Home/Industry-Specific Accounting/Restaurant & Food Service Accounting
Watch Food And Labor Weekly, Not Yearly
Daily sales reconciled, cost percentages tracked while they can still be changed, and tips reported correctly.
The Numbers That Decide A Restaurant
Two percentages run a food business, and both move week to week. Reviewing them annually is the same as not reviewing them.
- Food cost as a percentage of food sales
- Labor cost as a percentage of total sales
- Prime cost, the two combined, tracked weekly
- Waste, comps, and staff meals separated from cost of goods
- Beverage tracked separately from food
- Sales by daypart where the point of sale supports it
Daily Sales And Deposits
The daily sales summary from the point of sale has to be reconciled to what actually reaches the bank, with credit card settlements, processor fees, third-party delivery deductions, cash, and gift card activity all accounted for. Delivery platforms are where reconciliation most often breaks down, because the deposit is net of fees and rarely matches the sales figure.
Sales tax collected is recorded as a liability from the start, not as revenue. Getting that wrong overstates sales and understates what is owed, every single day.
Tips And Payroll
Tipped payroll carries its own requirements: reported tips, tip credit where it is used, allocation where required, and the credit available to employers on the payroll taxes paid on tips. These are handled inside the payroll engagement rather than reconstructed at year end.
Restaurant Accounting In Huntsville, AL
Independent restaurants, cafes, and food service operations around Huntsville, AL, Harvest, AL, and Madison County work with this practice, most of them owner-operated where the person watching the numbers is also on the floor.
Questions People Ask About Restaurant & Food Service Accounting
How often should I see numbers?
Prime cost weekly, full statements monthly. A month is too long to discover that food cost moved five points.
How do delivery platform payouts get recorded?
Gross sales, platform commission, and the net deposit are recorded separately. Booking only the deposit understates both sales and expense and makes the sales tax return wrong.
Do you handle the sales tax filings too?
Yes. Restaurants often file in more than one jurisdiction, and the returns are prepared from the same closed books as the financial statements.
Next Steps Clients Take
Sales Tax Filing & Compliance
Alabama state and local sales tax returns filed on schedule, taxable and exempt sales separated in the books, exemption certificates retained, and collected tax reconciled to the liability account each period.
Read morePayroll Processing
Weekly, bi-weekly, semi-monthly, and monthly payroll, run through QuickBooks Payroll or Patriot with direct deposit, stubs, deductions, and the journal entries posted into the same period as the books.
Read moreMonthly Bookkeeping
The most common arrangement in the practice.
Read moreLet's Look At Your Numbers Together
Twenty to thirty minutes, in person at the Harvest, AL office, by phone, or by video, whichever suits your week.