Restaurant payments have a quirk most verticals never see: the final amount isn’t known when the card is run. A full-service check gets authorized, then the guest writes in a tip, and the captured amount differs from the authorization. Processing has to handle that adjustment cleanly, and card network rules on tip tolerance make “cleanly” a real requirement, because an adjustment outside tolerance risks a decline or a dispute.
QorConnect handles both service models. Counter service prompts for the tip at the terminal before authorization. Full service runs the card, then adjusts the authorization with the written tip. Either way, tips flow through settlement and land in QorCommerce reporting where payroll can find them.
What does the channel mix look like now?
A restaurant is a card-present business growing a card-not-present side. The dining room and counter run on terminals. Online ordering, phone orders for pickup, and catering deposits are all CNP. On QorCommerce these are one merchant account: hosted checkout takes the online order, QorConnect takes the table, and the nightly settlement is a single view instead of a reconciliation project across two processors and a marketplace statement.
Why do restaurants get burned by flat-rate pricing?
Ticket sizes are small and volume is high, which is exactly where flat rates hide the most margin. A $9 coffee-shop ticket on a tapped debit card costs the network very little; a flat 2.6% + 10¢ charges it like a rewards credit card. Interchange-plus pricing passes each transaction at its real cost plus a stated margin. Across a few hundred covers a day, the spread is a line cook’s wage.
What about the hard-to-place concepts?
Bars, nightclubs, hookah lounges, delivery-only kitchens: categories that trigger reflexive declines elsewhere get an actual review here, because the underwriting decision is QorPay’s own.