Restaurant owners open their monthly P&L reports, look at sales, then go down to the bottom and close the report.
Do you recognize yourself?
If just those two numbers are scrutinized, the report’s true value is diminished.
Good restaurant bookkeeping shouldn’t make owners more dependent on their accountant. It should help them become more confident in their own numbers. You don’t need to know each accounting rule, or do a lot of work in the evenings completing invoices. It’s crucial to understand the reason for the fluctuation in profits as well as what happened to the labor and food items, and which questions need attention next week.
Bookkeeping Chef’s ethos is to automate bookkeeping tasks that do not require the attention of restaurant owners while also providing customers with more precise financial information that they can make use of.
Don’t stop at Month-End Numbers. Begin with the Weekly Numbers
A monthly P&L is important, however restaurants aren’t operating monthly. The managers this week plan their activities. The chef placed an order for food today. Vendors change prices now.
This is the reason Bookkeeping Chef provides weekly prime-cost flash reports along with monthly financial statements.
Prime cost is the sum of two key areas that can be swiftly relocated in a food service establishment: cost of the goods that are sold, as well as labor. According to data from Bookkeeping Chef, prime costs make up around 60% of sales in restaurants.
Imagine that sales have barely changed, but the cost of production increased. The percentage by itself does not give the answer. It gives the person in charge a reason to conduct an investigation.
Did the hourly rate increase? Did you have any overtime? The cost of food increased? The invoice of a vendor was unusually high. Does the mix of sales changed?
This is much better than having the same issue several weeks later.
Automate repetitive tasks
Bookkeeping for DIY isn’t just about manually moving POS figures into spreadsheets.
Modern bookkeeping automation in restaurants can take care of a large portion all the repetitive transfer of financial information. The service can connect to systems such as POS Payroll, QuickBooks, POS vendors, vendor platforms inventory management and recipe management as well as tools for AP/payment.
The goal is not automation for its own sake.
This reduces the amount of manual data entry. This also helps keep the financial records up-to-date so that owners have time to spend studying data, not gathering it.
This creates a new model of bookkeeping for restaurants. technology is able to handle more mechanical aspects, while the restaurant owner is focused on the financial implications.
You can ask better questions regarding P&L
When you stop treating the P&L as a test it will become less daunting.
Start by analyzing the sales. Look at the cost that are required to generate the sales. Compare the food and beverages performances. Consider the labor. Reduce your operating expenses.
Comparing periods is important.
If sales improved but profit did not, something in between those two lines was changed. What did happen when prices for food were rising? Compare the staffing levels and sales activity if labor percentages changed. If the number appears odd look into it rather than thinking the restaurant just had an awful month.
Bookkeeping Chef provides monthly P&Ls that are completed in five business days. This gives owners the opportunity to evaluate recent performance rather than receiving financial statements for a long time after the operating time has passed.
For owners searching bookkeeping restaurant solutions, speed is useful but understanding is the bigger objective.
DIY doesn’t have to mean Doing Everything Yourself
There is a middle ground between handing the entire accounting function to a third party and being your own full-time bookkeeper.
An owner can stay involved without manually performing each accounting job.
This could mean the use of automated systems to keep track of the flow of information, examining a monthly P&L and a weekly report on the primary costs and asking questions in the event that something unexpected occurs.
Specialized restaurant bookkeeping services could assist in keeping the books in order while helping the proprietor get the meaning of the reports.
It does not mean the owner will be in a position to complete all bookkeeping functions.
An owner can have a conversation with an P&L about the business.
The objective of financial freedom is not to generate more reports, but rather to achieve financial freedom
Restaurants produce a lot of information. The dashboards aren’t always making sense.
The real value comes when an employee can open the P&L report and recognize the shift and then examine the report on the primary cost.
Bookkeeping Chef’s approach includes financial support for restaurants, regular reporting and automated bookkeeping in restaurants to accomplish this.
Automate the repetitive work. Review your primary costs every week. Know the language employed within your P&L.
You do not have to be an accountant to be an.
It is best to be an owner who is aware of the financial story behind your own restaurant.