Accounting for Restaurants: A Step-By-Step Guide

Many restaurant owners detest accounts, simply because they do not see any value addition to the business. While bookkeeping and accounting are not part of your core business, they are important. You may feel that they are pulling you away from where the real action is, out front and in the kitchen.

Ideally, you choose one that’s intuitive and easy-to-use, but that offers a full spectrum of financial reporting and analysis. Cash tips for service industry workers are not considered restaurant income and are not subject to withholding. Employees still need to report cash tips—and both the restaurant and employee must still pay taxes on them.

And in the restaurant business, it’s no secret that, in order to make food, you’ll have to buy ingredients. Most restaurant POS systems will have a daily sales summary built into them. If you need to customize the report to get more detailed information you will need to work through the customization with your POS system. This guide will help you understand the basics of what a trained accountant will help with as you develop a reporting and growth plan.

Analyze and double-check your bank accounts often

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. For you to do this, you need to understand the restaurant accounting terminologies and how they relate to your restaurant’s needs.

Every employee has a record of their pay, which is included in year-end reports and other financial statements. Your accountant or bookkeeper will reconcile all bank accounts, payroll liabilities, credit accounts, loans, lines of credit, and financing sources. Compare your records against bank statements, credits cards and other financial transactions to ensure the records match. You’re checking to see if your transactions made it from the customer’s hand to the bank.

Restaurant accounting services & Quickbooks support from the experts

There are a lot of unique one-time expenses that bars and restaurants incur that may benefit from a prepaid expense account. Food cost accounting is more complicated than your average restaurant profit margin calculations. Because of the numerous ingredients and labor involved in making the sellable item. But it arguably becomes simpler when using a simpler accounting method—like cash accounting. Food cost, or liquor cost in bars, is an important expense ratio in the context of restaurant accounting.

You will be able to fully customize your https://bookkeeping-reviews.com/ to see how your business is doing from all angles. The cash flow feature allows for you to view the money in and money out trends at a quick glance to see how your restaurant is doing in real-time. We looked at a dozen business accounting software systems and reviewed each for pricing, features, ease of use, integration options, and automation. We focused on those features that we considered the most important for restaurant owners to identify the best accounting software options for restaurants. Using accounting software can help owners and managers know where their money is going and identify potential savings. The software can also keep track of inventory and profits and properly calculate sales tax to avoid fines.

Understanding Restaurant Accounting Methods

When it comes to restaurants bookkeeping, you may have a lot on your mind. You might be asking yourself questions like how do restaurants do bookkeeping? Whatever your questions, keeping some simple tips and areas of focus in mind can help.

If you go it alone, you can find sample accounts online from industry sources such as the National Restaurant Association, and most accounting programs offer sample accounts for restaurants. Even if you go that route, paying a professional to give you a few hours of instruction in how to use those accounts will save you many hours of stress and confusion. Restaurant bookkeeping can quickly become too complex for restaurant owners to handle. If you are not confident in your ability or lack the time that’s needed for accurate and thorough bookkeeping, consider hiring an accountant. Prime costs are one of the most essential KPIs for restaurant owners.

This part will give you a comprehensive overview of restaurant accounting tips you should take into consideration when running a restaurant business. The big thing to cover right away is the accounting method which would be suitable for restaurants. According to Chron.com, restaurants under $1M per year in revenue can choose their own small business accounting method and most often it would be the cash method. Larger restaurants must use the accrual method to comply with the IRS. As an owner, you know the challenges of running a restaurant, such as staffing, inventory management, and controlling the cost of goods sold. It is important to find a bookkeeper who understands the complexity of the food and beverage industry, both front-of-the-house operations and back-of-the-house management.

Calculating prime costs help you find where you can cut costs, boost profits, and increase efficiency. Restaurant’s success will be measured against key performance indicators which will be measured through financial reporting and analysis. Here are some important ratios to study when you review the financial statements for your restaurant. It’s best practice to reconcile accounts payable before inputting invoices into your accounting software. To do this, you can try a process called the “Three-Way Match.” To begin, view your restaurant’s purchase order, then the receiving order, and lastly, the vendor invoice.

Accounting Firms

Food cost is the ratio of a restaurant’s cost of ingredients and the revenue those ingredients create when you sell menu items. While the hospitality sector reopens across North America, owners and operators face a whole new set of challenges. Download our free playbook and learn how to build a more resilient business post-pandemic. Great food, brilliant customer service and all-round stellar dining experiences are probably why you got into restaurants in the first place. I understand that by clicking submit, I am providing Bookwerks with the personal information that I filled out above. Bookwerks will not share or sell this information with anyone outside of our organization, but it may be viewed by our extended team.

Keeping tabs and closing out the till on a daily basis will help you ensure you’re not letting anything slip through the cracks. This makes it much easier to track sales and stay on top of your restaurant bookkeeping. Lots of individual points of sale happen each day though, so keeping a close record of everything is important. If you’re not sure which type of loan is the best fit, you may want to consult your accountant. An experienced accountant can also help you navigate the loan application process, which includes preparing financial statements and a business plan.

Be Accurate with Your Bookkeeping

To miskey numbers when you’re entering row upon row of data is also human. So is failing to recognize meal discounts or mis-logging sales as revenue. When you enter incorrect information into your books, you’re also skewing financial reports and KPIs.

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For you to successfully manage accounting in your restaurant, you may consider hiring a restaurant accountant or investing in restaurant accounting software. Moreover, Synder features advanced settings and categorization rules that’ll enable you to optimize the transferred data according to your particular accounting needs. This restaurant accounting method is used to document generated income when cash is received to pay for services or to record expenses and costs that occur.

Get a free trial or book a demo to make sure Synder is just what you’ve been looking for. loans and grants that require reconciliation include loans, lines of credit, credit cards, bank accounts, and payroll liabilities. It’s a necessary process that ensures that nothing is left unaccounted for. Keep tabs on your revenue and use your accounting records to figure out how much you earn from food sales, merchandise sales, catering jobs, and more. Pinpoint how much revenue you make on a daily basis and then break them further into categories. You should review your prime costs, CoGs, inventory counts, and labor on a weekly basis, not a monthly basis.