The owner of a restaurant opens the monthly P&L and looks at the sales, skips down to the bottom line, and then closes the P&L.
Does this sound familiar to you?
The report could be completely correct, but if they are the only two numbers reviewed, most of its value is left on the table.
Good restaurant bookkeeping shouldn’t make owners more dependent on an accountant. They should feel more confident about their numbers. It’s not necessary to spend in the dark putting together invoices or know every accounting rule. It’s crucial to understand the reason for the fluctuation in profits, what happened with the use of labor and food and which areas require to be addressed next week.
This is the premise Bookkeeping Chef’s mission: to automate the bookkeeping work that doesn’t require an owner’s time and gives restaurant managers clearer financial information they can actually use.
Start with the Weekly Numbers Instead of just the month-end
Restaurants don’t operate on per month. The managers schedule the labor for the week. The chef ordered food today. Vendors change prices now.
Bookkeeping Chef’s weekly prime-cost reports are available alongside the monthly financial statements.
Prime cost is the sum of costs of selling goods and labor two major areas that can be swiftly moved in a restaurant. The information provided by the Bookkeeping Chef indicates that prime costs usually comprise around 60% of the sales at restaurants.
Imagine that sales barely changed but the price of production grew. This alone won’t be the answer. This gives the person in charge an opportunity to conduct some digging.
Is the hourly wage increasing? Did overtime occur? Did food costs change? The invoice of a vendor was unusually high. What changes have occurred in the sales mix?
It’s far more beneficial than identifying the same issue two weeks later.
Let Automation Handle the Repetitive Work
DIY bookkeeping doesn’t have to be a manual process of transferring POS totals into spreadsheets after the service.
Automating bookkeeping for restaurants can assist to reduce the number of times financial data is moved. The service integrates systems like POS and QuickBooks payroll vendor platforms, and inventory management.
The goal is not automation to achieve its own ends.
The goal is to eliminate the manual entry of data, and to keep financial records current so that the owners are able to spend more time reviewing the information instead of assembling it.
This leads to a different style of bookkeeping that restaurants use: technology can handle the mechanics, while the proprietor remains involved in the financial aspects.
You can ask better questions regarding P&L
If you stop thinking of a P&L as a type of test, it will become less daunting.
Start with the sales. Then, you can look at the costs of production. Compare the results of beverages and food. Take into consideration the labor. Look at operating expenses. and examine what’s left.
And, most importantly, compare times.
Something that lies between these two lines has changed in the event that sales have been increasing, but profits have not. What changed within the business if food costs increased. Compare staffing with sales to determine if the labour percent has changed. If a number looks strange look into it rather than thinking that the restaurant had an unlucky month.
Bookkeeping Chef’s monthly P&Ls are that are completed in five business days, giving owners an opportunity to review recent results rather than receive financial statements long after the operational period is completed.
Speed is important, but it is important to know.
It’s not necessary to DIY everything.
There is no need to be your own bookkeeper full-time if you want to avoid handing the complete financial responsibility over to another person.
Owners are still able to participate in the accounting process without needing to complete every task manually.
It could involve the use of automated system connections in order to ensure information flows by reviewing a weekly prime-cost report, analyzing the monthly P&L and posing queries in the event of an unexpected change.
Services for bookkeeping in restaurants that focus in restaurants can help owners understand the meaning of the reports by arranging the books and keeping them organized.
It’s not an owner who is skilled enough to complete every bookkeeping task.
An owner can have a conversation with a P&L and engage in a thoughtful conversation about the business.
The aim is financial independence not More Reports
Restaurants already generate huge amounts of information. A dashboard doesn’t always make sense.
The real value is when an operator is able to look at a weekly report on prime costs and see that something has was different, then look at the P&L and understand the next steps to take.
Bookkeeping Chef’s approach to bookkeeping integrates restaurant accounting automation with weekly reports, monthly P&Ls and restaurant-specific financial assistance to make this possible.
Automate repetitive tasks. Review your prime cost every week. Understand the language that is used in your P&L.
There is no need to be an accountant professional.
Owners who know the financial aspect of their restaurants will be able to make better choices.