Restaurant Bookkeeping Services for Owners Who Already Have Enough Fires to Put Out.

What restaurant bookkeeping actually requires

Bookkeeping for restaurants is not the same job as bookkeeping for anyone else. Generic bookkeeping treats a restaurant like any other small business — and that is exactly how margins disappear. Food and beverage costs swing weekly, labor is split across tipped and non-tipped wages, sales tax rides on every ticket, and the difference between a good month and a quiet bleed is often a percentage point or two of prime cost nobody was watching. Restaurant bookkeeping done right means the numbers are reconciled against the POS every period, not guessed at when the lender calls. And set up properly, it pays for itself: clean, correctly categorized books surface the deductible expenses most owners miss — which puts real money back in your pocket at tax time. New to the metric that drives all of it? Start with understanding prime cost, or run your own numbers in our free food cost & prime cost calculator.

How R.E.Q.M. does bookkeeping for restaurants better

Because your books are handled by a restaurant accountant who has actually run the pass. We know what an 8% liquor variance means, why your linen invoice spiked, and how to read a daily sales report without a translator. Our restaurant bookkeeping services are built around the rhythm of a working kitchen — daily sales captured from the POS, vendor invoices coded to the right cost categories, and prime cost reported in plain English so you can adjust the menu while it still matters. Restaurant accounting done this way is accounting for restaurants, not accounting that happens to include one: a restaurant chart of accounts that splits food, beverage, and labor, QuickBooks for restaurants set up to match your POS, and a restaurant bookkeeper who knows a comp from a void.

What’s included

• Daily sales reconciliation from your POS (Toast, Square, Clover, and others)
• Food & beverage COGS and prime-cost tracking
• Tip reporting, tip pooling, and tipped-wage payroll support
• Sales-tax tracking and filing-ready summaries
• Vendor AP, invoice coding, and cost-category cleanup
• Third-party delivery and merchant-fee reconciliation
• Comps, voids, staff meals, and gift-card reconciliation
• Period-end financials with the metrics that run a restaurant

Built for the whole life of the business

Opening a new concept? Our startup & business setup gets the entity, licensing, and chart of accounts right from day one. Books already behind? Bookkeeping cleanup is where most restaurant engagements begin. Ready to scale or open a second location? A fractional CFO turns those nightly numbers into a growth plan. And if you’re opening from scratch — or reinventing a struggling spot — our Restaurant Launch CFO & Operations Readiness Program is the full, phased launch partner from concept to opening week.

Restaurant bookkeeping in Arizona

For restaurant bookkeeping in Arizona, R.E.Q.M. handles bookkeeping for restaurants and bars across Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita, Vail, and Southern Arizona — plus remote hospitality clients nationwide who want the same boutique attention. Inns, hotels, and wine programs get the same hospitality accounting know-how.