How can Accountant help a Restaurant with Financial Success?

The restaurant business has always been the fastest-growing, provided they do it right. Operating a restaurant is no easy job, especially now that the world is dealing with the COVID outbreak and global economic crises. The restaurant business is more than just the food served and the ambiance. It also takes a long charge for the back office to process so a restaurant accountant is required for it. For a restaurant to function well, it is essential to be mindful of all core functions that go far beyond the kitchen.

With the correct accounting, it is undoubtedly possible to monitor financial success and keep the books clean. A dedicated resource for restaurant accounting is the need of the hour and a considerable parameter to have in any restaurant to operate smoothly.

A restaurant account is appointed to handle the accounting services around the restaurant business. Accounting helps you control costs, track operational finances, and ensure restaurant performance to hit growth goals and achieve limitless potential. A restaurant accountant records routine transactions to craft a detailed financial report. Once done well, successful economic performance and profitability follow the lead.

Efficient management of back-office routine work plays a critical role in the financial success of a restaurant. Even if, as a restaurant owner, you still need to gain a background in accounting, it’s imperative to understand the operational and financial areas putting your business in a better and more competitive space.

To know how a practical accounting for the restaurant is one of the most important aspects of making your business fly high, here are some parameters to track –

• Payroll
• Accounts Payable
• Inventory
• Cash Management
• Sales
• Reconciliation

This may not sound so critical; however, the surveys have strongly indicated that restaurant owners who adopted good accounting practices were more flourishing.

Some of the standard financial accounting best practices for financial success are: 

• Recording financial transactions
• Accurately categorizing and analyzing ledger and journal entries
• Accounts Payable and Bank Statement Reconciliation
• Managing financial health, including the balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement, as you define budgets and cost goals
• Preparing tax and compiling tax returns and assistance
• Offering financial insights and advice during tax preparation & tax filing.

Key Responsibility Areas of a Restaurant Accountant

1. Clarity on the Financial Management

For a business to be successful, it is vital to have financial stability, especially in the case of a restaurant business, where there is a thin line between minting profits and messing losses. As a restaurant owner, you need to have a method to play salaries, manage transactions, monitor total sales, and analyze your restaurant funds. A restaurant accountant ensures you get all the necessary financial information for running every business.

As a business owner, you need to know your assets, liabilities, and the profit margins of your business. As an accountant, it’s the core job to allow you to have clarity on the following points:

• Business conceptualization and Budget allocation
• Tracking and managing the cost of goods and services offered
• Salaries and benefits
• Preparing financial statements and sales reports

2. Monitoring Cash Flows

A restaurant accountant ensures managers can track their business cash flows and record transactions while managing a sales report. Unavoidably, cash flow is the nerve cell of any business, especially when running a food chain. As restaurant accountants, the core job is to know money matters and what is going in and out of the restaurant daily. So in terms of a growing cash flow, there has to be more cash coming into the business that eventually expands the profit margins.

On the contrary, a negative cash flow will mean the drowning of the business. Therefore, by outsourcing accounting for restaurants you can maintain affirmative cash flow. A healthy cash flow statement promotes a good business flow and leaves a clear impression of the financial products of the business.

3. Check on the Inventory management System

Like most businesses, restaurants must manage an inventory of raw materials that will be converted into a final product sold to customers. Accountants can help you manage restaurant inventory, allowing you to account for the value of these raw materials on your balance sheet to minimize the cost of goods sold.

Unlike most businesses, the restaurant industry is a segment necessary to manage an inventory of raw materials processed into the final serving, eventually sold to customers. Restaurant inventory management allows you to account for the records to carefully manage the total value invested in these raw materials in your books; thus, inventory cost control helps.

4. Expense Check and Audit

Unlike any other business, even restaurants have expenses to bear, and keeping those expenses checked is the best way to grow your business. Therefore, having a restaurant accountant allows you to have a firm hold on costs is imperative and necessary to grow beans in the business.

To begin with, the account keeps a tap on the following areas:

• Sales: Sales is the most critical point of notice in the business. The revenue generated with sales panned across the day, week, or month accounts for the growth. This is narrowed down to the food and beverages you serve.
• Order Fulfillment: The ratio of the orders received to the fulfillment ratio is another factor in checking financial health. Besides the revenue generated, restaurant credibility and customer satisfaction are other business needs.
• Payroll: Payout for all the employees is another added factor to the checklist. The significant expense is the salaries after the inventory investment. The accountant ensures an overview of the gross salary, helping you budget better.
• Value of Inventory: The total value of inventory is the cost invested in the material and how much revenue you can generate from the stock. The accountant here determines the value and capitalization strategy for growth.

5. Portion Pricing

Besides the quality of food served, the math needs to be checked too. As an accountant, tracking numbers are the core job, where the numbers talk about tracking costs and calculating how the money can be multiplied.

The listed menu items sold add up to the revenue total. The price that the management seals on the papers should be calculated in a way that manages to cover the cost incurred in preparing the meal, maintaining the desired profit margin.

6. Use of Financial Software

Technology is paramount to the growth of a business. However, technical intervention in the industry does not harm. Rather streamlines and manages the work more effectively and efficiently. So, there is some restaurant accounting software designed to make tasks easier and help estimate startup costs. Thus, an experienced and proficient restaurant account is the right approach to demolish the challenges of selecting and utilizing the required software.

7. Evaluate the Overall Business and Financial Health

A business’s financial and accounting segment reflects the restaurant’s overall health and business-building prospects. A competent accountant holds the records of operational, managerial, and financial capabilities.

An intelligent accountant measures the scope of improvement and optimizes growth. From taking care of law and taxation verticals while monitoring the accounting data to ensuring the restaurant business is growing in the right direction.

Conclusion

As a restaurant owner, you know the challenges involved in running a business. The basic needs of staffing, infrastructure, inventory management, and budgeting require constant supervision. Therefore, it is imperative to look for an accountant competent enough to cater to all the needs of restaurant accounting services. In-house staff is the traditional way of managing tasks; however, restaurants are looking at outsourced accounting solutions for financial success.

At Cogneesol, we have been helping business owners with their process optimization since 2008. Our team of skilled and experienced accountants empowers our clients with improved efficiency and reduced operational costs. Rest assured, as an ISO-certified firm, we maintain data security and ensure improved accounting services with a quick turnaround time.

To learn how we can help you with accounting for your restaurant, contact us today via email at [email protected] or call +1 833-313-3143.