Set Up a Corporate Meal Program
Complete guide to launching an employer-provided meal benefit for your employees. Includes restaurant network setup, allowance configuration, and HR compliance.
Corporate meal programs are one of the most popular employee benefits — but running them manually or with paper vouchers is a headache. This guide covers the complete setup for a modern digital meal program using 7Konto: employees get wallet cards with monthly allowances, spend at partner restaurants, HR gets clean reporting.
What you'll need
- Employer entity (not personal use)
- Employee list with contact information
- Budget for monthly allowances
- HR or finance point person to manage the program
- Willingness to partner with local restaurants (or delegate to 7Konto)
Step-by-step process
Define your meal program parameters
Before signup, decide the key parameters of your program.
- Monthly allowance per employee (typical: $150-500/month)
- Restrictions: meals only, no alcohol, working days only, etc.
- Coverage: full-time only, or includes contractors and part-timers?
- Roll-over policy: unused allowance carries over, forfeited, or vested annually?
- Restaurant network: any restaurant, only partners, only healthy options?
- Budget: total monthly spend expected
Pro tip
$10-15 per working day is a common per-employee daily maximum. Multiplied by working days = monthly allowance.
Sign up and configure
Contact 7Konto to start the free pilot. Configure your program in the admin panel.
- Create employer account, verify company details
- Upload employee list (CSV with names, emails, phone numbers, IDs)
- Set allowance rules per employee or globally
- Configure spending rules (categories, restaurants, time windows)
- Set up billing method (invoiced monthly or auto-charged card)
Pro tip
Start with a smaller pilot group (10-20 employees) for the first month. Iron out issues before rolling out to whole company.
Build your restaurant network
Recruit restaurants near your office(s) to accept the meal cards.
- Identify 5-10 restaurants within walking distance of your office
- Send restaurants a partner intro email (template provided by 7Konto)
- Restaurants sign up with 7Konto in under 30 minutes (no new hardware needed)
- For larger deployments: 7Konto handles restaurant outreach on your behalf
Pro tip
Popular restaurants near your office already accept multiple corporate meal programs. Adding another one is easy for them.
Distribute wallet cards to employees
Send activation links to each employee. They add card to wallet in seconds.
- From admin panel, click "Send activation" to selected employees
- Employees receive SMS or email with activation link
- Employee taps link on their phone, taps "Add to Wallet"
- Card appears in wallet in 10 seconds — starts with configured monthly allowance
- Track activation rate in admin panel
Pro tip
Send activations Monday morning with a brief announcement. Follow up with laggards after 3 days.
Announce to employees
Communicate the new benefit clearly. Explain how to use it.
- All-hands meeting or email with program details
- Explain: monthly allowance, how to check balance, how to use at restaurants, what's excluded
- Provide the restaurant list (partner map or CSV)
- Address common questions upfront (does it work at home? out of town? on weekends?)
- Provide contact for support (HR person or 7Konto support)
Monitor first month usage
Track adoption, spending patterns, and issues in the first weeks.
- Weekly reports on: activation rate, spending, popular restaurants
- Identify low-usage employees (they may need help getting started)
- Identify unpopular restrictions (if 80% of transactions are rejected, adjust rules)
- Collect feedback via short survey
Pro tip
80%+ activation rate in first month indicates a well-received program. Under 50% activation suggests communication issues — re-launch with more information.
Optimize based on data
Adjust program parameters based on real usage.
- If most employees spend far below allowance: allowance may be too high, or restrictions too tight
- If most employees hit ceiling: consider higher allowance or specialized programs
- If some restaurants dominate usage: negotiate better rates with them (higher volume = leverage)
- If certain categories drive complaints: adjust restrictions
- Regularly add/remove restaurants based on employee preferences
Reporting for HR and finance
Use built-in reports for HR compliance and finance reconciliation.
- Monthly summary: total spend, per-employee spend, popular categories
- Tax documentation: exportable reports for benefits tax filings
- Finance reconciliation: matching credits, debits, restaurant payouts
- Custom reports for board or management review
Pro tip
Consult your tax advisor on how corporate meal benefits are taxed in your jurisdiction. In many jurisdictions, up to $X per day is tax-free.
Common issues and solutions
Real problems we've seen when businesses go through this process, and how to solve them.
Low employee activation in first month
Usually communication issue. Re-launch with clearer announcement, video walkthrough, FAQ document. Send personal reminders to non-activated employees.
Restaurants complaining about complex sign-up
Have 7Konto handle restaurant onboarding directly. We're experienced with the sign-up process and can save restaurants time. Contact your account manager.
Some employees using benefit for non-meal purchases
Tighten category restrictions in admin panel. Add merchant whitelist. For repeated abuse, use per-employee flags to enable/disable individual accounts.
Skip the guide — we'll do it for you
Free 30-day pilot includes complete implementation by our team. You get the outcome without doing the work.