Home › Industries › Restaurants & Hospitality
IndustryAccounting and tax for restaurants, cafés and bars.
Sales tax on every ticket, tips through payroll, seasonal cash flow and thin margins. Restaurants are the most-audited small business in California; we keep the records that end audits quickly.
Where this industry gets it wrong
- CDTFA audits based on mark-up sampling when POS and deposits do not reconcile
- Tips: reporting, allocation and the FICA tip credit most owners never claim
- Third-party delivery fees and sales tax on the gross, not the net
- Cash-flow gaps between slow months and quarterly tax deposits
Questions we hear from restaurants & hospitality
How often do restaurants get audited by the CDTFA?
Often enough that every restaurant should assume it will happen once every few years. The audit goes well when POS reports, merchant statements and bank deposits all agree. That is the point of monthly bookkeeping.
Can you handle tips and the tip credit?
Yes. Tips go through payroll correctly, and we claim the FICA tip credit on the business return, which is worth thousands a year for most full-service restaurants.
Talk to us this week.
A free 15-minute call. Next step and a fixed fee, in writing. No hourly billing, no obligation.