Restaurants and cafés
Single sites and small groups needing timely margin figures.
Specialist Accounting
Hospitality & Restaurant Accounting
Bookkeeping, VAT, payroll, stock, gross-margin and profitability reporting for restaurants, cafés, takeaways and food businesses.
Overview
How we help with Hospitality & Restaurant Accounting
Hospitality runs on thin margins and daily decisions. Weekly numbers on GP and labour are worth more than a perfect set of accounts nine months late.
We handle the sector-specific work: EPOS and delivery platform reconciliation, tips and troncs, stock and wastage, and reporting gross profit and wage percentage against benchmarks on a weekly or period basis rather than annually.
Payroll in hospitality means variable hours, high turnover, holiday pay and National Minimum Wage compliance across age bands, all of which we run as part of the service. On VAT we deal with the split between eat-in, takeaway, cold food and alcohol.
Cost of sales is reconciled the same way each period: opening stock plus purchases less closing stock, checked against the EPOS sales value for that period. A widening gap between the two points to wastage, portion control or till discrepancies rather than a genuine cost increase, so a weekly stocktake catches it while it is still one week's problem instead of one quarter's.
What's included
Everything covered in this service
The service translates high-volume hospitality activity into reconciled bookkeeping, VAT, payroll and management information, using outputs from the business's operational systems. It does not operate the venue's tills, stock or ordering. Transaction processing can connect to bookkeeping support, employee reporting to managed payroll, and indirect-tax work to VAT services.
- EPOS, card and delivery platform reconciliation
- Weekly or period gross profit and wage percentage reporting
- Stock, wastage and cost of sales analysis
- Hospitality payroll, tips, troncs and holiday pay
- National Minimum Wage compliance checks
- VAT treatment of eat-in, takeaway, cold food and alcohol
Who it's for
Built around how you actually operate
Takeaways and delivery-led businesses
Operators with significant Deliveroo, Just Eat or Uber Eats revenue.
Bars and multi-site operators
Businesses comparing performance across sites.
FAQs
Hospitality & Restaurant Accounting: common questions
How is VAT applied in hospitality?
It depends on the item and how it is consumed. Hot food and eat-in are generally standard rated; most cold takeaway food is zero rated. Getting the split right at EPOS level is essential.
How are tips and troncs taxed?
Treatment depends on how tips are collected and distributed. A properly operated tronc changes the National Insurance position, but it has to be set up and run correctly to hold up.
What records are useful for hospitality accounting?
EPOS summaries, delivery-platform statements, bank and merchant receipts, supplier invoices, payroll data, stock information and details of tips or tronc arrangements help reconcile trading activity and margins.
Does this service include running our EPOS or stock system?
No. We use outputs from the operational systems for bookkeeping, VAT, payroll and reporting work within the agreed scope. Day-to-day operation of tills, ordering and stock controls remains with the business.
Does the tipping law affect how we run our tronc?
Yes. Under the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2024, tips must be allocated to workers fairly and in full, without deductions beyond those permitted, and the business needs a written policy along with records of how tips are distributed. We factor this into how the tronc is set up and reported.
How is holiday pay calculated for casual and zero-hours staff?
For irregular-hours workers, entitlement is usually accrued at 12.07% of hours worked in a pay period, reflecting statutory holiday as a proportion of the working year. We apply this consistently through payroll so it isn't missed for casual or seasonal staff.
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Let's talk about Hospitality & Restaurant Accounting
Tell us the sites, sales channels, EPOS and delivery platforms, payroll cycle and current record flow. We will identify the reconciliations and reporting detail needed.
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