Restaurant bookkeeping has challenges that general small business bookkeeping doesn’t address. Daily cash handling, tipped employees, perishable inventory, and thin margins all require specific tracking methods that generic advice misses.

Start with your sales. Your POS system generates daily sales reports broken down by payment type. Every morning, reconcile yesterday’s sales to the actual cash in the drawer and the credit card deposits you expect to receive. Credit card processors typically deposit funds 1-3 days after the transaction, so you need to track which day’s sales each deposit represents. When POS reports and actual deposits don’t match, investigate immediately while details are fresh.

Cost of goods sold is your biggest controllable expense. Track food and beverage purchases separately because they have different target percentages. Most restaurants aim for 28-32% food cost and 18-24% beverage cost depending on the concept. You cannot manage these numbers without tracking purchases by category and counting inventory regularly. Weekly inventory counts on high-cost items like proteins and alcohol give you faster feedback than waiting until month end.

Tip handling is where many restaurants and bars get into compliance trouble. Tips collected on credit cards need to be tracked separately from revenue because that money belongs to your employees. How you distribute tips affects your payroll setup. Credit card tips paid through payroll are straightforward to track. Cash tips create more complexity because employees are responsible for reporting them, but you still owe employer payroll taxes on reported amounts.

Labor is your second biggest expense. Track it as a percentage of sales weekly, not just monthly. Most restaurants target 25-35% labor cost depending on service style. Your payroll system needs to handle tipped employees correctly, including minimum wage calculations and tip credits if you use them. Overtime accumulates fast in restaurants, so monitor hours mid-week before they become expensive.

Your chart of accounts needs restaurant-specific categories. Generic QuickBooks setup lumps everything into broad buckets that hide important detail. You want separate expense accounts for food purchases, beverage purchases, paper goods, cleaning supplies, smallwares, equipment repairs, and other operating costs. This granularity is what lets you spot problems and compare performance to industry benchmarks.

Daily and weekly routines are non-negotiable. Reconcile cash daily. Enter vendor invoices within a few days of delivery. Match Sysco or US Foods invoices to what actually arrived. Don’t let receipts pile up for weeks because you’ll lose them or forget what they were for. Weekly review of sales versus costs shows problems while you can still adjust.

At month end, take complete physical inventory and calculate your actual food and beverage cost percentages. Compare them to targets. Review your profit and loss statement with prime cost (food plus labor) as a percentage of sales. This single number tells you more about the month than almost any other metric.

The volume of transactions in a restaurant makes bookkeeping time-consuming. Between daily cash reconciliation, multiple vendor payments, tip tracking, and inventory management, the work adds up fast. Most restaurant owners who try to handle it themselves fall behind within a few months. Working with a Scottsdale bookkeeper who understands restaurant operations means your books actually get done correctly and you get reports that help you manage profitability instead of just recording history.