Restaurants, cafes & food service
Books and taxes for full-service restaurants.
Dine-in tickets, bar sales, banquet deposits, and delivery payouts that land short of the menu price. Gus sorts every one of them, an accountant checks every transaction, and you get one clear number each month.
- From $197 a month
- An accountant on every transaction
- Cancel whenever
October brought in $10,200. The new wine list order went into inventory, not a one-time expense, so your bar margin still reads right this time of year.
- Toast POS batch depositDine-in and bar sales
- Private party depositBanquet and private events
- Sysco order #4471Food purchases
- Republic National DistributingLiquor purchases
- Amex processing feesCard processing fees
Why your books are different
A full-service restaurant's books go wrong in the same five places.
A generalist bookkeeper sees deposits and bills. A full-service restaurant runs on dine-in tickets, a bar with its own margin, banquet deposits paid months ahead, and comps that happen every service. When the books do not separate those pieces, the food cost and labor numbers that actually run the business stay hidden until the accountant finds them at tax time.
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1
The bar and the kitchen get mixed together
Liquor sales and liquor cost get lumped in with food sales and food cost, so you can never tell whether the dining room or the bar is actually carrying the restaurant on a given month.
What we doKeeps bar sales and liquor cost in their own lines so both sides of the house show their true margin. -
2
Banquet deposits book too early
A wedding or holiday party pays a deposit two months before the event. Booked as income the day it lands, a slow month looks busy and the month the event actually happens looks thin.
What we doHolds the deposit until the event happens, then books the full revenue against that month's food and labor cost. -
3
Comped tables disappear from the numbers
A manager comping a table over a slow ticket, or a regular's free dessert, is normal service. Left untracked, food cost percentage looks worse than it is and nobody can see how often it happens.
What we doLogs every comp as its own line so the real cost is visible and a pattern is easy to catch. -
4
The wine order reads like a grocery bill
A big wine and spirits order for the cellar looks like an ordinary food purchase on the statement, but liquor usually carries a different markup than food and needs its own margin.
What we doKeeps liquor purchases separate from food purchases so bar margin is its own visible number. -
5
Kitchen equipment gets lost in the food order
Replacing a range or a walk-in compressor mid-year looks like a massive grocery bill if it rides along with the weekly Sysco invoice, wrecking that month's food cost percentage.
What we doFlags equipment purchases the day they hit the account and logs them apart from food so food cost stays accurate.
Your categories
The categories Gus keeps for a full-service restaurant.
Set up once for how the dining room, bar, and events actually run. You never pick a category. He does, and an accountant checks it.
Money in
- Dine-in and bar salesTable and counter sales rung through Toast or Square.
- Bar and liquor salesBeer, wine, and cocktails, tracked apart so bar margin is its own number.
- Banquet and private eventsDeposits and final invoices for parties booked in a private room.
- Gift card salesHeld as a liability until a card is redeemed, not counted as income the day it is sold.
- Catering and off-site eventsOccasional off-site jobs billed directly to the client.
Money out
- Food purchasesSysco, US Foods, and local produce and meat purveyors.
- Liquor purchasesBeer, wine, and spirits bought through a licensed distributor.
- Wages and payroll taxesKitchen and front of house pay, including tipped wages.
- Card processing feesWhat Visa, Mastercard, and Amex keep on every swipe.
- Rent and building costsLease, common area fees, and repairs on the dining room and kitchen.
- Kitchen equipmentRanges, walk-ins, and dish machines, logged apart from food so they get written off right.
- Linen and laundry serviceTablecloths, napkins, and kitchen towels.
- Marketing and reservationsOpenTable or Resy fees and local advertising.
What we watch for you
- Food cost percentage
Food and drink cost against sales, the number that catches a supplier price hike early.
- Bar margin
What the bar brings in against liquor cost, tracked apart from the kitchen.
- Labor cost percentage
Wages against sales in a service-heavy dining room.
- The set-aside
What you will owe, tracked every month, so tax time holds no surprise.
Ask Gus
Things restaurant 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.
A $2,800 liquor order landed the same week the month started slow. I kept it in its own line, so this is not a slow month, it is a stocked-up bar.
No, I already do. Every comp gets its own line so your real food cost stays accurate instead of looking padded.
Usually it can. I logged it as equipment, not food cost, and flagged it so the accountant makes the call with your whole year in view.
The tax side
The tax side of a full-service restaurant.
Most of what goes wrong here is timing and labels: liquor mixed with food, tips undercounted, and equipment buried in a grocery 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 here, 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. The accountant runs that calculation each year.
- Liquor licensing and excise taxServing beer, wine, and spirits usually means a state liquor license and sometimes a separate excise tax. Rules vary a great deal by state, so this gets checked locally.
- Worker classification for staffServers, bartenders, and line cooks who work your schedule and use your equipment are almost always employees, not contractors, no matter how they are paid.
- Section 179 on kitchen equipmentA new range, walk-in, or dish machine can usually be written off the year you buy it. Bonus depreciation is 100 percent for property bought after January 19, 2025.
Deductions independent full-service restaurants miss
Your bookkeeper knows what to look for in your statements. You never have to.
- Wine and liquor licensing fees
- Linen and towel service
- OpenTable or Resy fees
- Menu printing and design
- Comped meals logged as marketing
- Employee shift meals
- Dish machine chemicals
- Host stand tablets and software
- Background music licensing
- Card processing fees
- Pest control contracts
- Chef coats and uniforms
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 full-service restaurant's year, kept every month.
The dining room fills up on its own schedule. Your taxes come on a different one. 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, contractor 1099s are readied, and you get a monthly set-aside so the holiday rush does not turn into an April surprise.
- April
Filed and signed
Your return is filed and signed. Because the set-aside ran all year, even a strong first quarter does not turn into a scramble for cash.
- July
Halfway check
Where you stand at the midpoint of the year, whether patio season changed what you will owe, and what the second half looks like.
- October
Before the holidays
Before banquet season and 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 independent full-service restaurants. 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 full-service restaurant owners ask first.
Do I need to track cash tips separately from card tips?
Yes, though you do not have to do the tracking. Gus matches what the POS reports in credit card tips against what actually left the bank for the tip pool, and asks about any cash tips that do not show up on a statement.
How does Gus handle banquet deposits paid months before the event?
He holds the deposit until the event happens, then books the full revenue against that month's food and labor cost. That way a deposit landing in a slow month does not make it look busier than it was.
Can Gus tell me if my liquor cost is too high?
He tracks liquor purchases and bar sales in their own lines every month, so you can see your bar margin clearly. If something looks off, that is a conversation for the accountant, since pricing calls are above what the subscription covers.
We are behind on entering last quarter's invoices. Is that a problem?
No. Send the bank statements you have. Gus sorts them, the accountant checks them, and most owners know where they stand within a week.
Do you help with our liquor license renewal?
No, that is a licensing step outside the subscription. Gus keeps your liquor purchases and bar sales tracked cleanly, which makes the paperwork easier when you or your accountant handles the renewal.
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