Restaurant owners open the monthly P&L then looks over sales, skips down to the bottom line, and then closes the P&L.

Does this sound familiar to you?

It may be an extremely accurate report, but by only examining those two numbers, it leaves a lot of its value left to chance.

Bookkeeping for restaurants that is efficient shouldn’t leave owners more dependent on accountants. They should feel more secure of their financials. There is no need to spend in the dark putting together invoices or master every accounting rule. It is important to know how profit has changed and what’s happened to labor and food costs, and the issues that need to be addressed next week.

Bookkeeping Chef’s goal is to automate the bookkeeping process that don’t require the time of restaurant owners while also providing users with better financial information they can use.

Don’t stop at month-end Numbers. Begin with the Weekly Numbers

Although restaurants are not operating on a calendar month, they must still have a P&L. Managers schedule labor this week. The chef has ordered food for today. Vendors change prices now.

Bookkeeping Chef offers weekly flash reports on top costs along with monthly financial statements.

Prime cost combines the the cost of goods sold as well as labor, two sectors that can quickly move in a restaurant. According to data provided by Bookkeeping Chef, prime costs account for around 60% of restaurant sales.

Imagine sales haven’t drastically changed and the prime cost has increased. This percentage isn’t an answer. It provides the owner with a reason to investigate.

Did hourly work rise? Did overtime happen? Was the cost of food fluctuating? An invoice from a vendor appeared unusually large? Has the mix of sales changed?

This is far more beneficial than finding the same issue two weeks later.

Automate repetitive tasks

DIY bookkeeping does not need to be difficult. It can simply involve manually transfer POS (point of sale) amounts onto spreadsheets.

Automating the process of bookkeeping for restaurants can eliminate a lot of repeated data movement. The service can connect to systems such as POS and QuickBooks, payroll vendors, vendor platforms inventory management and recipe management, as well AP/payment tools.

Automatization is not the aim.

It is to reduce manual data entry and keep the financial records current enough that owners can spend their time looking over data instead of creating it.

This has created a new form of bookkeeping for restaurants. The software handles more of the mechanical aspects, but the proprietor is still involved in the financial aspects.

P&L Questions: Learn to Ask More Effective Questions

A P&L is less daunting when you stop thinking of it as an accounting exam.

Start by studying the numbers of sales. Next, examine the costs of production. Compare the food and drink performance. Examine the cost of labor. Look at labor.

Comparing periods is important.

Something in between has changed if sales have increased, but profit has not. What happened when food prices increased? If the labor percentage changed in the past, look at sales and staffing activity. If you notice a strange number take a look instead of assuming that the restaurant had an unlucky month.

Bookkeeping Chef gives monthly P&Ls that can be completed within five business days. Business owners can look over the performance of their business without having to wait for months to receive financial statements.

For owners searching bookkeeping restaurant solutions, speed is important but understanding is the main aim.

There’s no need to do everything yourself by doing it yourself

There’s a middle way between outsourcing the entire financial function to someone else and establishing yourself as your own bookkeeper full-time.

Owners are still able to participate in the process of accounting without needing to complete every task by hand.

It could involve using automated system connections to maintain information flow by reviewing a weekly prime-cost report, looking at the monthly P&L, and asking questions when something is happening unexpectedly.

Specialized restaurant bookkeeping services can support that approach by keeping the underlying books organized while helping the owner understand what the reports mean.

The result isn’t a owner who is able to complete every bookkeeping task.

A business owner is able to have a discussion with a P&L regarding the business.

The goal is financial independence, not more reports

Restaurants already generate enormous amounts of information. A dashboard may not always make sense.

When an operator has the ability to examine the weekly report on prime costs and discover that something is different, they can then open up their P&L to find out what is in need of additional investigation.

Bookkeeping Chef’s plan combines restaurant financial support, regular reporting and automated bookkeeping for restaurants to achieve this.

Automate repetitive tasks. Review prime cost every week. Understand the language employed in your P&L.

You do not need to be an accountant.

Owners who are familiar with the financial aspect of their own restaurants are able to make better choices.