Restaurant owners will open their monthly P&L reports, examine sales, then scroll down to the bottom of the report and close the report.
Are you familiar with the situation?
If just those two numbers are scrutinized the true value of the report is lost.
They shouldn’t be more dependent on a accounting firm. They should be more confident with their own financials. It’s not necessary to stay up in the dark putting together invoices or knowing every accounting principle. You must be aware of the reasons why profit fluctuated from the cost of food and labor, and which questions deserve attention next week.
Bookkeeping Chef’s goal is to automate bookkeeping tasks which don’t take the time of restaurant owners, and provide the restaurant owners with better financial data they can access.
Do Not Stop at the Month-End Numbers. Start with Weekly Numbers
Restaurants aren’t operating on the basis of a monthly. The managers plan the work for this week. Chefs ordered food this morning. Vendors change prices now.
Bookkeeping Chef offers weekly flash reports on the top costs, and monthly financial statements.
Prime cost brings together price of the goods sold and labor. Both of these are major areas that can move quickly in a restaurant. According to information published by the Bookkeeping Chef prime costs make up around 60% of sales in restaurants.
Imagine the sales remained static, however the prime cost rose. This percentage isn’t an answer. This gives the owner an excuse to do some investigation.
Is the hourly wage increasing? Did overtime take place? Changes in food costs? A vendor’s invoice was unusually high. Did sales mix changes?
It’s better to identify the issue earlier rather instead of waiting until later.
Automate repetitive tasks
DIY bookkeeping does not need to be done manually by transferring POS (point of sale) amounts onto spreadsheets.
Modern restaurant bookkeeping automation is able to take care of a large portion of the repetitive transfer of financial information. This service can be connected to POS systems including QuickBooks, QuickBooks, vendors platforms, recipe and inventory management, as well as Payment instruments/AP.
Automating just for the sake of automation is not the objective.
This is done to reduce the manual data entry. This also helps keep the financial records up-to-date so that owners can focus on reviewing information, rather than gathering it.
It’s a totally new bookkeeping process for restaurants. Technology handles the mechanics and the owner stays engaged with the financial aspects.
Ask more questions regarding P&L
A P&L is less daunting when you stop treating it as an accounting exam.
Start with the sales. Next, look at the expenses needed to make those sales. Compare the food and beverage performance. Consider labor. Look at labor.
It is vital to compare periods.
If profits increase, but sales aren’t, there’s an alteration between the two. What changed within the business if food costs increased. Check the levels of staffing and sales activities if labor percentages changed. Find out if a figure seems odd, rather than thinking that the restaurant experienced poor performance.
Bookkeeping Chef offers monthly P&Ls finalized within five business days. This provides owners the opportunity to look over recent results rather than receive financial statements for a long time after the period of operation has passed.
Speed is crucial, but the aim is to comprehend.
DIY Doesn’t Need to Mean Making Everything You Need
You can find a comfortable medium between hiring someone to take care of all your financial requirements as well as being your own personal accountant.
Owners are still able to participate in the accounting process without needing to do everything by hand.
This could mean making use of automated systems to manage information flow, looking over a monthly P&L and weekly reports on the primary costs and asking questions in the event that something unexpected happens.
Specialized restaurant bookkeeping services could support that approach by keeping the books in order while helping the proprietor understand what the reports mean.
It does not mean the owner will be competent to handle every bookkeeping task.
Business owners who can take a seat and converse intelligently about their business and the P&L will have more success.
The goal of financial independence isn’t just to write more reports, but rather to reach financial freedom
Restaurants already generate massive quantities of data. A dashboard may not always make sense.
Real value occurs when an operator is able to open an P&L report, recognize that there has been a change and then look at the reports on the cost of prime.
Bookkeeping Chef’s approach combines restaurant bookkeeping automation, weekly reporting, monthly P&Ls, and restaurant-specific financial support to make that possible.
Automate repetitive tasks. Examine your prime cost each week. Study the language of your P&L.
There is no need to be an accountant to be an.
It is best to become an owner who understands the financials of your restaurant.