Restaurants, cafes & food service
Books and taxes for catering companies.
A deposit at booking, a second payment weeks out, a final payment after the event, and a crew that scales from two to twelve depending on the weekend. Gus sorts every one, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one clear number each month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
June brought in $11,000. The Miller wedding's final payment counted this month, once the event actually happened, so the number reflects the work, not when the contract was signed.
- Wedding final paymentEvent contract payments
- Corporate event depositEvent contract payments
- Specialty food orderFood purchases
- Linen and chafing dish rentalRental pass-through costs
- Day-of staff payrollEvent staffing
Why your books are different
A catering company's books go wrong in the same five places.
A generalist bookkeeper sees deposits and bills. A catering company collects payment in stages across months, bills clients for rented equipment, and hires a different size crew for every event. When those pieces blend together, the owner cannot tell a normal event-driven swing from a real problem.
-
1
Multi-stage payments book at the wrong time
A catering contract often collects a deposit at booking, a second payment weeks out, and a final payment after the event. Counted as income the day each one lands, some months look inflated and the month the actual work happens looks thin.
What we doHolds each payment until the event happens, then books the full contract value against that event's food and labor cost. -
2
Rental pass-through costs blur with your own cost
A caterer often bills a client for rented linens, tents, or chafing dishes as part of the invoice, and if that pass-through cost is not kept separate from food and labor, real catering margin looks better or worse than it actually is.
What we doKeeps rental pass-through costs in their own line, apart from food and labor, so your real margin per event is visible. -
3
Day-of staff swings look like a labor problem
A crew of servers and bartenders hired per event scales up and down hard from one week to the next, and without context, that swing can look like a cost problem instead of the normal way this business runs.
What we doTracks event staffing against the events booked that month, so a normal swing reads as expected, not alarming. -
4
Tasting sessions have a real cost with no guaranteed sale
A free or discounted tasting for a prospective client uses real ingredients and real time, and if it is not tracked as its own cost, it just looks like food that went missing with no sale to explain it.
What we doLogs tasting costs as their own line so the real cost of courting new business is visible, not mistaken for waste. -
5
Forfeited deposits from cancellations need their own treatment
When a client cancels and the deposit is non-refundable per contract, that money becomes real income at the point it is forfeited, not at the original booking date, and getting the timing wrong misstates two different months.
What we doBooks a forfeited deposit as income the month the cancellation happens, so the timing matches what actually occurred.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a catering company.
Set up once for how contracts, staffing, and rentals each run. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Event contract paymentsDeposits and final payments, booked to the event date, not the payment date.
- Corporate account billingRecurring office clients billed on invoice terms.
- Retail and market salesPrepared items sold outside of full-service events.
- Delivery and drop-off cateringSmaller orders without full-service staff.
Money out
- Food purchasesIngredients bought for booked events, kept apart from tasting costs.
- Rental pass-through costsLinens, tents, and chafing dishes billed to the client.
- Event staffingDay-of servers and bartenders, tracked against events booked.
- Wages and payroll taxesCore kitchen and office staff pay.
- Vehicle and delivery costsFuel, mileage, and maintenance for catering vans.
- Kitchen and catering equipmentOvens, warmers, and vans, logged apart from food so they get written off right.
- Marketing and tasting costsTasting sessions and event show booth fees.
What we watch for you
- Food cost percentage
Food cost against sales, the number that catches a supplier price hike early.
- Event staffing cost
Day-of staffing against events booked, so a normal swing doesn't read as a problem.
- Margin per event
What an event actually clears after food, staffing, and rental pass-through costs.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so tax time holds no surprise.
Ask Gus
Things catering company owners ask Gus.
Text him like you would text anybody. He answers in plain English, and when a question is above his pay grade, an accountant looks and gets back to you.
Not yet. I hold it until the wedding actually happens, then book the whole contract against that week's food and labor cost.
No, I track staffing against the events you actually booked, so a swing like that reads as normal, not alarming.
As income the month they canceled, not the month they originally booked, so the timing matches what actually happened.
The tax side
The tax side of a catering company.
Most of what goes wrong here is timing and classification: payments counted too early, and event staff paid the wrong way.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Worker classification for day-of event staffA server or bartender who works your event on your schedule with your equipment is almost always an employee, not a contractor, even if only hired for a single weekend.
