Industries / Restaurants & Groups
Restaurant accounting services, built around prime cost
You find out prime cost moved two points last week while you can still fix it, not six weeks later when it is history. Restaurant margins are decided in weekly increments, not monthly ones. We close on your period calendar, reconcile every POS and delivery channel, and put prime cost by unit in front of you while the week can still be corrected.
At a glance
- Close cadence
- 4-4-5 and 13-period calendars, closed by day 10
- Reconciled weekly
- POS, third-party delivery, merchant settlement, banking
- Reported weekly
- Prime cost by unit against budget and last year
- Payroll handling
- Tip credit, tip pooling, FICA tip credit, Form 8027
What we handle that a general bookkeeper does not
The parts that are specific to restaurants
Period accounting, not calendar months
4-4-5 and 13-period calendars close correctly, so week-over-week comparisons stay honest and holidays fall where they should.
POS and third-party delivery reconciliation
Toast, Square, Clover and the delivery platforms reconciled to the penny — gross sales, commissions, promotions, chargebacks and the deposit that finally lands.
Tip credit, tip pooling and 8027
Tip reporting handled properly across states, FICA tip credit captured, and Form 8027 filed for large food and beverage establishments.
Prime cost by unit
Food and labor tracked together weekly against budget and last year, with theoretical-versus-actual variance flagged at the unit level.
Comp, void and discount controls
Monitoring the categories where restaurant losses actually hide, with a reviewed exception report rather than a raw dump.
Multi-entity groups
Separate entities per location consolidated into a group P&L, with intercompany and shared-service allocations handled cleanly.
What you see
Prime cost by unit, every week
Not a spreadsheet you have to build. A reviewed weekly flash with the variance already explained.
Which systems do you work in?
QuickBooks, Restaurant365, Compeat, PlateIQ and XtraChef, plus a range of POS and payroll platforms. We work in your stack rather than requiring a migration.
Do you handle single locations or only groups?
Both. The reporting scales — a single unit sees its own flash and P&L; a group sees per-unit detail plus a consolidated view.
Can you clean up prior periods?
Yes. Historical cleanup is scoped separately during onboarding so the opening balances you start from are defensible. See switching your books.
Weekly flash · illustrative
Prime cost % by unit, trailing 8 weeks
One unit above target for eight consecutive weeks is the kind of pattern a monthly close hides and a weekly flash cannot.
Scope
What restaurant accounting services should include
Restaurant accounting is the layer that turns reconciled books into decisions: prime cost by unit, channel margins, period comparisons that are honest, and financials a lender will underwrite. Use this as a checklist against any firm, including us.
| Layer | What it covers | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Books you can trust | POS, delivery platforms and merchant settlements reconciled to the bank; invoices coded; inventory counted and valued on the period boundary. | Restaurant bookkeeping services |
| Period close | 4-4-5 or 13-period calendars, accruals so each period carries its own costs, and a closed P&L and balance sheet by day 10. | Sample flash and P&L |
| Prime cost by unit | Food and total labor together, including salaried management, against budget and last year, with theoretical-versus-actual variance. | Prime cost |
| Payroll and tips | Tip credit evidence, FICA tip credit captured, service charges treated as wages, Form 8027 where the establishment qualifies. | Restaurant payroll |
| Cash | A cash view that explains why a profitable month left less in the bank, and what the next thirteen weeks look like. | Restaurant cash flow |
| Groups and growth | Entity-per-location consolidation, intercompany eliminations, budgets and bank-ready financials for a credit line or a new site. | Multi-unit and franchise · CFO and controller |
Restaurant accounting or restaurant bookkeeping?
Bookkeeping is the recording and reconciliation layer. Accounting sits on top of it and is only as good as what is underneath. Most operators need both from the same team, because a prime cost number built on unreconciled delivery deposits is a guess. If your books are behind, start with restaurant bookkeeping services; if they are current but nobody is telling you what they mean, this page is the one.
What it costs
A fixed monthly fee, quoted after scoping, with no hourly billing. It is driven by entity and location count, transaction volume, which functions we run, whether payroll is included and the state of the current books. Prior-period cleanup is quoted separately. In one engagement, a client went from three locations to nine after budgeting and bank-ready financials secured a credit line at a good rate.
