Restaurant owners will open their monthly P&L reports, and look at sales, then scroll down to the bottom and close the report.
Do these sound like familiar?
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 an accountant. They should feel more secure about their numbers. It’s not necessary to spend the night completing invoices or be aware of every accounting rule. You must understand the way profit has fluctuated and what’s happened to the cost of food and labor, and what questions should be answered next week.
Bookkeeping Chef is an application that automates bookkeeping, so users can focus on other things while getting more precise financial reports.
Begin with the Weekly Numbers Don’t Just Focus on Month-End
Restaurants do not operate on the basis of a monthly. The managers schedule the labor for the week. The chef is ordering food today. Vendors change prices now.
This is the reason Bookkeeping Chef provides weekly prime-cost flash reports in addition to monthly financial statements.
Prime cost brings together price of the goods sold and labor two major areas that are able to move quickly in an establishment. The information provided by the Bookkeeping Chef indicates that prime costs generally comprise roughly 60% of sales in restaurants.
Think about a situation where sales aren’t changing much, but prime costs are increasing. The percentage doesn’t give the solution. This gives the owner an excuse to do some study.
Did you notice an increase in the hours was worked? Did overtime occur? Costs of food changed? Did vendor invoices seem abnormally high? Did the mix of sales changed?
That is far more useful than discovering the same issue several weeks later.
Automate repetitive work
Bookkeeping for your own needs doesn’t have to mean manually transferring POS totals into spreadsheets after service.
Modern bookkeeping automation in restaurants can handle a significant portion all the repetitive transfer of financial information. The service can connect to systems such as POS and QuickBooks, payroll vendor platforms inventory and recipe management, as well as Payment and AP tools.
The purpose is not to automate to achieve its own ends.
It’s to cut down on manual data entry, and keep financial records current enough that the owner can spend time reviewing data rather than gathering it.
It is a totally different bookkeeping process for restaurants. Technology handles the mechanics and the restaurant owner remains engaged with the financial aspects.
Learn to Ask the P&L Better Questions
Stop taking your P&L as if it were an accounting test.
Start with sales. Start with sales. Compare the performance of drinks and food. Examine the cost of labor. Make sure you reduce your operational expenses.
Comparing the time spans is crucial.
Something between these two lines has changed if sales have increased but the profits haven’t. What happened when food prices rose? Review sales and staffing numbers to see if the labor percent has changed. If the number appears odd take a look instead of assuming the restaurant just had an awful month.
Bookkeeping Chef sends monthly P&Ls in five days. This lets the owners look at recent performance without waiting for financial statements that usually arrive months after the conclusion of an operational period.
Speed is essential, but the aim is to comprehend.
There’s no need to take on everything by yourself when you DIY
There’s a compromise between delegating all financial functions to someone else and having your own bookkeeper full-time.
The owner is able to remain involved without manually performing every accounting task.
This could mean making use of automated system connections to keep information flowing and analyzing a weekly prime-cost report, looking at the monthly P&L, and asking questions when something moves unexpectedly.
Specialized bookkeeping for restaurants can help with this approach by keeping the books in order and helping the owner to know what they are.
However, this does not mean the bookkeeper is able to perform all bookkeeping tasks.
A business owner can engage in a dialogue with the P&L about the business.
The Goal Is Financial Independence and not More Reports
Restaurants already generate huge quantities of information. Dashboards don’t always make sense.
Real value is when an operator is able to open a P&L report and recognize that there was a change and then look at the reports on prime costs.
Bookkeeping Chef’s approach to bookkeeping incorporates restaurant accounting automation, weekly reports, monthly P&Ls and the provision of financial support for specific restaurants to make this possible.
Automatize repetitive tasks. Check the primary cost every week. Learn to understand the same language as your P&L.
You don’t have to be a professional accountant.
It is essential to be aware of the financials of your establishment before you are able to become the proprietor.