Restaurant owners will open their monthly P&L reports, look at sales, then scroll down to the bottom and close the report.
Sound familiar?
If only those two numbers are examined, the report’s true value is gone.
A good bookkeeping program for restaurants won’t make it more dependent on owners on accountants. They should become more confident in their own numbers. It’s not required to sit long hours completing invoices, or knowing every accounting principle. However, you must understand why profit moved from the cost of food and labor and which issues require focus next week.
This is the premise Bookkeeping Chef’s mission: to automate the bookkeeping work which doesn’t require the owner’s time. It also provides restaurant owners with better financial information that they can utilize.
Don’t stop at month-end Numbers. Start with Weekly Numbers
Restaurants don’t operate on an annual basis. Managers set up their work schedules for the week. Chef orders food now. Vendors change prices now.
The weekly reports on Bookkeeping Chef’s prime-cost report are included with the monthly financial statements.
The prime cost comprises two crucial areas which can be quickly moved in a food service establishment: the cost of goods sold, and the cost of labor. The bookkeeping chef’s provided information states that the prime cost typically accounts for around 60% of sales in restaurants.
Think about a situation where sales aren’t even changing while the prime cost is rising. The percentage alone does not provide the answer. This gives the person in charge an excuse to do some digging.
Is the hourly wage increasing? Did you have an overtime? Did food costs change? A vendor invoice seemed unusually big? Did you notice any changes in your sales mix?
This is a lot more helpful than finding the same problem several weeks later.
Automate repetitive tasks
DIY bookkeeping doesn’t need to be a manual process of transferring POS (point of sale) amounts onto spreadsheets.
Automating the restaurant’s bookkeeping process can reduce routine data movement. The service can connect POS systems such as QuickBooks, QuickBooks, vendor platforms recipes and inventory management as well as payment instruments and AP.
Automating for the sake automating is not the main goal.
The goal is to eradicate manually entering data and to ensure that financial records are kept up-to date so that the owners are able to spend more time reviewing the information rather than assembling 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.
Learn to ask the P&L More Questions
Stop thinking of your P&L as the accounting test.
Start with sales. Start with sales. Compare the food and beverages performance. Analyze the costs of labor. Examine labor.
More importantly, compare periods.
If profits increased but sales grew, but profit wasn’t, something else between those two lines changed. What happened when food prices went up? If the percentage of labor changed between staffing and sales activity. If the number appears odd examine it instead of thinking the restaurant just had poor month.
Bookkeeping Chef provides monthly P&Ls, which are finished within five days. Owners can review the performance of their business without waiting for months to receive financial statements.
If you are a restaurant owner looking for bookkeeping solutions, speed is useful however understanding is the greater goal.
DIY Doesn’t Have to Mean Doing Everything Yourself
You can find a happy balance between hiring someone to handle your entire financial functions and being your own accountant full-time.
You can be involved as an owner of a business without having to perform all accounting tasks manually.
This could mean the use of automated systems to keep track of information flow, looking over a monthly P&L and weekly reports on prime costs or asking questions when something unexpected occurs.
Bookkeeping services for restaurants that are specialized in restaurants can help owners comprehend the significance of reports by organizing the books and ensuring they are organized.
The result is not an owner who can complete every bookkeeping task.
An owner is someone who can talk to a P&L regarding the business.
Financial freedom is not to generate more reports, but rather to attain financial freedom
Restaurants already generate huge amounts of data. A dashboard may not always make sense.
Value is realized the moment an operator opens a P&L report, and see the change, and then go through the prime-cost reports.
Bookkeeping Chef’s plan includes automated bookkeeping for restaurants weekly reports and monthly P&Ls. special financial assistance to restaurants in order for making this possible.
Automate repetitive tasks. Examine the cost of your prime each week. Know the language employed in your P&L.
You don’t need to be an accountant.
Owners who know the financial aspects of their own establishments can make better decisions.