Restaurant & Café Bookkeeping (2025): QuickBooks Setup, POS & Menu Costs

POS mapping that actually reconciles

• Daily sales summary → sales, discounts, tips, gift cards, fees
• Deposits matched to settlement batches
• Tips & service charges separated for payroll and compliance
• Gift cards handled via liability accounts (breakage policies optional)

COGS and menu costing

• Vendor invoices (OCR) → items and recipes
• Recipe costing and price-change alerts
• Weekly COGS variance (usage vs. purchases vs. sales) to catch shrink/waste

Labor controls

• FOH/BOH tracking, overtime alerts, labor-to-sales KPI
• Paid breaks and local rules accounted for in payroll syncs

Monthly close deliverables

• P&L with prime cost highlights (COGS + labor)
• Cash flow and payable schedule
• Vendor pricing trend report (AI-flagged deltas)

Pricing guide

• Single location café: $500-$900/mo
• Full-service restaurant or multi-location: $900-$1,500+/mo (inventory + sales tax)

Stack we support

QBO/Xero, major POS systems, inventory/recipe tools, bill pay/expense apps, payroll.
Gen-AI: invoice OCR, menu-margin variance notes, exception queues.

Want menu-level margins and clean POS reconciliations? Book a restaurant close review.

FAQs

How do you reconcile POS deposits and tips?
We map settlement detail to the GL, separate tips/fees/gift-card activity, and reconcile batches to bank deposits with an audit trail.

Can you track recipe-level costs and margins?
Yes. Invoices are OCR’d into item costs, recipes are maintained, and menu-margin variance is reported weekly.

Do you handle sales tax for restaurants?
Yes. We prepare and file sales tax returns based on POS reports and reconciled settlements.

What if my books need cleanup first?
We scope a one-time cleanup, then move you to a monthly plan for ongoing close and KPI reporting.

Related Reading:

• Atlanta Bookkeeping Services: Cost, Duties & Packages (2025)
• E-commerce Bookkeeping (2025): Amazon/Shopify Fees, Payouts, COGS & Sales Tax

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