The food and hospitality industry moves at a lightning pace. It’s easy to sometimes lose sight of books and record keeping in the midst. Here are 8 bookkeeper restaurant tips to help you stay on track and organized as you navigate financial recordkeeping in a quick-moving industry.
1. Create and Implement an Effective Payroll System:
In a lot of ways, setting up payroll is a pretty straightforward task. Once you figure out the system, it should function effectively. However, with lots of new systems to choose from, creating an efficient system can be a bit more challenging than one might anticipate. The best thing to do when formulating a payroll plan is to start by asking yourself important questions about how it will function. Questions like, when will your pay period be? Will you use direct deposit or mail out checks? Furthermore, some restaurants are larger than others, which can make them more difficult to manage. This is why many restaurants outsource to north carolina bookkeeping and financial planning firms. Getting your payroll situated can help alleviate excess stressors. Having an established system can help you avoid errors and pitfalls. Likewise, a routine payroll system can help you easily identify issues when and if they occur.
2. Record ALL Transactions:
Even the most diligent and well-equipped restaurant bookkeeper can sometimes overlook recording transactions. This is also a notorious issue in the restaurant industry, considering it is very easy to overlook recording transactions during busy rush times such as lunch and dinner. Nevertheless, it is imperative that you find yourself a system to record all transactions. Software like QuickBooks is a good start, depending on the size of your business. Whether you use QuickBooks or another comparable system, as a bookkeeper restaurant employees should be particularly vigilant when recording transactions. Most restaurants have a Point of Sales (POS) system in place that can link with various bookkeeping software. You can use the system for more customized reports.
3. Reconciliation:
Reconciliation, as an accounting term, is the process of verifying that two sets of records or balances agree. When it comes to bookkeeping, particularly in a restaurant, it is imperative to check that each transaction is reconciled. Reconciling is the only way to verify that you’ve recorded and accounted for every transaction. This must occur in every account including bank accounts, payroll liabilities, credit cards, lines of credit, and more. Essentially, reconciliation covers any statement with a beginning and ending balance. Restaurants need to be careful when viewing these records to ensure there are no errors. A local NC bookkeeping firm can show you how the process works and can often serve as another checkpoint to help you stay clear of errors.
4. Cost Evaluation
Routine cost evaluation is vitally important for restaurants because these costs tend to fluctuate wildly. Unlike traditional retailers, there’s a lot more room for fluctuation in the food industry. Some prices can change on a dime, even on a weekly basis depending on extenuating circumstances. Disease, drought, and other factors can cause you to change the food you order, in turn, changing your costs. Location, the time of year, and other factors also play a role. By evaluating these costs, you can make changes to your ordering protocol, menu prices, and the current food being served.
5. Outsource for Help:
If it gets too complicated, get some help. There’s a lot that can be gained by outsourcing your books. When utilizing a bookkeeper restaurant management in turn has more time to focus on other aspects of the restaurant. There’s a lot of pressure that accompanies running a restaurant, and you can pick and choose what financial responsibilities have become too much. By outsourcing, you can get the much-needed help you require, without having to hire a separate staff person to do the job.
6. Set Aside Routine Time for Bookkeeping:
Some people do their best bookkeeping when they set aside one day to take care of it in full. However, this isn’t always the best method and can quickly lead to burnout if the system isn’t properly organized. Rather than try and deal with all of the responsibilities in one day, create a schedule that allows a little time each day to deal with concerns. Working with numbers hour after hour can cause complacency and error, a definite no-go when it comes to record keeping. Our bookkeeping Charlotte NC firm recommends grouping certain tasks together and creating a daily goal sheet.
7. Get Organized:
You will never regret setting time apart to get organized. Getting organized and maintaining upkeep will help keep things clear and create a system for you to easily navigate. The more cluttered and convoluted your workspace, the easier it is to make human errors. A lot of issues stem from not paying enough attention to detail. Whether your system is software or old-fashioned, make sure you have an easy interface that you can navigate as needed.
8. Double Check the Math:
All it takes is one number to mess up the entire flow and cause devastating results to the overall system. Make sure that you double-check the math at every juncture. In most cases, whether you outsource your books or not, it helps to have another set of eyes to take a look and verify you’ve done your work correctly. As the bookkeeper restaurant staff will depend on you to ensure you’re entering the numbers correctly.