- Form 1099-NEC for contracted event staffAnyone genuinely operating as their own business who works your events, paid $2,000 or more in 2026, gets a 1099-NEC by January 31.
- Section 179 on catering equipmentOvens, warmers, and catering vans can usually be written off the year you buy them, with 100 percent bonus depreciation for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
- Self-employment tax for owner-operatorsAn owner who takes profit directly rather than a W-2 paycheck owes self-employment tax of 15.3 percent on top of regular income tax, up to the Social Security wage base of $184,500.
Deductions catering companies miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Chafing dish and serving ware
- Catering van mileage
- Tasting session ingredients
- Linens and event decor
- Staff uniforms
- Food handler certification
- Liability insurance for events
- Local bridal or event show fees
- Employee meals during events
- Pest control for the commercial kitchen
- Online booking software fees
General information about 2026 federal rules, not advice for your business. Your accountant looks at your actual numbers before anything gets filed.
All year, not just April
A catering company's year, kept every month.
Weddings and corporate events fill the calendar unevenly all year. Your taxes come on a schedule. Your team keeps you ahead of both. Every month in between, your bookkeeper closes the books and speaks up the moment something looks off.
- January
Plan the year
Last year's return gets started, the 1099 list for any day-of event staff is readied, and you get a monthly set-aside so wedding season does not turn into an April surprise.
- April
Filed and signed
Your return is filed and signed. Because the set-aside has been running since January, a string of spring weddings does not turn into a scramble for cash.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand at the midpoint of peak wedding and event season, and whether staffing costs are tracking with the events booked.
- October
Before the holidays
Before corporate holiday parties fill the calendar, Gus looks at equipment worth buying and any moves worth making before December.
What you get
What you pay depends on what your business needs, and it does not move after that, busy season or slow. No hourly bills, no surprise invoices, no setup fee.
Book a call- Monthly bookkeeping
Every transaction sorted into categories set up for catering companies. You never categorize a thing.
- An accountant checks every transaction
Real review, every month, before your books close. Not a spot check.
- Your business tax return, filed
Prepared, reviewed, and signed by that same accountant every year.
- The monthly number
What you made, what you spent, what to set aside for taxes.
- Your own bookkeeper
A real person assigned to your business, in the app whenever you need them. No hold music.
- On your books all year
Every month, not just in April. Your team speaks up whenever something is worth your attention.
- Cancel any time
No contract. No cancellation call. Your books are yours.
Straight answers
Questions catering company owners ask first.
Our contracts collect a deposit, a second payment, and a final payment after the event. How does Gus handle that?
He holds each payment until the event happens, then books the full contract value against that event's food and labor cost. That way a deposit landing early does not make one month look busier than it was.
We bill clients for rented linens and chafing dishes as part of the invoice. Does that complicate things?
No, it just needs its own line. Rental pass-through costs are kept apart from food and labor, so your real catering margin per event is visible.
We hire a totally different size crew depending on the event. Will that make our labor numbers look erratic?
It might look that way without context, so Gus tracks staffing against the events booked that month, so a normal swing reads as expected, not a red flag.
We give free tastings to prospective clients. Is that a cost we should be tracking?
Yes. Tasting costs get logged as their own line so the real cost of courting new business is visible instead of looking like food that just went missing.
A client canceled and their deposit was non-refundable. When does that count as income?
The month they canceled, not the month they originally booked. That keeps both months honest about what actually happened.
Is a real accountant checking my books?
Yes. You get your own bookkeeper, Gus does the first pass on every transaction, and an accountant checks every one before your month closes. That same accountant prepares, signs, and files your business return. Goatkeeper is not a CPA firm, and we never pretend a person looked when they did not.
What does it cost, and can I cancel?
It starts at $197 a month, depending on what your business needs. No setup fee, no hourly bills, no contract. Cancel any time from the app, and your books go with you.
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What makes a bookkeeper worth paying for Every business we keep books for
Book a call
Pick a time. That's the whole signup.
Fifteen minutes with a real person on our team. They look at where your books are, tell you straight what it takes to get caught up, and get you set up on the spot if it fits.
- $197 a month to start
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever