Restaurants, cafes & food service
Books and taxes for coffee shops.
Counter drink sales, app balances loaded ahead of time, wholesale bean orders, and a tip pool split across every shift. 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
November brought in $7,000. Your first wholesale bean order to the grocery store down the road counted separately from counter sales, so you can see it is real, additional money, not just a shift from one channel to another.
- Square POS batch depositCounter drink sales
- Wholesale bean order paymentWholesale bean sales
- Green coffee bean orderCoffee bean purchases
- Milk and alternative milk deliveryMilk and alternative milk
- ADP payrollWages and payroll taxes
Why your books are different
A coffee shop's books go wrong in the same five places.
A generalist bookkeeper sees deposits and bills. A coffee shop splits tips across shift changes, sells app balances that are not earned until spent, and now maybe sells its own roasted beans wholesale. When those pieces blend together, the owner cannot tell drink revenue from merchandise, or a real sale from a card that was just loaded.
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1
Tip pools don't match what the POS reports
Baristas split tips across a shift change, and if what is distributed to staff does not match what the POS says came in as tips, the gap either shorts a barista or quietly disappears.
What we doMatches tips reported by the POS against what left the bank for staff, so the gap gets caught instead of becoming a payroll problem. -
2
Loaded app balances book as income too early
A customer loads $25 onto the shop's app, and if that counts as a sale the day it loads instead of when it is spent, sales are overstated and what is still owed to customers on unused balances disappears.
What we doBooks the load as a liability until it is redeemed for a drink, so sales reflect drinks actually sold, not cards loaded. -
3
Wholesale bean sales blur with counter drink sales
Bags of roasted beans sold wholesale to a grocery store or another cafe carry a very different margin than a latte at the counter, and lumped together, the owner cannot tell which side of the business is actually worth growing.
What we doKeeps wholesale bean sales separate from counter drink sales so each side's real margin is visible. -
4
Milk and alternative milk costs disappear into coffee cost
Oat milk and other alternatives often cost noticeably more than dairy, and buried inside a general coffee or food cost line, the owner cannot see how milk choices are actually affecting margin.
What we doTracks milk and alternative milk costs apart from coffee beans so the real cost of a drink is visible. -
5
Merchandise sales hide inside drink revenue
Mugs, bags of beans for home brewing, and gift sets sold at the counter get mixed into daily drink sales, so the owner cannot tell how much of the day's total actually came from merchandise versus drinks.
What we doKeeps merchandise sales in their own line so drink revenue and merchandise revenue are both clear.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a coffee shop.
Set up once for how the counter, wholesale, and merchandise each run. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Counter drink salesEspresso and drip drinks rung through Square or Toast.
- Wholesale bean salesBags sold to a grocery store or another cafe, kept apart from the counter.
- Merchandise salesMugs, bags of beans to go, and gift sets.
- Catering and event ordersOffice coffee service and event bookings.
Money out
- Coffee bean purchasesGreen or roasted beans, kept apart from milk.
- Milk and alternative milkDairy and oat, almond, or soy milk, tracked as its own cost.
- Wages and payroll taxesBarista pay, apart from tip pool distributions.
- Cups and packagingCups, lids, sleeves, and bean bags.
- Rent and building costsLease, utilities, and repairs on the shop.
- Espresso and roasting equipmentMachines, grinders, and roasters, logged apart from beans so they get written off right.
- Marketing and loyalty app feesThe loyalty app subscription and local advertising.
What we watch for you
- Drink cost percentage
Coffee, milk, and syrup cost against drink sales, the number that catches a price jump early.
- Wholesale bean margin
What wholesale bean sales actually clear, since the margin runs different from a counter drink.
- Labor cost percentage
Barista wages against sales.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so tax time holds no surprise.
Ask Gus
Things coffee shop 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.
No, I fixed that. Loads count as a liability until someone actually spends it on a drink, so your sales number reflects real drinks sold.
I check both every month. If what left the bank for staff does not match what the POS reported in tips, I flag it before it becomes a bigger gap.
Yes, I keep it in its own line, separate from your counter drink sales, so you can see if wholesale is actually worth the extra roasting.
The tax side
The tax side of a coffee shop.
Most of what goes wrong here is timing and labels: app balances counted too early, tips undercounted, and equipment lost inside a coffee order.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- The FICA tip creditBecause tipping is standard at the counter, you can often claim a credit for the employer's share of Social Security and Medicare tax paid on tips above the minimum wage portion.
- Section 179 on espresso and roasting equipmentEspresso machines, grinders, and roasters can usually be written off the year you buy them, with 100 percent bonus depreciation for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
- Worker classification for baristasA barista who works your schedule and uses your equipment is almost always an employee, not a contractor, no matter how the pay is arranged.
- Form 1099-NEC for event helpAnyone hired outside of payroll to staff a catering event or office coffee service, paid $2,000 or more in 2026, gets a 1099-NEC by January 31.
Deductions coffee shops miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Espresso machine maintenance
- Milk frothing pitchers and tools
- Loyalty app subscription fees
- Coffee bag labels and packaging
- Cafe furniture and seating
- Local musician or art event fees
- Background music licensing
- Food handler certification
- Uniforms and aprons
- Employee shift meals
- Pest control contracts
- Online ordering 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 coffee shop's year, kept every month.
The espresso machine runs every day of the 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 contracted event baristas is readied, and you get a monthly set-aside so the holiday drink rush that just ended 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, there is no scramble for cash.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand at the midpoint of the year and whether iced drink season changed what you will owe.
- October
Before the holidays
Before pumpkin spice and holiday drink season fill the counter with orders, Gus looks at espresso 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 coffee shops. 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 coffee shop owners ask first.
Our app lets customers load money onto a balance ahead of time. How does Gus handle that?
He books the load as a liability, not a sale, until it is actually spent on a drink. That keeps your real sales number honest and shows what you still owe customers on unspent balances.
We split tips across a shift change. Can Gus tell if the split is off?
Yes. He checks what the POS reports in tips against what actually left the bank for staff, so a gap gets caught instead of quietly becoming a payroll issue.
We sell bags of our own roasted beans wholesale now. Does that complicate the books?
No, it just gets its own line. Wholesale bean sales are tracked apart from counter drink sales, so you can see the real margin on each side of the business.
Oat milk costs a lot more than regular milk. Would that show up anywhere?
It would. Milk and alternative milk costs are tracked apart from coffee beans, so a shift toward oat or almond milk shows up as its own real cost, not hidden inside a bigger number.
We also sell mugs and gift sets at the counter. Is that tracked separately from drinks?
Yes. Merchandise sales get their own line so you can see how much of a day's total came from drinks versus mugs and beans to go.
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.
More in restaurants, cafes & food service
We keep books for the business next door too.
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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