Restaurants, cafes & food service
Books and taxes for food trucks.
Festival payouts, cash at the window, commissary rent, and propane bills that never match a normal restaurant's costs. 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 $7,000. The commissary rent came out as its own line, not lumped with vehicle costs, so your real fixed cost stays visible.
- Square reader batch depositEvent and street sales
- Cash deposit, weeklyEvent and street sales
- Restaurant Depot orderFood purchases
- Commissary kitchen rentCommissary kitchen fees
- Propane refillPropane and generator fuel
Why your books are different
A food truck's books go wrong in the same five places.
A generalist bookkeeper sees deposits and bills. A food truck runs on festival fees, heavy cash at the window, a commissary kitchen bill that never stops, and both vehicle fuel and cooking fuel to track. When those pieces blend together, the owner cannot tell which events are actually worth working.
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1
Festival fees get buried in the deposit
Many festivals take a flat fee or a percentage of sales before or after the event, sometimes withheld from the payout and sometimes billed separately. Netted silently against cash sales, the true cost of the event disappears.
What we doBooks the full day's sales and the festival's cut as its own cost, so you can tell which events are worth the fee. -
2
Cash at the window goes unrecorded
An outdoor event brings heavy cash, and without a habit of counting and depositing it, a slow cash day at the farmers market just vanishes from the books instead of showing up as income.
What we doAsks for a cash count on event days and records it the same as a card sale, so nothing disappears. -
3
Commissary kitchen rent gets lost in overhead
The nightly or monthly fee paid to a shared commercial kitchen for prep and storage is a real fixed cost, but lumped into a general supplies category, the owner cannot see how much the truck costs to run before a single order goes out.
What we doKeeps commissary rent in its own line so your true fixed cost is visible every month. -
4
Propane and truck fuel blur together
The truck burns gasoline or diesel to drive and propane or a generator to cook, and mixed into one fuel line, neither the vehicle cost nor the cooking cost is accurate.
What we doSplits vehicle fuel from propane and generator fuel so both costs are honest. -
5
A big repair looks like a new truck
A transmission rebuild or a generator swap can cost several thousand dollars, and filed the same way as routine maintenance, it either overstates a slow month or misses how the tax code treats a real improvement.
What we doFlags a big repair the day it happens and lets the accountant decide if it is a routine expense or something written off differently.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a food truck.
Set up once for how the truck actually earns and spends. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Event and street salesCard and cash sales from festivals, street parking, and lunch stops.
- Catering bookingsPrivate parties and office lunches booked ahead of time.
- Brewery and taproom residenciesRegular parking arrangements paid by the venue or by sales.
- Online preordersOrders placed ahead through an app for pickup at the next stop.
Money out
- Food purchasesProteins, produce, and staples from a restaurant supplier.
- Commissary kitchen feesThe monthly cost of prep and storage space.
- Propane and generator fuelWhat runs the cooking equipment, kept apart from vehicle fuel.
- Vehicle fuel and maintenanceGas or diesel, oil changes, and repairs for the truck itself.
- Event and festival feesBooking fees and sales percentages paid to organizers.
- Wages and payroll taxesWindow and prep staff pay.
- Truck equipmentFryers, griddles, and the generator, logged apart from food so they get written off right.
- Permits and licensesCity, county, and event permits, which vary by where you park.
What we watch for you
- Food cost percentage
Food cost against sales, the number that catches a supplier price hike early.
- Cost per event
Booking fees and cash cost against what an event brought in, so you know which festivals pay off.
- Fixed cost
Commissary rent and permits against sales, the cost that runs whether the truck rolls or not.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so tax time holds no surprise.
Ask Gus
Things food truck 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.
I book the full day's sales and the festival's cut as its own cost, so you can see which events are actually worth the fee.
Just give me a cash count for the day. I record it the same as a card sale so it does not disappear from the numbers.
Usually it can. I flagged it as equipment, not a repair, and the accountant makes the call with your whole year in view.
The tax side
The tax side of a food truck.
Most of what goes wrong here is labels and method: fuel mixed together, a repair that is really an upgrade, and vehicle cost tracked the wrong way for a truck built around cooking, not driving.
What your return has to get right
Your accountant signs it, so it gets done right the first time.
- Actual expenses instead of mileageA truck built out with cooking equipment usually tracks vehicle cost by actual expenses like fuel, repairs, and insurance rather than the standard mileage rate, since the truck spends most of its time parked and cooking. The accountant decides which method fits.
- Section 179 on the truck build-outFryers, griddles, and a generator built into the truck can usually be written off in the year they are bought, with 100 percent bonus depreciation for property acquired after January 19, 2025.
- Worker classification for window and prep staffSomeone who works your schedule, uses your truck, and follows your recipes is almost always an employee, not a contractor, even for a two-person operation.
- Self-employment tax for owner-operatorsAn owner running the truck without a payroll 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 food trucks miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Commissary kitchen rent
- Propane tank refills
- Generator maintenance
- Festival booking fees
- Truck wrap and signage
- Coolers and ice for events
- Card reader hardware
- Permits for each city or event
- Employee shift meals
- Uniforms and aprons
- Pest control for the commissary
- Vehicle insurance
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 food truck's year, kept every month.
The truck rolls to a different lot or festival every week. 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 event help is readied, and you get a monthly set-aside so summer festival 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 busy festival season does not turn into a scramble for cash.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand at the midpoint of peak festival season, and whether the summer events are paying off against their booking fees.
- October
Before the slow season
Before the truck slows down for colder months, Gus looks at generator or equipment repairs worth making 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 food trucks. 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 food truck owners ask first.
We work a different city or festival most weekends. Can Gus keep up with that?
Yes. He works from your bank and card deposits, not your schedule, so it does not matter how many different events or cities you worked that month.
How does Gus handle cash we take at outdoor events?
He asks for a cash count on event days and records it the same as a card sale. It takes you keeping a running count as you go, since cash never shows up on a bank statement on its own.
Our commissary charges by the month. Is that different from rent?
It is tracked as its own cost, separate from anything you would call rent. That way you can see the real fixed cost of running the truck before a single order goes out.
Do you help us get permits for new cities or events?
No, permitting is outside the subscription and it varies block by block in some places. Your team keeps your books and taxes straight, which makes it easier when you or your accountant handles the paperwork.
Our last year was tracked in a shoebox. Can we start clean now?
Yes. Send the bank statements you have going forward. Gus sorts them, the accountant checks them, and most owners know where they stand within a week.
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