Why restaurants need different books
Card sales land a few days later with the processor's fees taken out, cash goes into the till and the bank on its own schedule, tips belong to staff, delivery apps pay you less their commission, and food costs move every week. Getting from all that to a real profit number is a restaurant bookkeeper's whole job.
What a bookkeeper for restaurants keeps track of
- Daily sales from your point of sale, split into cash, card and gift cards
- Card payouts net of fees, matched to the day they came from
- Tips owed to staff, kept out of your sales
- Delivery app payouts, split into sales and commission
- Food and drink costs as a share of sales
- Cash counted against what the till says
In the US
- Restaurant meals are taxable in every state that has a sales tax, and some cities and counties add a meals tax on top.
- Tips aren't your sales, but you report them through payroll, and you may get a tax credit for the Social Security and Medicare you pay on them.
- Delivery apps send you a yearly 1099-K for what they paid you.
In Canada
- Restaurant meals take GST/HST. Voluntary tips don't, but a mandatory service charge does.
- Gift cards carry no GST/HST when you sell them, only when they're used.
- Delivery apps pay you less their commission, so the deposit isn't your sales.
What SumSwift does for restaurant and café owners
- Point of sale reports read from Square, Toast, Clover, Lightspeed, TouchBistro and others, each day split into cash, card, tips and gift cards
- Card payouts matched to their days, with the processor's fees split out
- Uber Eats, DoorDash and SkipTheDishes payout reports split into sales and commission
- Till counts with over or short, and cash deposits matched
- Recipes and food cost, actual against what sales should have used
- Payroll worked out each payday, with the deposit file for your bank and the remittance to send
- Every statement checked against the balances your bank printed, to the cent, with personal spending kept off your profit