Insights & resources
Evidence, not thought leadership.
Sample output, working references and analysis written for operators. Nothing here is gated — the research is clear that gating case studies and reference material costs more trust than it captures leads.
Sample output
See what we actually produce
Hotels
USALI monthly reporting pack
Summary operating statement, departmental schedules, owner statement and flow-through analysis.
Restaurants
Restaurant P&L statement
The P&L format line by line, a worked period close, and a blank template to copy.
Multi-unit
Multi-unit restaurant accountingage
Per-unit P&Ls, eliminations, group consolidation and the unit-contribution ranking.
Reference
Restaurant chart of accounts
A full sample restaurant chart of accounts, published in full, with period structure and prime-cost groupings.
Reference
Hotel chart of accounts
187 numbered accounts on the departmental structure lodging reports in, with the subtotals that produce GOP and EBITDA.
Reference
KPI glossary
Prime cost, flow-through, RevPAR, GOP, tip credit, 4-4-5 — defined as operators use them.
Tool
Questions to ask a restaurant accountant
The questions that get past “yes, we work with restaurants” — close date, prime cost, delivery, tip credit and who does the work.
Tool
Accountant handover pack
Every record, schedule and access item to request from an outgoing accountant — including the interim-appointment version.
Tool
Switching checklist
What a clean handover requires and when in the year to do it.
Writing
Recent analysis
How restaurant accounting actually works
The whole cycle in order: period calendars, POS and delivery settlement, cash versus accrual, inventory-based food cost, prime cost, tips and the close.
Read →The FICA tip credit: the money most tipped operators leave on the table
Why the calculation uses $5.15 rather than $7.25, and the records needed to claim it on Form 8846.
Read →Prime cost: the one number that tells you whether the week worked
Calculating it correctly, why a monthly figure arrives too late to act on, and the coding that distorts it.
Read →Tip credit, state by state
The federal rule, the seven states that prohibit it entirely, and what a multi-state group has to track weekly.
Read →Food cost percentage, calculated so the number means something
Theoretical against actual, and the six accounting treatments that move the figure for no operational reason.
Read →Form 8027: who has to file, and how allocation bites
The more-than-10-employee test is an hours test, not a headcount — which is why establishments wrongly opt out.
Read →NYC restaurant tax: collect, file, and the Manhattan rent tax
The 8.875% is the easy part. Restaurant-type food, mandatory gratuities, use tax on comps, and commercial rent tax below 96th Street.
Read →Sales tax on food in New York, item by item
Heated food, the state’s own list of 22 sandwiches, platters, packaging, and why one price makes everything taxable.
Read →Restaurant sales tax reconciliation
Why POS gross sales never equals taxable receipts, the nine items that legitimately differ, and the records New York requires.
Read →Service charge or tip? Six things change
A service charge is wages, not a tip — and since June 2026 it is not a qualified tip for the federal deduction either.
Read →Restaurant payroll taxes: owed, recoverable, and where it breaks
FICA on tips you never handled, turnover that sets your unemployment rate, and the quarterly reconciliation that catches the rest.
Read →Labor cost percentage, built on a burdened basis
What belongs in the numerator, splitting fixed from variable, and why it only means something beside food cost.
Read →Practical tactics to fix cash flow gaps in restaurants
Weekly flash reporting, AP structured to the revenue cycle, and projections that survive a seasonal shift.
Read →