Toast Delivery Proof Photo on the POS: Where to Find It and What It Can't Prove

Quick answer: on the Toast POS app, open the completed Toast Delivery Services (TDS) order, select the overflow menu in the check preview, and view the proof of delivery photo. That's the path in Toast's product update dated October 16, 2026. It covers TDS orders only, at US locations. It's first available in Toast POS version 2.118, and it's rolling out to locations starting October 15, 2026, so your devices may not have it yet.

Toast says the photo lets you confirm an order was delivered without leaving the POS app. Before you act on it, remember what a photo can't show: what was in the bag, whether the food was right or still hot, or who took it from the door. And no photo doesn't mean no delivery. Use the photo to decide who to call next, not to settle a refund.

We wrote this from Toast's update and support articles as they read on October 24, 2026. We haven't opened a delivery photo on a live Toast POS, so the wording on your screen may differ.

First, make sure it's a TDS order

Toast Delivery Services is direct delivery for orders placed on your own Toast Online Ordering channels, carried by on-demand drivers from Uber Direct or DoorDash Drive. Toast's TDS overview says it's different from the DoorDash and Uber Eats Marketplaces, where the guest orders in the DoorDash or Uber Eats app. The photo feature is announced for TDS orders, so don't assume it exists for anything else:

• Orders from the DoorDash or Uber Eats app: not covered. Use that app's own support.
• Your own drivers: not covered. Toast says a location uses either TDS or its own drivers, not both at once.
• Pickup and curbside: not covered. There's no delivery to photograph.

On the POS, a TDS order shows the dining option Toast Delivery Services. If the order you're looking at doesn't, stop here. If you're still deciding between TDS, marketplaces and your own driver, that's a cost question, covered in should your restaurant hire its own delivery driver.

Find the photo

1. Open the completed order. Toast's update doesn't say which POS screen to start from. Its POS order tracking article, last updated April 28, 2026, says the Orders Hub shows all TDS orders, that their statuses include Completed, and that a delivered order is completed automatically. So the Orders Hub is a sensible place to look. To open it, select the Toast logo at the top left, then Orders Hub under Mode. Toast says that takes the 1.5 Pending Orders/Orders Hub Mode permission.
2. Write down the provider order ID. The Orders Hub shows the Uber Direct or DoorDash Drive order number. Toast says to have it ready whenever you contact the driver or the provider.
3. Open the overflow menu in the check preview and choose the proof of delivery photo. Toast doesn't give the exact wording of that menu option.
4. Check it's the right order. Match the order time and check to what the guest told you before you draw any conclusion from the picture.

Toast's documentation doesn't say which permission is needed to see the photo, how long photos are kept, whether every TDS order gets one, or whether orders from before your devices updated have one. Treat each of those as unknown at your location until you see it for yourself. The photo may show the outside of a guest's home, so handle it like any other guest information. Keep it with the managers and provider support who need it, and don't text, post or forward it.

What the photo tells you, and what it doesn't

A photo is one piece of evidence that the driver recorded a drop-off. It's useful because your conversation with the guest and the provider can start from what was recorded instead of a guess.

It doesn't prove the order had the right items, that the food arrived at a safe temperature, that the guest actually got the bag, or that a refund is or isn't owed. Those are limits of a photo, not rules from Toast, and they're why you shouldn't tell a guest "our photo proves you got it."

If there's no photo, or no photo option, record it as unknown. Toast's update doesn't explain why one might be missing, and missing doesn't prove the order wasn't delivered. The cause might be the rollout, your POS version, the order or something else. Don't guess.

What to do next

Toast's Get Help With Toast Delivery Services article, last updated October 16, 2026, lists the provider phone numbers and email addresses and says when to call the driver, the provider or Toast. The short version for a delivery complaint:

• Guest says it never arrived, items were missing or it was the wrong order: contact the delivery provider, Uber Direct or DoorDash Drive, with the provider order ID. That's true whether or not you saw a photo. Tell them what you saw: photo, no photo or no photo option.
• The order shows Dispatch Failed, or the provider ID is blank: Toast says a blank provider ID usually means a dispatch failure, and that's a call to Toast Customer Care, not the provider.
• It isn't a TDS order: this route doesn't apply. Go back to whoever delivered it.

Keep two refunds separate. Toast says delivery providers never refund your guest directly. What the provider reimburses your restaurant is one request. What your guest gets back is another. Before anyone refunds the guest, find out where they ordered and who is already handling it. The same Get Help article splits it this way:

