Where restaurants and food trucks books go wrong
Sales come in from the register, the card processor, two or three delivery apps and a catering invoice, each with its own fees and payout timing. Recording deposits as sales understates revenue and hides what the apps cost you.
Food deliveries arrive several times a week from different vendors with credits and returns. Without an inventory count at month end, food cost bounces from month to month.
A food truck adds commissary rent, propane, generator fuel and event fees, and often runs cash at events. Each event can look profitable until those costs are counted.
Accounts we set up for restaurants and food trucks
Your chart of accounts is reviewed during onboarding. These are the lines that usually matter most in this kind of business:
| Account | Why it is separate |
|---|---|
| Food sales and beverage sales | split the way your point-of-sale reports them |
| Delivery app sales, gross | the full sale before the app's commission |
| Delivery app commissions and fees | so the cost of each app is a line, not a mystery |
| Catering deposits held | kept apart until the event happens |
| Cost of food and cost of beverage | purchases adjusted by the month-end count |
| Tips payable | card tips owed to staff, cleared through payroll |
| Commissary, propane and event fees | for trucks and pop-ups, so each location or event can be judged |
Records the IRS describes
The IRS lists cash register tapes and deposit information (cash and credit sales) as records that support gross receipts. For a restaurant that is the daily close-out report and the processor statement. Source: IRS: What kind of records should I keep.
Employees report cash tips, which the IRS says include card tips, to the employer by the 10th of the following month unless they total less than $20 for the month, and the employer keeps those reports. Source: IRS: Tip recordkeeping and reporting.
Form 8027 is filed by employers that operate a large food or beverage establishment. The IRS describes one as a place where food or beverages are consumed on the premises, tipping is customary and the employer normally had more than 10 employees on a typical business day in the prior year. Your tax preparer or payroll provider confirms whether it applies. Source: IRS Instructions for Form 8027.
How long to keep them: the IRS says three years in most cases, longer in some situations, and at least four years for employment tax records (IRS: How long should I keep records?).
Cash through the year
Patio and tourist-area restaurants often earn most in summer; office-district lunch spots slow in late December; food trucks follow festival and event calendars and may park for winter. The monthly report puts this year beside last year once there is a year of history.
Delivery apps pay out on their own schedules, often weekly, after their commission. A payout that does not match the sales report is the first thing we chase each month.
Contractors, employees and year-end forms
Most restaurant staff are paid through payroll, so the bookkeeping job is tying payroll reports, tips and the bank together each month. We do not decide how tips are treated for tax; your payroll provider and tax preparer do.
Independent caterers, musicians or cleaning services you pay may need year-end reporting. Publication 1099 sets a $2,000 threshold for tax years beginning after 2025; we keep the totals and W-9s ready for your tax preparer.
What the monthly service includes
Every month, the same close the bookkeeping page describes: transactions categorized, bank, card and loan balances reconciled to statements, a profit and loss and balance sheet delivered, and a short list of questions instead of guesses. The books stay ready for your tax preparer at year end. For restaurants and food trucks, that close also covers:
- Point-of-sale sales recorded by category, with tips, tax collected and fees kept out of revenue
- Delivery app payouts rebuilt from gross sales, commission and fees
- Food cost and labor reported as a share of sales
Need more than the books? The service levels page describes a monthly review and CFO-style planning on top of the same close.
How remote onboarding works
- Tell us about your books. The short form asks what your books live in today, how many transactions you have a month, how many bank, card and loan accounts, how far behind the books are and what you need. You can ask for a 15-minute call instead of an email reply.
- Written quote and engagement letter. We review what you sent and reply with the scope and monthly price in writing before any work starts.
- Access, without passwords. QuickBooks Online: you invite us as an accountant user. Xero: you invite us with the Advisor role. Excel or Google Sheets: you share the workbook and we send a folder for statements. Nothing yet: we recommend QuickBooks Online or Xero and set it up in your name. You keep ownership and can remove our access.
- Opening balances and a close day. We confirm your accounts, collect recent statements and your prior-year return or financial statements, check opening balances, and agree the day each month's books are delivered.
What helps most for restaurants and food trucks:
- Point-of-sale and delivery app monthly reports
- Your main food vendors and how they bill you
- A month-end inventory count, even a rough one
Price
These are the starting prices the quote form uses. Your written scope sets the final price before any work begins.
| Transactions a month | Monthly bookkeeping | Catch-up |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 100 transactions a month | From $450 a month | $300 per month behind |
| 100 to 300 transactions a month | From $750 a month | $450 per month behind |
| 300 to 600 transactions a month | From $1,200 a month | $700 per month behind |
| Over 600 transactions a month | Custom quote | Custom quote |
- 2 bank, card or loan accounts are included; each additional account is $35 a month.
- Books kept in Excel or Google Sheets add $100 a month; starting from nothing adds a one-time $400 software setup.
- Reconciling the payroll your provider runs adds $100 a month.
- A monthly financial report and KPI summary is $125 a month on top of current books.
Prices shown are starting estimates, not quotes.