Restaurants

A Restaurant P&L Should Tell You
What to Fix This Week.

Books built around prime cost, tips reported correctly, and payroll and tax handled by the same CPA firm, for restaurant owners with one location or several.

Texas-licensed CPA firm Accounting, payroll and tax in one firm Sugar Land & Houston
Schedule a Consult → (832) 532-3000
A weekly sales and labor report on a clipboard and a tablet showing a bar chart on a steel counter in a restaurant kitchen, with a cook prepping vegetables behind

The Challenge

A restaurant is not a business that sells one thing at a steady margin.

A restaurant buys perishable inventory daily, staffs to a forecast that changes by the shift, and collects money in a dozen forms, including tips it does not own. A standard small business P&L flattens all of that into categories too broad to act on, and arrives weeks after anyone could do something about it.

What a restaurant's books usually look like when they were built for something else
  • A P&L that lands weeks after the month it describes
  • One cost of goods line, so food cost and beverage cost cannot be told apart
  • Labor shown as wages, without the payroll taxes and benefits that make it a real cost
  • Sales booked from bank deposits, which hide card fees and delivery platform commissions
  • Tips reported unevenly, with credit card and cash tips treated as if the rules differed
  • Automatic gratuities on large parties treated as tips
  • Several locations rolled into one report, so the store that is losing money is invisible
What books built for a restaurant do instead
  • Weekly numbers that arrive while the week is still recoverable
  • Food and beverage split, each with its own cost percentage
  • Labor including employer payroll taxes and benefits, so prime cost is real
  • Sales booked from the POS, with delivery platforms in their own accounts
  • Tips captured, reported and filed the same way every time
  • Service charges kept out of tips, where they do not belong
  • Every report run two ways: consolidated for the bank and the return, and by location for the operator

What's Included

Accounting, payroll and tax from one firm, built around the numbers you run on.

Restaurant work is the firm's standard services arranged around one set of numbers, because tips, labor and tax all connect. Fees follow the scope, such as how many locations and whether payroll is included, and the published pricing shows the ranges before you call.

A restaurant-shaped chart of accounts Food and beverage split out, labor carrying its payroll taxes, delivery platform sales, commissions and fees in separate accounts, and the state sales and alcohol tax accounts set up so the monthly reconciliation to the state filings can actually be done. This is the foundation of restaurant bookkeeping.
Sales from the POS, not from deposits Revenue booked from a daily sales journal rather than from what landed in the bank, because a deposit is net of card fees and often net of delivery commissions.
A weekly close One report each week: sales, food cost, labor cost and prime cost, each as a percentage, with last week beside it. The monthly close still reconciles accounts, books accruals and trues up inventory, but the decisions get made off the weekly number.
Tip reporting and the filings behind it Reported tips treated as wages for withholding, the Form 8027 test applied location by location, and the employer credit on tips (Form 8846) supported by data clean enough to claim it. This runs through payroll and the return together, which is why one firm matters.
Multi-location reporting Tracking by location from the start, with shared costs allocated by a stated method chosen once and left alone, so a comparison between stores stays meaningful.
Tax planning and cash forecasting Tax planning through the year for the owner and the entity, and outsourced CFO forecasting for the weeks when payroll, rent and a loan payment land together.

What the first few months look like.

1

Review the books you have

We look at how the P&L is built today, how sales and labor reach the books, and how tips and payroll are handled. This shows whether the report is kept for the tax return or for running the restaurant.

2

Rebuild the chart of accounts

Food and beverage separated, labor with its payroll taxes, delivery platform accounts, state tax liability accounts and a location structure. Done once and then left alone, so every comparison afterward means something.

3

Bring sales and labor in on a daily rhythm

Sales come in from the POS as a daily journal, and labor from payroll, so the numbers do not wait for a month-end pile.

4

Close weekly, then monthly

The weekly report puts prime cost in front of you on a Monday. The monthly close reconciles accounts, books accruals and trues up inventory.

5

Handle tips deliberately

Tip reports collected, withholding and deposits made, the Form 8027 and Form 8846 questions answered with data that supports them.

6

Plan taxes and cash through the year

Quarterly projections for the owner and entity, and a cash forecast when a tight stretch is coming.

One firm for the books, the payroll and the return.

Tips connect everything

Tip data feeds payroll, payroll feeds labor cost, labor cost feeds prime cost, and the same data supports the employer credit on the return. When one firm does all of it, nothing gets re-keyed between three offices and nobody waits on a third party for an answer.

The number arrives while you can still act

The firm's published restaurant guide makes the case for a weekly close in detail, and the engagement is built around it. A report that lands weeks late is a compliance document. A report that lands on Monday is a management tool.

Priced before the work starts

Fixed monthly ranges are published, and there is no hourly billing and no invoice arriving after a call you thought was included.

“We have been with Darshi's firm for 6 years and it has been a great experience. She handles everything from our business and personal tax preperation to monthly bookkeeping for our restaurant. We highly recommend Darshi Kasotia CPA PLLC.”

Adam Womack, Business

More from clients is on the reviews page.

Restaurant Accounting, Based in Sugar Land

Documents, sales reports and payroll data move electronically and meetings happen by video or phone, so the work runs the same for a restaurant down the road as for one across the metro. For the local picture, see our Sugar Land CPA page, or the full list of communities we serve. For how the relationship runs once you start, how the engagement works covers documents, contact and the monthly rhythm.

FAQ

Questions about restaurant accounting?

What restaurant owners usually ask before the first call.

Commonly cited targets are 60% to 65% of sales for full service and 55% to 60% for quick service. Treat those as reference points, not rules. What matters more is your own trend line: a concept running steadily at 67% with strong volume and low occupancy cost can work, while one drifting from 61% to 66% over a quarter has a problem whatever the benchmark says.
Yes. Multi-location reporting is built in from the start, with tracking by location so every report runs both consolidated and side by side. Consolidation hides the location that is losing money, which is the first thing the structure is meant to prevent. Shared costs get a stated allocation method that is decided once.
The question to ask is whether your P&L shows prime cost, splits food from beverage, and arrives weekly. If it does not, the books are probably being kept for the tax return rather than for you, and both are legitimate goals. If the books are fine and you only need the return prepared, the firm is comfortable working with your bookkeeper. If you want planning and a year-round relationship, the firm keeps the books itself, so the weekly report, the payroll and the return all come from one set of numbers. More answers on how the firm works are on the FAQ.
Gross sales, platform commission and promotional or marketing fees each need a separate account, with the payout reconciled to the platform's statement. Booking only the net deposit understates sales, hides a commission you could negotiate, and distorts every percentage on the P&L.
No. Restaurants are one of two industries where the firm has built specific depth, and the other is professional services. Owners running other food service businesses with the same numbers are welcome to ask. See the full list of industries for how the firm is set up.

Does Your P&L Show Prime Cost?

If it does not, that is a good place to start. Bring your last set of financials and your most recent payroll report, and we can usually tell you quickly what we would change.

Schedule a Consult → (832) 532-3000

Last reviewed: October 2026