A restaurant owner opens the monthly P&L and looks at the sales, then skips to the bottom line and closes the report.
Does this sound familiar?
If just those two numbers are scrutinized then the real value is diminished.
The proper bookkeeping of a restaurant shouldn’t force owners more dependent on accountants. They should be more comfortable with their own financials. There is no need to spend the night completing invoices or be aware of every accounting rule. You do need to understand the reason why profits moved from food and labor costs and what questions need focus next week.
Bookkeeping Chef’s mission is to automate tasks in bookkeeping which don’t take the time of restaurant owners while also providing customers with more precise financial information they can utilize.
Do Not Stop at the Month-End Numbers. Begin by calculating Weekly Numbers
Restaurants do not operate on an annual basis. Managers plan the labor for the week. The chef has ordered food for today. Vendors change prices now.
That’s the reason Bookkeeping Chef provides weekly prime-cost flash reports, along with monthly financial statements.
The main cost is a combination of cost of the goods and labor, two areas in which the restaurant could accelerate its progress. The bookkeeping chef’s provided information states that prime costs usually comprise roughly 60% of sales in restaurants.
Suppose sales have barely changed and the prime cost has increased. This percentage alone isn’t enough to provide the answer. It provides the person with an incentive to look into the issue.
Did hourly wages rise? Was there overtime? Did food cost move? Was the invoice of a vendor excessively high? Does the mix of sales changed?
It’s far more beneficial than discovering the same issue several weeks later.
Automate repetitive tasks
DIY bookkeeping doesn’t have to be a manual process of transferring POS (point of sale) amounts onto spreadsheets.
Automating restaurant bookkeeping can help with repetitive financial data movements. It connects to various systems, including POS and QuickBooks, payroll vendor platforms inventory management, recipe and recipe management as well tools for AP/payment.
Automating just for the sake of automation is not the goal.
It’s a way to streamline data entry and ensure that the financial records current enough that the owner can spend time reviewing data rather than gathering it.
This creates a new model of bookkeeping for restaurants. The software handles more of the mechanics, while the proprietor is still involved with the financial implications.
P&L Questions: Find out to Ask Better Questions
A P&L becomes much less intimidating when you stop thinking of it as an accounting test.
Start with sales. Then, take a look at costs of production. Compare the food and drink performances. Examine the cost of labor. Reduce your operating expenses.
More importantly, compare periods.
Somewhere between these two lines has changed, if sales increased but the profits haven’t. What was the result when food prices were rising? If the labor percentage changed, compare staffing and sales activity. Examine any figures that appear strange, rather than assuming that a restaurant has had a bad week.
Bookkeeping Chef provides monthly P&Ls that are completed in five business days. This gives owners the opportunity to look over recent performance, not receiving financial statements for a long time after the operating period is completed.
Speed is important, but it is important to know.
It’s not required to make everything.
You can find a comfortable compromise between hiring someone else to handle your entire financial functions and being your own full-time accountant.
Owners can be still involved in the accounting process without being required to do every job by hand.
The process could be as easy as utilizing automated system connections to keep the data flowing. However, it could be as extensive and intricate a study of the monthly P&L or a review of the weekly Prime Cost Report.
Services for bookkeeping in restaurants that focus in catering can assist restaurant owners to understand the purpose of reports by organizing the books and ensuring they are organized.
This does not mean that the bookkeeper is able to perform all bookkeeping functions.
Owners who can be able to sit down and discuss intelligently about their company with the P&L will be more successful.
The objective of financial independence isn’t to create additional reports, but to attain financial freedom
Restaurants already produce huge quantities of data. Another dashboard isn’t automatically useful.
Value is realized when an employee can open the P&L report, recognize that there has been a change, and then review the report on the primary cost.
Bookkeeping Chef’s approach combines restaurant bookkeeping automation, weekly reporting, monthly P&Ls, and restaurant-specific financial support to make that possible.
Automate the repetitive work. Review prime cost every week. Be aware of the language that is used within your P&L.
You don’t have to be an accountant to be an.
It is essential to be aware of the finances of your restaurant before you take over as the owner.