Hospitality & Food Service
Bookkeeping for restaurants, bars, and food businesses where the margin is thin and the transaction volume is relentless.
The Industry
A good year in food service is a 5% net margin. Some restaurants run at 3%. Some run at zero and don’t realize it until the landlord calls. At those margins, small problems become existential fast. Food cost creeps up two points and half your profit disappears. Labor runs hot for a month and you’re working for free. There’s no cushion.
Then there’s the volume. Hundreds of transactions a day. Cash drawers, card tips, voids, comps, the POS says one thing and the bank shows something else. Tips that need to be paid out, reported, and withheld correctly. Sales tax on prepared food. It’s a lot of money moving in a lot of directions, and most of it lands somewhere between chaotic and barely controlled.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Restaurants, bars, cafes, food trucks, bakeries, catering companies, breweries, coffee shops, juice bars, ghost kitchens. Any business making and selling food or drinks.
What Makes It Different
What Makes It Different
Razor-thin margins that punish small mistakes. Food cost that needs tracking weekly, not monthly. Tipped employees with complicated payroll requirements. High transaction volume that makes reconciliation a chore. Sales tax on prepared food. Cash handling that creates opportunities for shrinkage.
What We Handle
Monthly bookkeeping with food cost and labor cost tracked as percentages of sales so you can see when they’re drifting before it’s too late. POS deposits reconciled against actual sales so the numbers match and discrepancies get caught early. Sales tax handled correctly for Ohio’s rules on prepared food.
Payroll for tipped employees with tips reported and withheld properly. Multiple pay rates for servers, cooks, managers. Overtime calculated correctly for staff who might work double shifts during a busy week. Books that show you what the restaurant actually made, not just what went through the register.
Prime Cost Tracking
Prime Cost Tracking
Food cost plus labor cost as a percentage of sales. The number that determines whether you’re making money or just staying busy. Tracked monthly so you see problems early.
Tip Reporting and Payroll
Tip Reporting and Payroll
Card tips, cash tips, tip pools, tip credits. All tracked correctly for payroll and taxes. Tipped minimum wage handled properly. No surprises when the IRS asks questions.
Common Problems
Food cost is where restaurants lose money without seeing it. You think you’re running 28% because that’s what the menu math says. But waste, over-portioning, theft, and vendor price increases push the real number higher. By the time you notice, you’ve been bleeding margin for months.
Labor is the other killer. Schedule too heavy and you’re paying people to stand around. Schedule too light and service suffers. Overtime sneaks in when someone covers a shift. Training hours add up. The 30% target is easy to miss when you’re not watching weekly.
Cost Creep
Cost Creep
Food costs rising a point at a time. Vendors raising prices without you adjusting the menu. Portions drifting larger. Waste that nobody’s tracking. Small leaks that add up to real money.
Reconciliation Chaos
Reconciliation Chaos
POS reports don’t match deposits. Tips paid out in cash that never got recorded. Voids and comps that aren’t documented. By month end, nobody knows what actually happened.
What Changes
You know your real numbers. Food cost calculated from actual purchases and sales, not menu theory. Labor cost tracked weekly so you can adjust scheduling before it wrecks the month. Prime cost visible so you can see whether the business is actually working or just moving cash around.
Tips handled correctly. Payroll processed without the manual calculations that eat up manager time. Sales tax filed accurately. POS reconciled to deposits so discrepancies surface early. The books reflect what actually happened, not what the register said should have happened.
Margin Visibility
Margin Visibility
Know your actual food cost and labor cost as percentages. See when they’re drifting. Make adjustments to menu pricing or scheduling based on real data instead of gut feeling.
Clean Operations
Clean Operations
POS reconciled, tips tracked, payroll accurate, sales tax filed. The back office runs without creating emergencies. You focus on the restaurant instead of the paperwork.
Northwest Ohio’s Trusted Bookkeeping Partner
The Next Step:
A 15-Minute Discovery Call
Let's talk about your current bookkeeping situation. We'll assess your needs, outline a plan of action, and give you a clear quote.
