Solution
A meal budget that works where there is no canteen
Most employers who want to feed their people do not have a canteen — they have an office and some restaurants nearby. A meal balance on a Wallet card, restricted to the venues and hours the employer chooses, is the canteen without the kitchen.
Updated
At a glance
- Funding
- Employer, employee, or both on one card
- Restrictions
- Venues, categories, weekdays, hours
- Top-up
- Scheduled, or on payday by API
- Reporting
- Per employee, per venue, per period
Updated
Why the restrictions matter
A meal allowance that can be spent on anything is compensation, and in most jurisdictions it is taxed like compensation. One that is restricted to food, on working days, at named venues, usually is not.
The restrictions therefore are not a control exercise — they are the thing that makes the benefit worth giving, and they have to be enforced at the point of sale rather than checked afterwards.
Smart Account Detection applies them at authorisation: an ineligible purchase is declined at the till rather than clawed back from a payslip.
- Venues are an allow-list the employer controls, not a category guess.
- The employee can add their own money to the same card and top up above the allowance.
- Unused balance can expire at period end or roll over, per programme.
Setting one up
- 01
Pick the venues
The restaurants and cafés near the office that agree to take the card.
- 02
Set the rules
Amount per day or per month, weekdays only, meal categories, and the hours.
- 03
Load the employees
From the HR system by API or file; each gets a Wallet card.
- 04
Fund it on a schedule
Monthly, weekly or on payday, automatically.
Details
- Employer share
- Set per employee or per group
- Employee top-up
- Optional, on the same card
- Venue settlement
- Each venue paid separately
- Expiry
- Roll over or expire at period end
- Onboarding
- Cards sent by SMS or email in bulk
- Plan
- Commercial accounts from the Scale tier
Questions about this
Which industries does 7Konto support?
Retail chains, restaurants and HORECA, hotels, corporate meal programmes, employee benefits and fuel cards, cashless events, coalition loyalty, property management, campus environments, and e-commerce merchants who want closed-loop alongside their PSP.
Who is 7Konto for?
Businesses that want to accept internal balances, gift cards, coupons or B2B2E accounts: retail chains, restaurants, hotels, corporate meal programmes, benefits providers, event organisers, coalition loyalty operators, property managers and campuses — plus the banks, PSPs and acquirers who want to offer all of that to their merchants.
Set up a meal budget without a kitchen
A free 30-day pilot, configured and supported by our team.