Picking the right cutoff window for your tiffin service

The cutoff is the most under-rated lever in a meal-subscription business. Set it too early and customers complain they didn't have time. Too late and your kitchen is chopping vegetables at 2 AM.

After running 40+ Delhi kitchens through MealDispatch, here is what we have learned.

The 10 PM Saturday default exists for a reason. Most home cooks in Delhi NCR begin prep between 5 and 7 AM Monday. Saturday 10 PM gives you 6-8 working hours on Sunday for inventory, prep sheets, and final swaps — without pushing customer selections into Friday night.

Move it earlier only if you have a single-shift kitchen. With one cook and a 6 AM start, you need closing inventory locked by 9 PM. Pull cutoff to 8 PM and tell customers loudly.

Never put cutoff on Sunday. It bleeds your only buffer day. The temptation is to give customers an extra 24 hours of selection time. The cost is that your prep cannot start until Monday morning, which means a chaotic week.

Use the staged-cutoff trick if you serve multiple cities. South Delhi cutoff at 10 PM, Gurugram at 11 PM (longer commute, professionals select later). MealDispatch supports per-zone cutoff times — fewer support tickets, better selection rates.