Restaurant owners will open their monthly P&L reports, examine the sales and then move down to the bottom and close the report.
Does this sound familiar to you?
It might be a completely precise report, but just by examining two figures, you leave the bulk of its worth in the dust.
Good restaurant bookkeeping shouldn’t make owners more dependent on their accountant. It should give them confidence in their own numbers. It’s not necessary to spend in the dark putting together invoices or master every accounting rule. You do need to understand the reason why profits moved and what happened to food and labor costs, and which questions deserve consideration next week.
Bookkeeping Chef is an application that helps automate bookkeeping so owners can spend more time on other things while getting clearer financial reports.
Don’t stop at Month-End Numbers. Begin with Weekly Numbers
Restaurants aren’t operating on an annual basis. Managers schedule labor this week. Chefs order food right now. Vendors change prices now.
This is the reason Bookkeeping Chef provides weekly prime-cost flash reports in addition to monthly financial statements.
Prime cost is the sum of two important areas which can be quickly transported in a restaurant establishment: cost of the goods that are sold, as well as labor. The Bookkeeping Chef’s information notes that prime costs usually comprise approximately 60% of the sales at restaurants.
Suppose sales have barely changed and the prime cost has increased. This number does not give an answer. It gives the person in charge a reason to conduct an investigation.
Did hourly work rise? Was there any overtime? Changes in food costs? Was the invoice of a vendor excessively high? Did sales mix changes?
This is much better than having the same issue two weeks later.
Automate the repetitive Work
DIY bookkeeping doesn’t have be a manual process of transferring POS totals to spreadsheets following service.
Automating the bookkeeping processes of restaurants can help eliminate repetitive data movement. It connects to various systems, including POS and QuickBooks, payroll vendors, vendor platforms inventory and recipe management and Payment and AP tools.
Automating for the sake of automation is not the objective.
It is to reduce manual data entry and keep the financial records up-to-date so that the owners are able to spend their time reviewing data rather than creating it.
That creates a different model of bookkeeping for restaurants: technology handles more of the mechanics while the owner remains engaged with the financial meaning.
If you have more questions, you can ask them regarding P&L
Stop looking at your P&L as something that could be an accounting test.
Start with sales. Look at the cost necessary to achieve those sales. Compare the effectiveness of food and beverages. Check the cost of labor. Continue to reduce your operating expenses.
More importantly, compare periods.
Something in between has changed in the event that sales have increased, but profit has not. What changed in the operation if food costs increased. Compare staffing with sales to see if the labor percent has changed. If the number appears odd look into it rather than thinking the restaurant was simply having an awful month.
Bookkeeping Chef offers monthly P&Ls, which are finished within five business days. The owners are able to look over the company’s performance without having to wait for months before receiving financial statements.
Understanding is more important than speed for those seeking bookkeeping solutions for restaurants.
You don’t need to handle everything on your own by doing it yourself
You can find a happy compromise between hiring someone else to manage your financial needs and being your own full-time accountant.
You are able to be a business owner without performing all accounting duties by hand.
This could mean automatizing systems to ensure the flow of information, examining the monthly P&L and a weekly report regarding prime expenses or asking questions when an unexpected event occurs.
Specialized restaurant bookkeeping services can help with this by maintaining the book’s structure and helping the restaurant owner understand what the reports mean.
This doesn’t mean the bookkeeper is competent to handle every bookkeeping task.
Owners who are able sit down and talk intelligently about their company with the P&L will have more success.
The goal is Financial Independence, Not More Reports
Restaurants already produce huge amounts of information. The other dashboards aren’t necessarily useful.
Real value is the moment an operator opens the P&L report and recognize that there is a change, and then go through the report on the primary cost.
Bookkeeping Chef’s approach incorporates financial support for restaurants, weekly reports and automated restaurant bookkeeping to achieve this.
Automatize repetitive tasks. Review the prime cost each week. Know the language employed in your P&L.
There is no need to be a professional accountant.
Restaurant owners who are aware of the financial aspect of their own establishments will be able make better choices.