Restaurants
Restaurant margins run thin. We track prime cost, reconcile your POS, and keep tip reporting clean so you know what you're actually keeping.
The Industry
Restaurants move a lot of money. Cash and cards flowing through the register all day. Tips pooled, split, and reported. Deliveries arriving with invoices that need paying. Daily deposits hitting the bank. From the outside, a busy restaurant looks like a money machine. From the inside, you know better. Net profit margins typically run between 3% and 6%. A few bad weeks, a food cost spike, or a labor scheduling mistake can turn a profitable month into a loss.
Most restaurant owners did not get into this business because they love spreadsheets. You opened a restaurant because you care about food, hospitality, and building something of your own. But the numbers matter. Without visibility into prime cost, food cost percentage, and actual profit by day or by ticket, you are guessing. And in an industry with margins this thin, guessing is expensive.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Full-service restaurants, quick-service spots, cafes, food trucks, catering operations, and ghost kitchens. Any San Diego restaurant where transactions flow daily and margins need watching.
What Makes It Complex
What Makes It Complex
High transaction volume hitting POS systems every day. Tip reporting requirements and tipped minimum wage calculations. Multiple revenue streams including dine-in, takeout, and third-party delivery. Cash handling. Vendor invoices piling up. Food and labor costs that need tracking weekly, not monthly.
What We Handle
Every day, your POS system generates sales data. Credit card processors send batches. Delivery apps deposit funds minus their fees. Cash gets counted and deposited. Our job is to reconcile all of it. We match your sales reports to your bank deposits and catch discrepancies before they turn into mysteries. When DoorDash deposits less than expected, we figure out why. When your cash drawer is short, we track the pattern.
Beyond reconciliation, we track the numbers that actually tell you if your restaurant is healthy. Prime cost. Food cost percentage. Labor as a percentage of revenue. These are the metrics that determine whether you are making money or just moving it around. We categorize your expenses so you can see what is going where. We track vendor payments and make sure you are taking advantage of early payment discounts when they make sense. We handle sales tax so you stay compliant with California requirements.
Daily and Weekly Reconciliation
Daily and Weekly Reconciliation
POS sales matched to credit card deposits and cash counts. Delivery app deposits reconciled against order data and commission fees. Tip allocation tracked and recorded properly. We catch discrepancies early so nothing slips through over time.
Prime Cost Tracking
Prime Cost Tracking
Food cost and labor cost tracked weekly so you see problems before the month closes. Vendor invoices categorized by expense type. COGS calculated accurately. You know your prime cost percentage and can compare it against industry benchmarks and your own targets.
What Goes Wrong
Delivery apps are a common blind spot. You see a deposit from DoorDash or UberEats and assume it reflects your menu prices. But the commission and fees have already been deducted. Without proper tracking, you might think delivery is a profitable channel when it is actually breaking even or losing money. We see restaurants running 15% to 30% of revenue through delivery apps without understanding the true cost. When you factor in packaging, chargebacks, and menu price caps, the margins can evaporate completely.
Food cost creep is the other silent killer. Suppliers raise prices gradually. Your menu prices stay the same. Your food cost percentage drifts from 30% to 35% over a few months and nobody notices until the checking account is tight. Without weekly visibility into your actual food cost, these shifts hide until they show up as missing cash. Tip reporting also trips people up. California has specific rules. The IRS has reporting requirements. Get it wrong and you are looking at penalties and back payments.
Hidden Costs and Fee Erosion
Hidden Costs and Fee Erosion
Delivery commissions buried in deposits making revenue look higher than it is. Payment processing fees that vary by card type. Waste and comps that go untracked. Vendor price increases that slip by without menu adjustments. All of it eating margin you cannot see.
Tip and Cash Problems
Tip and Cash Problems
Tip allocation mistakes that create IRS trouble. Cash handling gaps that add up over time. Commingled funds when owners use the business account for personal expenses. Deposits that do not match register reports with no explanation.
What Changes
You get visibility into the numbers that matter. Weekly reports showing your prime cost so you can see if food and labor are in line. Monthly breakdowns showing revenue by channel, including the actual net from delivery after fees. You stop guessing whether last week was profitable. You know.
Your books are clean and current. Tip reporting is handled correctly. Sales tax is filed on time. When tax season arrives, your CPA has what they need without a scramble. If you want to open a second location or apply for a loan, your financials are ready. You can focus on running the restaurant instead of worrying about whether the numbers are right.
Real Financial Visibility
Real Financial Visibility
Prime cost tracked weekly. Food cost percentage you can act on. Labor cost compared against revenue by day. Delivery profitability calculated accurately. You know which parts of your business make money and which ones just feel busy.
Clean Books and Compliance
Clean Books and Compliance
Monthly closes completed on time. Tip reporting handled properly. Sales tax filed quarterly. Bank-ready financials if you need a loan or line of credit. Books that are ready for your CPA, a potential investor, or a buyer if you ever decide to sell.
San Diego's Small Business Bookkeeper
The Next Step:
A Short Conversation
A quick call to tell us about your business. We'll listen, answer your questions, and give you a clear price quote.
