Restaurant Accounting 101: Manage Your Bookkeeping Like a Pro

It offers plans for all types of operations, including sole proprietors, LLCs, partnerships, corporations, and nonprofits. If you subtract the credit from the invoice and only pay what you owe, it’s called a “short pay.” Or you can just pay the full amount and use the credit on your next purchase. Both are practices better done more frequently for restaurants, just like inventory counts. Well, let’s take a look at the unique parts of running a restaurant. While the principles of accounting are consistent across business types, the execution is different. Kevin Johnston writes for Ameriprise Financial, the Rutgers University MBA Program and Evan Carmichael.

It also shows how well the restaurant bookkeeping is being managed on a daily basis. If a restaurant is run well, prime costs should stay around 60% to 65% of sales. Because restaurants have a high number of transactions, monthly bank reconciliation used to take hours or days for a restaurant manager to complete. Today’s restaurant accountingtools make bank reconciliation a more efficient and accurate process by automatically matching your records against your accounts. This helps you track any incorrect deposits, lost invoices, or sales discrepancies.

Understand your finances at a glance

Most tax payments are due every few months or annually, but the timeline will be determined after applying for employer identification number . Do some research before picking an accounting software for your restaurant. Depending on the software, you can do other things such as manage payroll, sales reports, and methods of payment.

Armed with that information, you can calculate the most important indicators of your https://www.bookstime.com/’s financial health. As “chief cook and bottle-washer,” you’ll keep the books yourself because there’s no one else to do it. Our focus is your convenience – order online from your laptop, desktop, or smartphone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our fast shipping, low prices, and outstanding customer service make WebstaurantStore the best choice to meet all of your professional and food service supply needs. Wagepoint – Helps you automate the process of issuing pay checks and comply with the required withholding and employer tax amounts. Hire an experienced person or company to handle the complicated and ever-changing local, state, and federal laws surrounding workforce requirements. As a business owner, you won’t have time to keep up with these changes.

Restaurant Bookkeeping vs. CPA Services: What You Need to Know

For example, cross-reference sales by menu category to determine the best time to run a half-price appetizer promotion. Prime costs account for all the costs required to produce and distribute your product. For every dollar that comes in, your prime cost is the amount of that dollar that goes to people and product . Payroll is responsible for calculating and distributing employees’ paychecks. Payroll also keeps a financial record of deductions, bonuses, vacation, sick time, and overtime.

Documented reporting and screening of these costs is integral to keeping the business afloat. You may use a restaurant management software to make sure you track these expenses and safeguard your profits. To give you a better understanding of what else is involved in restaurant accounting, let’s look at other important aspects. To streamline the accounts payable process, some tools offerAP automation, an end-to-end AP solution. AP automation allows you to quickly capture paper and electronic invoices and route them through customized workflows for approvals.

Cash-Basis Accounting

Food costs refer to the cost of preparing a menu item divided by the total revenue earned from the item. This formula is used to make sure that you’re making a profit from each item you sell. Restaurant accountants are trained to compile data precisely and purposefully. They can analyze your financials and identify operational flaws, unnecessary spending, and trends to pay attention to long-term. Restaurant accounting is a complex process with many moving parts measured against industry standards. To put it lightly, it’s pretty intimidating – not to mention time-sensitive, time-consuming, and accuracy-dependent.

The restaurant industry is a high-stakes business, and financial management is key to its success. Keep your financial records organized by creating a financial filing system and creating digital backups of important documents. This will make it much easier to keep track of financial information at tax time. With QuickBooks Online and Epos Now, you can quickly export your sales data and save on average 8 hours of work per month on your accounts. This will help you keep track of ALL recorded financial transactions so you know what’s going on with your financials at all times. Fortunately, you can take some relatively simple steps to ensure your bookkeeping is in tip top shape. Let’s go over a few basics so you can start mastering the art of restaurant bookkeeping.

Inventory turnover ratio

The program is constantly updated and improved and is ideal for restaurant owners with little to no accounting or bookkeeping experience who want to manage their own books. It is easy to use, integrated with your financial institution, and compatible with most major POS systems. However, since it’s not specific to the restaurant industry, it may take a little longer to set it up and customize it to your specific restaurant’s needs. As mentioned earlier, your POS systemshould offer featuresthat allow you to integrate with your restaurant accounting software. As the restaurant owner, you are responsible for running the business with a vision and purpose. However, you also have a duty to ensure that the restaurant operations in a financially healthy way.

• This is a statement of the company’s assets, liabilities and equity.
• Since your POS logs revenue coming in and much of the money going out of your restaurant , you can use it to analyze sales and costs.
• A cash flow statement shows you whether you’re able to generate enough positive cash flow to maintain or grow your operations or whether you should seek external financing.
• If your restaurant has yet to get a POS system up and running, it’s time to do that now!
• Payroll can be challenging in the restaurant industry, as tracking employee hours can be quite complicated.
• This equates to a whopping ten percent of the entire workforce in America, and most of these workers are hourly and part-time staff.

Lastly, you’ll want to get the word out that you’re open for business. That may include newspaper ads and billboards, in addition to social media. Utilities, cooking and cooling equipment, insurance and signage are common expenses, but you’ll also need to consider maintenance costs. Beverages are another expense, but the good news is that liquor is a great way to boost your profit margin. Chances are you’ve noticed this already if you’ve ordered a bottle of wine. The same bottle that costs $15 in your local liquor store could cost $30 or $45 when you’re out.