Full-service Bookkeeping, Tax, and Advisory services for restaurants
Let’s face it, you entered the restaurant business to create amazing, quality dishes that your customers enjoy – Not to be tied down with bills, receipts, sales tax, and payroll. These tasks are exactly what our firm excels at. We enjoy helping restaurant owners manage the clutter of paper and compliance issues so that they can get back to growing their business. Our team has substantial experience in the restaurant space. Several of the partners in our firm either have had family run restaurants while others began their accounting career in the restaurant industry. We understand the unique challenges of running a restaurant in an ultra- competitive market like New York City.
Telltale Signs For Your Restaurant Should Pick Our Firm:
You do not have a firm understanding of your restaurant’s performance and profit margins.
You need help in determining which vendors/suppliers need to get paid and would like assistance in streamlining paying bills.
You need help with payroll services and keeping track of your employee’s hours and/or gratuities.
You are buried in papers and receipts and would just like to have a way to streamline storing your records
You are concerned with and/or overpaying your sales taxes and/or income taxes
You would like access to your restaurant’s profitability/performance anywhere and anytime
You have questions and can’t reach your accountant especially during tax season
The 3 Different Approaches Most Restaurants Use to Handle Their Accounting
1) Passive Approach
Most restaurants will hire an outside professional who prepares quarterly sales tax returns and annual income tax returns. Some may decide to run payroll with their accountants. These accountants usually provide no day to day assistance with managing a restaurants paperwork in case of an audit. In other words, these accountants do not maintain bills or receipts so there is no paper trail for proof. Businesses that use this passive approach usually have no understanding of their business performance until after the end of the year when its time to prepare tax returns. Needless to say, no business owner can properly forecast or make intelligent business decisions without first having an understanding on their business’s performance.
2) In House Approach
Larger restauranteurs usually decide to hire a single professional (usually a bookkeeper) to manage and maintain all these functions in house. This in- house approach would provide better reporting for owners and businesses would be better prepared to handle an audit. The biggest drawback of this approach is cost and lack of expertise. Hiring one bookkeeper in house, full time, can run anywhere from $50,000 - $75,000 per year plus benefits. In addition, this approach wouldn’t provide the same level of expertise you would expect from an expert tax accountant or CFO. In theory, you could just hire an experienced CFO/Tax accountant instead but this would cost well in excess of $120,000/year for all the services your restaurant requires.
3) Team Based Approach
We believe that a restaurant truly needs guidance and support in growing their business. We take a team-based approach. Our team consists of bookkeepers, tax accountants, and advisors who can help you grow and scale your business. Most restaurants need each of these professionals to run properly but unless it is a large or franchise operation, neither professional is needed 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, for 52 weeks in the year. In effect, we are able to use our scale as an established accounting and advisory firm to provide you with efficient, quality services, at a fixed and reasonable cost. This approach assures that you only pay for the services you need and can significantly reduce your overhead.