A restaurant accountant who reads the month, not just the year.
Most accountants meet a restaurant once a year, after every decision that shaped the result has already been made. We work the other way around: the books stay current, the margin gets read every month, and the tax work happens on top of numbers you have already seen.
What a restaurant accountant should be doing
A restaurant is not a retail shop with a kitchen. The cost base moves weekly, the labour is rostered against trade that changes with the weather, and a supplier price rise lands without an email. So the job is not just lodgement. It is keeping the four numbers that decide the business visible while you can still act on them.
| Line | Where we want it | Where it starts costing you |
|---|---|---|
| Wage cost | at or under 30% of sales | 35% is where we start calling it a leak |
| Food and beverage cost | at or under 36% of sales | 40% and the menu needs work |
| Prime cost, wages plus stock | at or under 62% of sales | 68% and the venue is running for someone else |
| Rent | at or under 10% of sales | 15% and the site has to earn its keep |
The bands we work to on a standard single-site venue. Licensed venues, function work and heavy takeaway sit differently, which is part of the conversation.
What we do every month
- Bookkeeping kept current, including POS takings, supplier bills and stock movements
- Payroll run against the award, with wages read as a share of sales, not in isolation
- A margin review that names the line that moved and what it is worth over a year
- BAS and IAS prepared from books that are already reconciled
- Tax planning before 30 June, while there is still something to plan
Most venues sit on Hospitality Margin Protection at $990 + GST a month, which carries the bookkeeping, payroll for up to five staff and BAS oversight underneath the monthly margin review.
Where restaurants actually lose money
In our experience it is rarely one dramatic thing. It is shift design that puts staff on before the trade arrives, a menu that has not been recosted since the last supplier rise, waste that nobody measures because nobody owns it, and trading hours that cost more to keep open than they return. Each one is small. Together they are the difference between a profitable year and a tight one.
In one $1M venue those three ordinary causes came to about $70,000 a year. That is one engagement, not a promise. Your number will be different.
Run the 60-second Margin Check on your own figures. Nothing is sent anywhere; it runs in your browser.
Working with Pink
We are a small specialist firm. You deal with the person responsible for your numbers rather than a queue, and you get them on WhatsApp between meetings. Registered Tax Agent 26284368, ASIC Registered Agent 52580, based in Brendale and working with venues across Australia.
Straight answers.
Do you replace my bookkeeper?
Usually yes. The margin work depends on the books being coded a particular way, so we prefer to run them. If you have a bookkeeper who is doing well, we can work alongside them instead.
Can you take over mid-year?
Yes. We do a catch-up on the current year first so the comparatives mean something, then start the monthly cycle.
Do you work with more than one venue?
Yes. Multi-venue groups get the same review per site plus a consolidated read, which is where Ready to Scale sits.
Stop finding out in July.
Fifteen minutes, direct with Pink. We look at your real numbers and tell you where the margin is going.