A restaurant owner opens the monthly P&L then looks over sales, skips down to the bottom line, and then closes the report.
Do these sound like familiar to you?
It may be a perfectly complete report, however just by examining two numbers, it leaves a lot of its value in the dust.
Good restaurant bookkeeping shouldn’t make owners more dependent on an accountant. They should have confidence in their own financials. You don’t need to be an accounting expert or spend the night entering invoices. It’s essential to know why the profit changed as well as what happened to the use of labor and food and which issues require focus next week.
That’s the idea Bookkeeping Chef’s mission: to Automate the bookkeeping task that doesn’t need an owner’s time while giving restaurant operators better financial information that they can utilize.
Begin with the Weekly Numbers Start with the Weekly Numbers, Not just Month-End
Restaurants do not operate on the basis of a monthly. The managers schedule the labor for the week. Chef orders food now. Vendors change prices now.
That’s why Bookkeeping Chef provides weekly prime-cost flash reports, along with monthly financial statements.
The prime cost combines the labor and goods costs as well as the cost of labor. These are two areas in which an establishment can accelerate its progress. The information supplied by the Bookkeeping Chef shows that prime costs generally account for 60% of sales in restaurants.
Imagine a situation in which sales aren’t even changing, but prime costs are increasing. The percent by itself does not answer the question. It provides the person with an opportunity to research.
Is the hourly wage increasing? Did you have an overtime? Did the price of food increased? Was a vendor invoice unusually high? Did sales mix changes?
It’s better to identify the problem now than later.
Automate repetitive tasks
Bookkeeping for DIY isn’t just about manually moving POS figures into spreadsheets.
Automating restaurant bookkeeping can help with repetitive financial data movements. The system integrates with systems such as POS, QuickBooks payroll, vendor platforms, and inventory management.
The goal is not automation to achieve its own ends.
The objective is to stop the manual entry of data, and to keep financial records current to allow owners to spend more time analyzing the data instead of trying to assemble it.
That creates a different model of bookkeeping in restaurants: technology is able to handle more mechanics while the owner remains involved in the financial aspects.
Learn to Ask the P&L More Questions
When you stop treating the P&L like a test, it becomes less intimidating.
Start by reviewing the numbers of sales. Examine the costs required to produce those sales. Compare the food and beverages performances. Study the cost of labor. Reduce your operating costs.
In addition, it is important to compare timeframes.
When sales improve but profits aren’t, it is an alteration between them. Consider what has changed within the organization when food costs grew. Review sales and staffing numbers to see if labor percentage has changed. Find any data that seems odd rather than just assuming that a restaurant has had a bad week.
Bookkeeping Chef will send monthly P&Ls finalized within five business days. This gives owners the opportunity to look over recent results rather than receive accounts long after the operational period has passed.
Speed is important, but it is important to know.
You don’t have to handle everything on your own when you make it DIY
There’s a middle way between delegating the entire financial functions to someone else and being your own full-time bookkeeper.
An owner can stay involved without manually performing every accounting task.
The process could be as easy as using automated system connections to keep the data flowing. However, it could be as intricate and complicated a study of the monthly P&L or even a review of the weekly Prime-cost Report.
Specialized bookkeeping for restaurants can help in this way by making sure the books are in order and helping the restaurant owner understand what they mean.
The result is not an owner who is able to do every bookkeeping function.
An owner can talk to the P&L regarding the company.
The aim is financial independence, not more reports
Restaurants already produce huge quantities of information. The other dashboards aren’t necessarily useful.
When an operator is able examine the weekly report on prime costs and discover that something has changed, they may then look into their P&L to find out what is in need of additional examination.
Bookkeeping Chef s approach incorporates restaurant accounting automation, weekly reports, monthly P&Ls, and special financial assistance for restaurants, making this feasible.
Automate repetitive tasks. Examine your prime costs each week. Know the language employed in your P&L.
There is no need to be a professional accountant.
You must be an owner who is aware of the financial story of your restaurant.