Restaurants
Restaurant Bookkeeping Checklist
Restaurant bookkeeping runs on a daily and weekly rhythm, not just monthly. This checklist outlines the cadence a manager, bookkeeper, or restaurant CPA follows to keep books accurate and prime cost visible.
Daily / weekly / monthly tasks
- Daily: Z-out POS report reviewed and tied to deposit
- Daily: Cash counted, deposit logged, variances flagged
- Daily: Invoices entered and coded to food, bev, or supplies
- Weekly: Inventory counted; food and bev cost calculated
- Weekly: Labor posted; labor cost percentage computed
- Weekly: Prime cost report reviewed with management
- Monthly: Bank, credit card, and merchant accounts reconciled
- Monthly: P&L and balance sheet reviewed; sales tax filed
Who uses this checklist
- Restaurant owners and general managers
- In-house bookkeepers and controllers
- Multi-unit operators standardizing across locations
- Outsourced restaurant accounting firms
- Franchisees following brand reporting standards
- CPAs onboarding a new restaurant client
When to hire help
- Prime cost is unknown or above 65 percent
- Sales tax or tip filings are late or inaccurate
- Inventory counts are skipped or unreliable
- P&L is more than 15 days late each month
- Cash variances appear repeatedly
- Owner is doing books instead of running the restaurant
Frequently Asked Questions
How often should a restaurant close its books?
Weekly for operational reporting (prime cost, labor) and monthly for the formal close with bank reconciliations, sales tax filings, and management financials.
What accounting software fits restaurants?
QuickBooks Online with a POS integration (Toast, Square, Clover) covers most independents. Restaurant365 and similar all-in-one platforms suit multi-unit operators.
Should servers do any bookkeeping?
Servers should never touch accounting records. They should accurately ring sales and tips into the POS; bookkeeping flows from the POS reports.
Do you need a CPA or just a bookkeeper?
A trained restaurant bookkeeper handles the daily and weekly checklist. A CPA reviews monthly, files taxes, and advises on entity structure and owner compensation.
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