Running a Tiffin Service Business From Your Phone

A tiffin service business runs on four small questions you answer every day: how many boxes to cook, who is on leave, who has paid, and who might join next. You can answer all four from one phone if the information lives in one place, instead of in a notebook, a WhatsApp group and a spreadsheet that never match.

This post is for people who cook and deliver tiffins from a home kitchen or a small service in India. It explains what to track, in what order to move off paper, and where a phone app helps. You can use the method with a plain notebook too.

What does a tiffin service business actually need to track?

A customer record is one line per person that holds everything you need to cook and bill for them. Keep these fields and nothing more at the start:

• Name, phone number and delivery address.
• Plan (for example Normal or Deluxe) and boxes per day.
• Which meals they take: breakfast, lunch, dinner.
• Start date, and an end date if they are on a fixed term.
• Notes, such as "less spicy".

Four numbers come out of those records every day or month:

If you can produce these four numbers without hunting through chat messages, your business is under control, whatever tool you use.

Why do notebooks, WhatsApp and Excel start to break?

They work for a handful of customers. The trouble usually begins when the list grows and the same fact is written in two places:

• A leave message sits somewhere in a busy group chat, so the morning count misses it.
• A customer moves from Normal to Deluxe and the notebook still shows the old plan.
• The price changes in the spreadsheet, and last month's bill quietly changes too.
• Nobody can say whether a 10 pm message was before or after the cut-off.

None of this means your method is wrong. It means every number depends on one tired person adding things up early in the morning.

How should I handle leave so it does not become a dispute?

A cut-off is the latest time a customer can cancel a meal and not be charged for it. Decide it once, tell every customer in the same words, and apply it to everyone.

A good rule names a time and a day. For example, "lunch can be cancelled until 9 am on the same day" or "breakfast until 8 pm the day before". Those two wordings are the examples used in the MyTiffin help guide. Choose a time that matches when you shop and start cooking, not one that sounds generous.

For a deeper look at this, read Stop cooking for empty doorsteps: a leave policy. To turn the leave you have into a box count, see How Many Tiffins to Cook Each Day.

How do I price and bill without arguments?

Billing is easiest when it follows one rule: customers pay for the days you actually delivered, at the price that was in force on each day.

Worked example (all numbers are examples only)

Imagine one lunch customer on a Normal plan at an example price of Rs 100 a box.

The bill is the delivered days times the daily price, minus what the customer has already paid. If you raise the price in the middle of the month, the days before the change keep the old price. Write that in your terms so nobody is surprised.

More on this is in Month-end tiffin billing without arguments and on choosing prices in Normal vs Deluxe tiffin: two clear options.

What does a phone app change in the daily routine?

MyTiffin is a free, mobile-first web app for tiffin providers in India. Going by its help guide, the day looks like this:

1. Morning: open the Today screen. The big number is the boxes to prepare, split into Normal and Deluxe, with customers on leave already taken out.
2. While delivering: tap Delivered next to each customer. A progress bar shows what is left, and a wrong tap can be undone from the Delivered tab.
3. When someone takes leave: customers can mark their own leave from the customer portal, and you can also add it yourself from the customer's profile. If you use the Telegram bot, you get an instant alert.
4. Month end: the reports show delivered days, leave days and the amount per customer. You can download a spreadsheet or share a summary on Telegram.

Two honest limits: the app does not take one-off food orders, run delivery riders or accept online payments, and it does not promise you customers. It keeps your list, leave, count and dues in one place.

How do I move from a notebook to a phone without chaos?

Do it in a week, not in a day.

1. Day 1: copy your current customer list into one clean sheet or into the app. One line per person, with plan and boxes per day.
2. Day 2: write your cut-off rule in two sentences and send it to every customer.
3. Days 3 to 5: keep the old notebook running next to the new list. Compare the count each morning.
4. Day 6: note any difference between the two counts and find the cause.
5. Day 7: retire the notebook for counting. Keep it only if you like it for personal notes.

How do I get customers for a tiffin service business?

Start with people you can already reach: neighbours, office colleagues, families nearby. A short, clear message with your menu, plan prices and cut-off rule works better than a long pitch. The post First 20 tiffin customers without paid ads goes through this in detail.

If you want to be found by people who do not know you, the MyTiffin marketplace lists kitchens so customers can search nearest-first. Per the help guide, a listing costs "₹500 a month" by default, is paid by UPI or cash, and is approved by an admin before it goes live. A listing is visibility, not a guarantee of orders.

Do I need an FSSAI registration?

Food businesses in India are covered by FSSAI, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India. Whether you need a basic registration or a licence depends on the size and type of your business, and I could not confirm the exact thresholds from FSSAI's own site today, so check them on the official FoSCoS portal before you start. This post does not give legal or tax advice. If you already have a number, see FSSAI number on a tiffin bill: what to check.

Frequently asked questions

Can I run a tiffin service business from home?

Home kitchens and small tiffin services are the usual starting point. What you may do, and what registration you need, depends on your local rules and on FSSAI, so check the official portal above and your local authority.

How many customers can I handle with a notebook?

There is no fixed number. A notebook is fine while one person can hold the leave, plan changes and dues in their head. When messages arrive faster than you can add them up, a shared list or an app starts to help.

How should I charge for leave?

Pick one rule and state it before the customer subscribes. For example, you might not bill leave given before the cut-off and bill leave given after it. That is only an illustration; whatever you choose, apply it to everyone.

Is MyTiffin free?

Yes for providers and customers. The only charge is the optional marketplace listing, which is Rs 500 a month by default and can differ, as set by the admin.

Do I need Telegram?

No. It is optional. If you set it up you get instant leave alerts, morning and evening summaries, and commands such as /today and /tomorrow.

What this advice does not cover

The prices and day counts in the examples are illustrations, not averages. This post does not cover recipes, food safety training, tax or legal advice. If you want to see the counting and dues screens for yourself, you can start at MyTiffin sign up.