Bookkeeping for BC restaurants, cafés, and bars
Restaurants generate more transactions in a week than many businesses do in a month, and the margins leave no room for guessing. We reconcile your point-of-sale data to your deposits, keep food and liquor costs visible, and run payroll that handles tips correctly.
Why restaurant books need daily attention
A restaurant can process hundreds of transactions a day across card terminals, cash, gift cards, and delivery apps — each settling on its own schedule and net of its own fees. If those aren't matched back to daily sales, small gaps turn into large ones by month end.
Margins depend on seeing food, liquor, and labour costs as a share of sales while there's still time to adjust menus, ordering, or scheduling. Books built around those numbers make them visible every month, not once a year.
What makes these books different
POS to bank reconciliation
Daily sales from Square, Clover, Shopify POS, or your system of choice matched to card settlements and cash deposits, net of processing fees.
Food and beverage costs
Food, liquor, and supplies tracked as separate cost lines, so you can watch margins against menu prices.
Tips and gratuities
Tips the business collects and distributes can be treated differently from tips customers hand directly to staff, with different payroll consequences. Payroll is set up for the way tips move in your restaurant.
Delivery platforms
Delivery app payouts recorded at gross sales, with commissions and fees expensed, so the sales on your GST return are right.
How we set up your books
Sales by category
Food, liquor, and other sales recorded separately so GST and PST come out right.
Daily reconciliation
POS sales matched to card settlements, cash deposits, and delivery payouts.
Prime costs tracked
Food, beverage, and labour costs measured against sales.
Tips through payroll
Tip payouts recorded the way your restaurant shares them.
Compliance we keep on top of
GST and PST on food and drink
GST applies to restaurant meals. BC PST generally doesn't apply to food, but liquor carries a 10% PST rate — so food and liquor sales need to be recorded separately.
High-turnover payroll
Frequent hiring means frequent onboarding, Records of Employment, and vacation pay tracked under BC's Employment Standards Act.
Common questions
Do you work with our POS system?
We work from the reports and exports that Square, Clover, Shopify POS, and most other systems produce. If your system can export daily sales and settlements, we can reconcile it.
How are delivery app fees recorded?
Sales are recorded at their full amount, with commissions and fees recorded as expenses. That keeps your sales figures — and the sales on your GST return — accurate.
Is PST charged on food?
Generally not in BC. PST doesn't apply to most food sold in restaurants, but liquor carries a 10% PST rate. GST applies to restaurant meals.
See your estimate in a few minutes.
Answer a few questions and see your monthly price on the spot, before you give a name or an email.
Get an estimate