• Ordered on your Toast Online Ordering site, with no Toast Guest Support case and no refund yet: Toast says these guests should contact your restaurant directly. Your restaurant refunds the guest on the Toast POS and asks the provider separately for its own reimbursement. Whether you refund or remake is your manager's call under your own policy. The photo doesn't decide it.
• Ordered in the Local by Toast app, and Toast Guest Support is handling it: Toast says Guest Support can help with Local by Toast orders. For those orders, it works with Uber Direct or DoorDash Drive on the guest's refund request and passes a refund to the guest only after the provider approves it. If the provider doesn't approve it, or the issue falls outside the TDS Terms & Conditions, Guest Support contacts your restaurant and refers the guest back to you. A referral back doesn't mean the guest is owed a refund. Your manager checks what has already been refunded and decides under your own policy.
• The guest contacted Toast Guest Support about an order from another channel, such as your Online Ordering site, or it's a Local by Toast order Guest Support isn't handling: don't assume Toast will refund the guest. Toast's article describes that refund process only for Local by Toast orders, and it says guests who ordered through your Online Ordering site should contact your restaurant directly. Find out who is actually handling the request and whether a refund already went out before anyone refunds.
• You can't tell where the guest ordered, who is handling it, or whether a refund already went out: stop and find out before anyone refunds. Don't work it out from the photo or from an Approved status.

One check of our own, not a Toast rule: for a Local by Toast order, any existing Guest Support contact on any channel, or anything unclear, the manager confirms who is handling the request and whether the guest has already been refunded before issuing a refund on the POS. That keeps one order from being refunded twice. A support contact on its own doesn't mean Toast will process the refund. And when a request shows Approved in the TDS Refund Log, Toast says that's only the provider's decision. It doesn't mean money has been issued, and an approved provider refund doesn't refund your guest automatically.

A made-up example: "It never came"

Lantern Noodle Bar is a made-up US restaurant. The guest and order below are invented too. One Friday evening a guest calls to say their delivery never arrived.

The manager finds the order in the Orders Hub under Completed. The dining option is Toast Delivery Services, so this check applies, and they copy down the DoorDash Drive order number. In the check preview's overflow menu, the proof of delivery photo shows a bag at a door.

The manager doesn't tell the guest the photo settles it. They confirm the delivery address the guest gave matches the order, and ask the guest to check the door, the lobby and any side entrance. The guest still has nothing. The manager calls DoorDash Drive with the order number, says a drop-off photo exists, and follows the provider's direction. The guest ordered on Lantern's own Toast Online Ordering site and hasn't contacted Toast Guest Support, and the manager confirms no refund has gone out for this order. So they decide under the restaurant's policy whether to remake the order or refund the guest on the POS. Any reimbursement from DoorDash Drive is a separate request, and the manager treats it as pending until money is actually issued, not when it says Approved.

Change one fact: there's no photo option in the overflow menu. The manager writes "no photo seen, unknown," doesn't conclude the driver failed, and makes the same call to the provider.

Change a different fact: the guest ordered in the Local by Toast app and says Toast Guest Support is already looking into it. The manager doesn't refund on the POS yet. They confirm who is handling the request and whether a refund has already gone out, and they don't read an Approved provider decision as money issued. If Guest Support later refers the guest back, the manager decides under the restaurant's policy. The referral alone doesn't mean a refund is owed.

Copy this note

Post this where your delivery staff work. It's written for staff a manager has authorized to look up delivery orders.

TDS DELIVERY PHOTO CHECK
For: Toast Delivery Services orders
  (Uber Direct / DoorDash Drive
  drivers), US, Toast POS 2.118+.
Rolling out from Oct 15, 2026.
NOT for: DoorDash or Uber Eats app
  orders, our own drivers, pickup
  or curbside.
Who: staff the manager authorized.

1. Open the COMPLETED order.
   Dining option = Toast Delivery
   Services? If not, STOP.
2. Write down the provider order ID.
3. Check preview > overflow menu
   > proof of delivery photo.
4. Photo: SEEN / NONE / NO OPTION
   No photo = UNKNOWN. It does not
   mean "not delivered."
5. A photo does NOT prove the right
   items, food temperature, who got
   the bag, or that a refund is or
   isn't owed.
6. Don't text, post or forward the
   photo. Hand off to the manager.

Order time / check:
Provider + order ID:
Guest ordered on: OUR ONLINE
  ORDERING SITE / LOCAL BY TOAST
  APP / DON'T KNOW
Guest already contacted Toast?
  YES / NO / DON'T KNOW
Guest says:
Photo: SEEN / NONE / NO OPTION
Handed to (name, time):

MANAGER: provider support with the
  order ID. Dispatch failed or blank
  provider ID: Toast Customer Care.
Before ANY guest refund:
- Our Online Ordering site, no
  Toast Guest Support case, no
  refund yet: refund or remake is
  your call, done on the POS.
- Local by Toast app order that
  Toast Guest Support is handling:
  Toast passes a refund only after
  the provider approves.
- Anything else with a Toast
  support contact (e.g. our Online
  Ordering site), or Local by Toast
  without Guest Support handling:
  don't assume Toast will refund.
- Any Toast contact, any Local by
  Toast order, or any doubt:
  confirm who's handling it and if
  a refund already went out. Don't
  refund twice (our own check, not
  a Toast rule).
- Referred back by Guest Support:
  check what's been refunded, then
  your call. Not owed by default.
- Channel, handler or refund status
  unknown: STOP. Confirm first. Not
  from the photo or "Approved".
Provider "Approved" is not money
  issued.