or as cash. If they stay inside sales, the house looks busier than the tickets were. Payday stays on that provider. This page sets the items up and does not run the pay.
A gift card is not part of the payout gross
A gift card sold on the same night is still owed. It does not become food because a platform happened to settle a different batch. Redemption is the day the kitchen cooks the meal. Mixing the card into the payout gross makes both the liability and the fee wrong. The payout page keeps the card off those three lines.
A coupon the restaurant is not repaid for is a discount on what the guest paid. It is not a platform fee. A comp is not a sale. The payout notice will not explain those. The daily receipt will. The two papers sit side by side, and neither one is asked to be the other.
What to have open
Have the payout notice and the daily receipt for the same night. The notice should show the gross, the fee, and any tax the platform lists as already sent. The receipt should still show food, a drink, a gift card, and a tip as separate lines even when the books pushed them together. We read those two papers on a shared screen. We do not invent a ticket the notice does not contain.
QuickBooks Online is the ledger. The platform is not the ledger. A deposit recorded as a single sales receipt is the defect this page is for. The fix is the three lines, then the deposit, with the fee visible as a cost.
Name the line that came in short
One notice and one receipt are enough. Leave the dollars for the call.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.