BlogMoney · 4 min read
e-Transfer or Card? How Ontario Home Cooks Get Paid
Interac e-Transfer is free and familiar; cards get you paid at the moment of ordering. How home cooks in Ontario can use both without chasing money.
For most home cooks in Ontario, the first payment system is a sentence: e-Transfer me when you can. It works for the first dozen orders. Then comes the Saturday when eighteen bags are on the table and four transfers have arrived from names you do not recognise.
Getting paid is two jobs, not one. The money has to arrive, and you have to know which order it belongs to. Here is how e-Transfer and cards each handle those jobs, and how to run both without becoming your own collections department.
General information, not legal advice
1. Why e-Transfer rules the home kitchen
It is a payment method most of your customers already use.
Nobody needs an app, a card reader or an account with you. The customer opens their banking app and the money moves. For a small seller that familiarity is worth a great deal, and there is no card processing fee taken off the top.
Check what your own bank charges, though. Whether receiving a transfer costs you anything depends on your bank and the kind of account, and business accounts are often priced differently from personal ones.
2. The matching problem
An e-Transfer tells you who sent money, not what they ordered.
The transfer arrives under the name on the bank account, which may be a spouse, a business or a nickname you have never seen. Meanwhile the order came from an Instagram handle. Multiply that by twenty and you have an hour of detective work every cooking day.
The fix is dull and effective: give every order a number and ask customers to put it in the transfer message. The money and the order then find each other.
3. Autodeposit, switched on
One setting at your bank removes the security question for good.
With Autodeposit registered to your email address, transfers land in your account without you accepting each one or the customer inventing a password. It is quicker for both sides, and it removes the weekly message asking what the answer was.
4. What a card payment buys you
With a card, the order and the money arrive as one thing.
The customer pays as they order, so there is nothing to match and nobody to remind. It suits people ordering from work, people sending a gift, and anyone who simply prefers their card or the wallet on their phone.
It costs something. A rate of 2.9% plus 30 cents is common for online card payments in Canada, which is about $1.46 on a $40 order. Think of it as the price of never chasing that order.
5. Refunds, decided before you need one
The worst time to invent a cancellation policy is while someone is asking for their money back.
Write one line and put it where people order: free to cancel until the cut-off, no refunds after shopping. A card payment is refunded back to the card. An e-Transfer, once deposited, generally cannot be pulled back by the sender, so a refund means you sending the money yourself.
Either way, the rule matters more than the method. A clear policy stated up front is easier for everyone than a decision made on the spot.
6. Offer both, confirm only when paid
The method matters less than the rule that an unpaid order is not yet an order.
Let customers choose card or e-Transfer, and hold each order as pending until the money is in. For e-Transfers, set a time limit, such as a couple of hours, after which an unpaid order is released and the portion goes back on the menu.
This single rule is what stops you cooking for people who never show up.
7. Records, and the $30,000 line
A side business is still a business in the eyes of the tax office.
Keep a simple record of every order and how it was paid. What you earn is income whichever way it reaches you.
Sales tax is a separate question. The Canada Revenue Agency treats you as a small supplier, with no need to register for GST/HST, while your revenue stays at or under $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters. Go over that, and registration becomes mandatory. Which foods are taxable has its own rules, so this is a good moment for an hour with an accountant.
Questions people ask
Is Interac e-Transfer safe for taking food orders?
For the seller, yes: a deposited transfer generally cannot be reversed by the sender. The practical risk is different. Orders go unpaid, or payments arrive that you cannot match to an order. Autodeposit and an order number in the message solve most of it.
Do I pay a fee to accept e-Transfers?
It depends on your bank and your account. Some accounts receive transfers at no charge and others, business accounts in particular, charge per transfer. Check your account's fee schedule.
Do I have to charge HST on homemade food?
Not while you are a small supplier. The Canada Revenue Agency does not require you to register for GST/HST if your revenue is $30,000 or less over four consecutive calendar quarters, though you may register voluntarily. Past that threshold you must register and charge it where it applies. Which foods are taxable is a separate question, so ask an accountant or the CRA.
How does Dish.ly handle payments?
Customers choose card or Interac e-Transfer on your order page. Card orders are paid when placed; you pay a 2.9% + $0.30 processing fee on them and Dish.ly pays you every Monday by e-Transfer. e-Transfer orders are sent straight to you, each with an order number, and are confirmed when you mark them paid. The customer pays a $2.00 service fee on each order.
PAID BEFORE YOU COOK
Take cards and e-Transfers on one order page
Every Dish.ly order has a number, a payment status and a customer attached. There is no monthly fee.
Create my order page
