Industries · Hospitality

Accounting for Restaurants, Bars & Hospitality

Daily POS reconciliation. Clean tip reporting. Food and labor cost percentages that mean something. A CPA who understands how thin the margins really are.

Restaurant margins are too thin for messy books

A CPA who solves problems with modern tools. Not your typical CPA firm.

In hospitality, a few percentage points of margin is the difference between a good month and a bad one. That math punishes any business whose books are stale, miscategorized, or sitting in a folder of receipts. You cannot manage food cost, labor cost, or pricing decisions on instincts alone. You need numbers that are clean and current.

We work with restaurants, bars, cafes, and other hospitality businesses across Indiana. We know how the POS data is supposed to flow into your books. We know which tip-reporting mistakes the IRS pays attention to. And we know how to read food cost and labor cost trends weeks before they would show up on a P&L.

The modern POS and bookkeeping tools we use connect the moving pieces automatically. That is not the point. The point is that you can trust your numbers when you make pricing, staffing, and menu decisions.

The pain points we fix most often

POS sales not matching deposits

If you can't tie daily POS sales to bank deposits, you can't trust your top line. We reconcile daily so discrepancies surface in days, not at year-end.

Tip reporting that invites audits

Under-reported or miscategorized tips are one of the most common payroll mistakes in hospitality. We handle declared tips, allocations, and tipped-wage compliance the way the IRS expects.

FICA tip credit left on the table

Many restaurants either miss the FICA tip credit entirely or claim a fraction of what they could. For a busy operation it can be worth thousands per year.

Food and labor cost percentages that drift

If you only see food and labor cost percentages quarterly, you have already lost three months of margin. We track them weekly or monthly so corrections happen in time to matter.

Sales tax categorization errors

Indiana treats food, alcohol, and prepared takeout differently. POS categories set up wrong can cost you in over-payments or expose you in audits. We set them up right the first time.

Multi-location books that don't roll up cleanly

Per-location P&L plus a clean consolidated view should not be hard. We set up the books so you can see each location standalone and the company total without spreadsheet gymnastics.

The full stack, scoped to your operation

01

Bookkeeping with POS Integration

Daily POS reconciliation, sales tax categorization, monthly P&L with food and labor cost percentages, and a workflow that doesn't depend on you remembering anything.

More on bookkeeping →
02

Payroll with Tip Handling

Tipped-wage payroll done correctly. Declared tips, allocation where required, tipped-wage minimum compliance, and the FICA tip credit captured at year-end.

More on payroll →
03

Outsourced CFO

Menu engineering, pricing analysis, expansion planning, lender packages. The strategic work that turns a steady restaurant into a growing business.

More on outsourced CFO →

Whatever you run on, we can integrate

Daily sync with your POS, clean handoff to your books.

Toast

Full-service restaurants and bars. Daily sync into your books, integrated tip reporting.

Square for Restaurants

Cafes, quick service, smaller operations. Clean integration with QuickBooks Online.

Clover

Common for established operations. We reconcile daily and handle the categorization correctly.

Other platforms

Aloha, TouchBistro, Lightspeed, others. If your POS exports data, we can work with it.

Things restaurant owners ask us

How do you handle tipped employees on payroll?

Tip reporting is a regular part of our hospitality payroll work. We track declared tips, allocate where required, handle tipped-wage minimum compliance, and prepare the year-end reporting correctly. We also claim the FICA tip credit on your behalf, which most restaurants either miss entirely or under-claim.

Can you reconcile my Toast or Square sales daily?

Yes. Daily sales reconciliation from your POS into your books is one of the most important habits in restaurant accounting. We sync from Toast, Square, Clover, and other major POS systems, reconcile deposits against gross sales, and flag discrepancies before they become problems.

Do you help track food and labor cost percentages?

Yes. Food cost and labor cost percentages are the two numbers that determine whether a restaurant makes money. We track both weekly or monthly depending on what your operation needs, flag when they drift out of range, and help you understand why before it shows up as a thin P&L.

What is the FICA tip credit and can you claim it for me?

The FICA tip credit is a federal tax credit for the employer portion of FICA taxes paid on reported tips above the minimum wage threshold. For a restaurant with significant tipped revenue, it can be worth thousands of dollars per year. We calculate and claim it as part of your year-end tax workpapers.

Can you handle multiple locations?

Yes. Multi-location restaurants and bar groups benefit from clean per-location P&L reporting alongside consolidated company numbers. We set up books to give you both views. Each location stands on its own and the company total rolls up cleanly.

How do you handle sales tax for food, alcohol, and takeout?

Indiana has different sales tax treatment for food, alcohol, and certain prepared foods, and the rules change with takeout vs. dine-in. We set up your POS categories correctly, reconcile sales tax collected against what you actually owe, and file on the right cadence. Sales tax compliance is one of the easier places to get into trouble and one of the easier to prevent.

Ready for restaurant books that actually help you run the place?

Book a free 30-minute conversation. We will talk through your POS and tip setup and tell you what we would change.

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