A restaurant’s owner opens the monthly P&L then looks over sales, skips down to the bottom line and then closes the report.

Does this sound familiar to you?

If only those two numbers are examined the true value of the report is diminished.

A well-designed restaurant bookkeeping system shouldn’t increase the dependence of owners on accountants. They should become more confident with their own numbers. It’s not necessary to stay up all night entering invoices or know every accounting rule. You must understand how profit has changed as well as what’s changed with labor and food costs, and what questions should be addressed in the coming week.

Bookkeeping Chef is a computer program that automates bookkeeping, so the owners can focus doing other things and receive more clear financial reports.

Do Not Stop at the month-end Numbers. Start with the Weekly Numbers

Even though restaurants do not operate in a calendar month, they must still have a P&L. The managers this week plan their activities. Chef orders food now. Vendors change prices now.

Bookkeeping Chef offers weekly flash reports on prime costs together with monthly financial reports.

The prime cost comprises two crucial areas that are easily relocated in a food service establishment: cost of the goods that are sold, as well as labor. The Bookkeeping Chef’s information notes that prime costs usually comprise about 60% of the sales at restaurants.

Imagine that sales barely changed but the cost of production increased. This percentage doesn’t provide an answer. This gives the person in charge an excuse to do some research.

Did you notice an increase in the hours working? Did overtime occur? Was the cost of food fluctuating? The invoice for a vendor was unusually high. What changes have occurred in the sales mix?

This is much better than finding the same issue several weeks later.

Automate repetitive tasks

Self-bookkeeping doesn’t mean manually transfer of POS figures into spreadsheets.

Automating restaurant bookkeeping can help in the repetitive movement of financial data. The service connects systems including POS as well as QuickBooks, payroll, vendor platforms inventory management, recipe and recipe management, as well as tools for AP/payment.

Automation isn’t the only goal.

This is done to reduce the manually entering data. It also keeps the financial records up-to-date so that owners are able to focus on looking over information instead of gathering it.

This creates a new model of bookkeeping in restaurants. The technology is able to handle more of the mechanics, while the owner is still tasked in the financial aspects.

Learn to ask the P&L More Questions

If you stop thinking of a P&L as a type of test, it will become less daunting.

Begin with the sales. Look at the cost required to produce those sales. Compare the food and beverage industry’s performance. Look at labor. Look at labor.

Comparing periods is important.

Somewhere between these two lines is changing if sales have increased, but profit has not. What changed in the company when food costs grew. Review sales and staffing numbers to determine if the labor percent has changed. Examine if the number appears unusual, rather than believing that the restaurant was in an unfavorable time.

Bookkeeping Chef will send monthly P&Ls that are completed in five business days. This provides owners the opportunity to look over the performance of their business, rather than getting financial statements long after the operational period has ended.

For owners searching bookkeeping restaurant solutions, speed is useful but understanding is the more important goal.

There’s no need to be a pro in case you do it yourself

You can find a happy middle between having someone handle your entire financial functions and becoming your own accountant full-time.

You can be involved as a business owner without performing the entire accounting process manually.

It could be as simple as using automated systems to maintain information flow, reviewing a monthly P&L and a weekly report on prime costs and asking questions in the event that an unexpected event occurs.

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 knows how to complete every bookkeeping task.

A business owner can engage in a dialogue with a P&L regarding the company.

The goal is financial security Not more reports

Restaurants already generate huge quantities of data. Another dashboard might not prove helpful.

Value is realized when an operator is able to open an P&L report, be aware that there has been a change, and then go through the reports on the cost of prime.

Bookkeeping Chef’s strategy incorporates restaurant accounting automation, daily reports, monthly P&Ls as well as special financial assistance for restaurants, making this process possible.

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

You do not need to be an accountant to be an.

You must become a restaurant owner who is aware of the financials of your own restaurant.