QuickBooks is a pretty popular choice for the restaurant bookkeeping needs of restaurants around the country. However, Intuit does not have a version specific to the restaurant industry, so QuickBooks has to be customized to meet your needs. You can select a restaurant as the type of company you're setting up in the QuickBooks beginning interview, though. Let's list the other modifications that should be made to Quickbooks to make sure that your restaurant is set up correctly.

Task Delegation

First off, who is involved in the decisions and who should have access with what abilities?

Restaurant Owners - owners should be the only people with the ability to sign checks, pay bills, or move money across different accounts. There are a couple reasons for this, but the most important one is that allowing the bookkeeper access to cash is an opportunity for theft. Owners should also approve payroll.

Bookkeeping Team - bookkeepers should be entering transactions, bills, daily sales, and verifying deposits. They should also be doing regular reconciliation of the accounts. They should not be handling any cash.

Restaurant Managers - restaurant managers should handle cash deposits. The bookkeeper will verify the cash deposits versus sales records while doing their tasks. The managers should also be focused on regulating your inventory of food and beverage. Lastly, the managers should be verifying hours and submitting payroll to the owners for review and approval.

QuickBooks Install

The program should be set up on a server that gives multiple employees access to QuickBooks at the same time without interfering one another. This is especially helpful for restaurants in multiple locations so there can be a central location where bills, invoices, and paperwork are stored and shared.

Daily Sales Journal Entries

Like the name says, daily sales must be recorded daily. The simple answer as to why is this: the verification of bank deposits. Even if card transactions are being pulled every couple of days, the actual sales of the day need to be recorded. This is a record that the amount being deposited into the bank on a daily basis matches the amount that has been sold on that day. If there are gaps in the amount sold as to the amount deposited, there's a problem.

Taxes are certainly something that no one enjoys paying. If a business has an accountant or bookkeeper who is filing the taxes or doing their books incorrectly, they may actually be over-filing, meaning they are paying more than the amount of tax they owe.

That isn't just in the instance of state income taxes, but also sales taxes, payroll taxes, and any other state or local tax that relies on financial information.

The potential tax overpayment can be substantial.

#1. Not Entering Checks as They're Written

The cost of bank fees for checks that bounce can become a nightmare. When balances in the checking account are not being reconciled at the end of the day, there is a chance that there are more outstanding checks than cash available in the account. Bounced checks and their fees are not something that an owner wants to wake up to discover. Having a bookkeeper who is regularly entering and managing the cash flow of the business can help to decrease the chances that the bank balances will be overdrawn.

#2. Not Having Reconciled Transactions

Downloading transactions and importing them into QuickBooks is not the same thing as reconciling an account. When importing the data, there may be some errors within the data, especially if it's being pulled from the bank feed. There are also times when a small business owner doesn't really reconcile or import all the accounts correctly. They may be too focused on just the bank account statements and lose focus on credit card statements, lines of credit, etc.

One of the biggest fears of a business owner is dealing with an IRS audit, because it adds undue stress and a lot of work to gather the necessary information for the auditor. If you want to prevent an audit, then it is a good idea to follow these simple tips to ensure that your finances are handled correctly:

With the accounting software that is available today, you have the opportunity to set up an automated bookkeeping system. That does not mean that your bookkeeping system will run itself. However, there are some steps you can take to make sure your bookkeeping system is as automated as possible.

Outsourcing your company's bookkeeping may not be the top priority, but maybe it should be.  There are many reasons why it's good for you and for the company, but one of the best reasons is to reduce stress.  According to Emily K. Porensky, PhD and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, stress is linked to all leading physical causes of death. She also noted that it is linked with the development of most major mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety.  In addition, a reduction in stress can greatly improve the amount of of your output in a week and the quality of the work finished.  In other words, you can keep your head on straight and accomplish more, better work.

It's easy for an owner to disregard some of the small mistakes made with their bookkeeping. It's understandable; short on time, deliverability of products or services to clients feels more important, and it can be difficult to keep QuickBooks straight.

Most of the common bookkeeping mistakes are pretty easy to avoid, and just as easy to set up the right way within QuickBooks.  These changes will save both time and money, especially during the annual tax-time visit to the CPA. 

Taxes, in general, are always a pain.  When it comes to payroll and dealing with employee tax, along with the other state and federal taxes for a business, it can be a slew of problems or worse, fines.  

Do you think your small business can withstand an industry disruption? These days, technology seems to be replacing and automating more and more jobs. Is your industry susceptible to a major disruption? Will you survive an industry disruption?