A restaurant owner should constantly monitor cash flow, which is the money coming in and going out of your restaurant. This includes making sure there is always an emergency fund set aside for unexpected expenses like equipment breaking and needing to be replaced. There are certain financial statements that should be a part of your restaurant accounting cycle process. And let’s be honest, it really can be if you don’t have the right tools to keep everything under control. At SynergySuite, we plug into your restaurant’s bookkeeping operations, so your business runs smoothly. You must pass the bookkeeping, payroll, QuickBooks Online and accounting certification exams before qualifying for CPB licensure.

With professionals by your side, you don’t need to spend your precious time dealing with inventory management, staffing, and tracking the cost of goods sold. Understanding the basics is essential to make smart, finance-driven business decisions. So, let’s take how to do bookkeeping for a restaurant a look at the steps you need to take to manage restaurant bookkeeping. Whether you’re a startup entrepreneur in the hospitality industry or an accomplished restaurateur, restaurant bookkeeping and accounting might sound like a foreign language to you.

How your POS complements your accounting

If you are not confident in your ability or lack the time that’s needed for accurate and thorough bookkeeping, consider hiring an accountant. A restaurant profit and loss statement, or P&L, keeps all restaurant accounting information organized in one concise document. For your gross profit, you’re going to subtract total expenses from total sales. This amount will be the gross amount or gross profit before any deductions are taken into account.

A bookkeeper certification tells employers that you have all the skills and expertise required for advanced bookkeeping. For instance, you can have special/exotic items on the menu in particular seasons when the procurement costs of the raw materials are low. Cash flow is the amount of money coming in and the amount of money going out of your restaurant on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

What does a restaurant accountant do?

Depending on the level of detail put into creating the P&L will determine the value obtained from it. Food cost is the ratio of a restaurant’s cost of ingredients (food inventory) and the revenue those ingredients create when you sell menu items. Depending on the type of restaurant you run, though, costs may be higher or lower. To evaluate the costs, divide the staff into groups of kitchen staff or managers to see which group is costing you more. The cost of preparing the item on the menu is divided by the total revenue from the item.

This equates to a whopping ten percent of the entire workforce in America, and most of these workers are hourly and part-time staff. With everyone that goes into keeping your books up to speed, it might make sense to hire a qualified and accredited finance professional to help you. And importantly, it provides significant ratios analysis that tells you how the company is doing. According to the National Restaurant Association, there are 14.7 million people in the restaurant industry.

Pay

When your chart of accounts is set up in this manner all you have to do is modify your profit and loss with the correct settings. A few notable restaurant accounts payable services that are worth mentioning are XtraChef by Toast, MarginEdge, and PlateIQ. You would then have a payment approver approve any bills they want to be paid at anytime. This allows you to manage your accounts payable completely in the cloud and the ability to pay your bills from anywhere.