Bookkeeping for restaurants and food service businesses
Daily POS reconciliation, tip payroll done right under FLSA, Texas sales tax on food and alcohol separated correctly, delivery app commissions netted out, and a live prime cost dashboard — so you know your margins, not just what hit your bank account.
We work with restaurants, cafes, bars, and food service businesses on POS reconciliation, tip payroll compliance, delivery app income netting, sales tax, and books that show you prime cost and margin by category every month. We coordinate with your CPA on tax filings.
QuickBooks Online · Gusto · Ramp — professional liability insured — month-to-month, 30-day notice
Pick a time right here — no prep required.
Restaurants don't run on bank balance — they run on prime cost, POS accuracy, and tight labor control. Tip pooling compliance, delivery platform netting, and Texas mixed-beverage tax are where your books either tell the truth or cost you money. Most bookkeepers have never touched any of it.
What changes with TurnkeyCFO
Every service below is built for how food service businesses actually operate — POS systems, tip staff, delivery platforms, and daily cash flow.
Accurate categorization of food cost, beverage cost, labor, occupancy, and all operating expenses. Full monthly close with P&L, balance sheet, prime cost summary, and written commentary so you know exactly where the money went — and where margins are tightening.
Tip credit payroll for servers, bartenders, and bussers tracked under FLSA rules — declared tips recorded against the $2.13 tip credit rate, minimum wage floor verified for every pay period, tip pooling arrangements documented. Quarterly 941 reconciliation and annual W-2 tip income reporting included.
Every POS sales report matched to your bank deposit — cash, card, and third-party payments reconciled daily so overages, shortages, and skimming surface immediately, not at month-end cleanup.
DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub pay net — after commissions, service fees, and marketing charges. We record gross revenue on each order, expense platform commissions separately, and reconcile payouts to your bank so your P&L shows true delivery sales margin — not just what hit your account.
Texas taxes prepared food, non-alcoholic beverages, and alcohol at different rates — plus a separate 6.7% mixed-beverage gross receipts tax for permit holders. We separate sales by category in QuickBooks and prepare monthly tax data for your CPA or Comptroller filing so you're collecting and remitting the right amount every time.
Food cost and beverage cost tracked separately — and further broken down by category (proteins, produce, spirits, wine, beer) using your POS item data and invoices. Know which category is bleeding margin before your distributor rep tells you prices went up again.
Prime cost ratio, food cost %, labor cost %, revenue by daypart and category, gift card liability balance, and cash flow forecast — updated monthly so you're managing with real numbers, not week-old gut feel.
Tax filings and legal matters — coordinated with your CPA or attorney. TurnkeyCFO does not provide tax or legal advice; we keep your books filing-ready and support the process end-to-end.
The day-to-day realities most bookkeepers have never touched. We have.
FLSA tip credit isn't optional — it's a federal compliance requirement.
The $2.13 federal tip credit rate requires that declared tips always bring an employee to at least $7.25/hr (or your state minimum). Tip pooling arrangements must be documented and compliant. We track declared tips, verify the wage floor every pay period, and maintain the documentation trail your labor attorney would want to see.
A separate 6.7% gross receipts tax on top of sales tax — for every mixed beverage permit holder.
Texas TABC permit holders pay the mixed-beverage gross receipts tax on all alcohol sales in addition to regular sales tax. Food sales, non-alcoholic beverage sales, and alcohol sales must each be tracked separately. We set up the chart of accounts to separate them from day one so your tax remittance is right every month.
The net deposit is not revenue — it's revenue minus what the platform took.
DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub deduct their commissions (15–30% of order value) before remitting to you. Recording only the deposit understates true revenue and hides the true cost of third-party delivery. We record each platform's gross sales as revenue and its commissions as cost of sales so you see the real margin on delivery orders.
Gift cards sold are a liability until redeemed.
When a guest buys a $100 gift card, you haven't earned $100 — you've taken on a $100 obligation. Revenue is recognized only when the card is redeemed at the register. We track your gift card liability balance monthly and recognize income at redemption, so your P&L reflects meals actually served, not cash collected for future meals.
The most important number in restaurant finance — COGS plus labor as % of revenue.
Profitable independent restaurants typically run prime cost between 55% and 65% of revenue. Drift above 65% means food cost, labor, or both are out of control. We track prime cost monthly with enough detail to know whether the problem is protein cost, over-scheduling, or delivery platform erosion — so you can fix the right thing.
Holiday rushes and private events need separate tracking to be useful.
Catering events, buyouts, and holiday revenue spikes distort your regular operating metrics if lumped together. We track catering revenue and direct costs separately so your per-week restaurant baseline stays clean, and your catering margin is visible on its own. Useful when you're deciding whether to grow that business line — or price it more aggressively.
Simple, fast, and designed to work around your service schedule.
We learn your POS system, delivery platforms, tip structure, current software, and where the books are breaking down — so we set up right the first time.
COGS by menu category, sales tax accounts, delivery commission expense lines, gift card liability, and tip payroll — all built before we touch a single transaction.
Daily POS reconciliation runs ongoing. Every month: full close, prime cost report, sales tax data ready to file, and a dashboard that shows margin by category.
No — we work alongside your CPA. We keep books clean and filing-ready year-round so your CPA can file without a month of cleanup. If you need a CPA who understands food service, we can refer one.
Yes. We handle tip credit payroll under FLSA — tracking declared tips, verifying servers always clear minimum wage, documenting tip pooling arrangements, and reconciling tip income to POS reports monthly.
Texas imposes a 6.7% mixed-beverage gross receipts tax on top of regular sales tax for alcohol sales. We separate food, non-alcoholic beverage, and alcohol sales in your chart of accounts and prepare the data for correct remittance every month.
Yes. Delivery platforms pay net — after commissions, service fees, and promotions are deducted. We record gross revenue, then separately record platform commission expense so your P&L shows true revenue and true cost of delivery sales, not just what hit your bank account.
Prime cost is your total food and beverage COGS plus total labor cost as a percentage of revenue. Most profitable independent restaurants run between 55–65%. We track it monthly so you can spot drift before it becomes a crisis.
Gift cards sold are a liability, not revenue — revenue is recognized only when the card is redeemed. We record gift card sales as deferred revenue and reduce the liability at redemption, so your P&L reflects actual meals served, not cash collected for future meals.
Everything lives in QuickBooks Online, Gusto, and Ramp — enterprise-grade platforms with role-scoped access. Credentials are never shared by email and we maintain professional liability insurance.
Month-to-month, 30-day notice. No multi-year contracts. We keep clients because the work is good, not because the paperwork traps them.
Get your instant estimate, then book a 15-minute call to talk through fit and scope. No pressure, no sales pitch.