Common questions
Restaurant accounting services: what operators ask
What do restaurant accounting services include?
Reconciled books, a period close on your 4-4-5 or 13-period calendar, prime cost by unit against budget and last year, payroll and tip compliance including the FICA tip credit, a cash view, and consolidation and bank-ready financials for groups. We close the P&L and balance sheet by day 10.
How much do restaurant accounting services cost?
A fixed monthly fee, quoted after scoping, with no hourly billing. It is driven by entity and location count, transaction volume, which functions we run, whether payroll is included and the state of your current books. Cleanup of prior periods is quoted separately.
Do I need a restaurant accountant, or will a general CPA do?
A general CPA can prepare a sound tax return. The restaurant-specific work is different: prime cost managed weekly, third-party delivery recorded gross, POS settlement reconciled to the bank, the tip credit and its evidence trail, and period calendars that keep comparisons honest. If those are not daily work for the firm, they tend to be learned on your books.
Do you work with restaurants outside New York?
Yes. We work with restaurant operators across the United States, from single units to multi-entity groups. New York operators also get the state and city rules that apply to them; see New York restaurant accounting.
Further reading
Written for operators, not for search engines
Reference
Prime cost
The largest controllable cost, calculated so it arrives while decisions are still open.
Reference
Food cost percentage
Theoretical against actual, and the treatments that move the number for no operational reason.
Reference
The FICA tip credit
Employer payroll tax on tips, returned dollar for dollar on Form 8846.
Sales tax never ties to the point-of-sale report by accident — the procedure is in restaurant sales tax reconciliation, and the NYC sales tax calculator computes a single check by line type. Operating in New York? See restaurant accounting in New York — Part 146 spread of hours, call-in pay and the NYC commercial rent tax. Changing accountants? See the handover pack. New to how the mechanics fit together? Start with how restaurant accounting actually works.
Choosing a restaurant accounting firm
The gap between a restaurant accounting firm and a competent general practice is not effort or credentials. It is that the restaurant-specific mechanics — prime cost as a managed weekly number, revenue split by channel, third-party delivery recorded gross, the tip credit and its evidence trail, period calendars that make comparison honest — are daily work in one and a learning exercise in the other. You pay for the learning either in fees or in decisions made on numbers that were not right.
Five things are worth establishing before you engage anyone, including us:
- A named close date. Not “when we have everything.” We close the P&L and the balance sheet by day 10 of the following period, with the reconciliation schedules that support it.
- Something between closes. A weekly flash covering sales, covers, food and labor against budget and last year, delivered while the week can still be acted on.
- Restaurant mechanics, answered specifically. How POS settles to bank, how delivery platforms are recorded, how comps and gift cards are treated, how the tip credit shortfall is caught inside the pay period.
- Who actually does the work. A named person, and a clear answer on where your data is handled.
- Your file in your name. The accounting subscription should be yours with the firm as a user, so leaving costs you nothing but notice.
We have written the long version as a list you can take into any meeting: the questions to ask a restaurant accountant. It is deliberately not written to make us the only acceptable answer.
Restaurant profitability guide
The numbers we manage for you, explained
Guide
Prime cost
What prime cost is, how to calculate it correctly, and why a monthly figure arrives too late.
Guide
Food cost percentage
The formula, theoretical against actual, and six treatments that move the number for no operational reason.
Guide
Labor cost percentage
A fully burdened labor figure, fixed versus variable, and the denominator traps.
Guide
Restaurant cash flow
Why profitable restaurants run short on cash, and the 13-week forecast that shows it coming.
Guide
Restaurant P&L statement
The P&L format line by line, a worked period close, and a blank template to copy.
Guide
Hospitality KPI glossary
Restaurant and hotel finance terms, with the calculation and the most common mistake.
Guide
How restaurant accounting works
The full cycle: period calendars, POS settlement, inventory, prime cost, tips and the close.
Operating in New York? See the NYC restaurant tax guide and New York restaurant accounting.
Bring your last P&L. We will tell you what we would change.
Twenty minutes, no deck, no obligation.