Compliance
Filed on time
VAT, PAYE, UIF, provisional and income tax, annual returns and beneficial ownership handled within the agreed scope and schedule.
Accounting for restaurants & cafés
Know what the business earned — not just what it sold.
Practical monthly accounting for restaurants and cafés dealing with daily sales, supplier invoices, staff payroll and tight operating margins.
What you get
- Point-of-sale and bank reconciliation support
- Supplier and operating-cost bookkeeping
- Payroll for permanent and variable staff teams
- VAT, tax and management reporting
For
Independent restaurants, cafés and growing hospitality teams
What your accountant must deliver
Compliance. Financial visibility. Industry insight.
A restaurant needs all three. If one is missing, the other two become far less useful.
Visibility
Books that match reality
Sales reconciled to the bank, supplier costs captured properly, cash accounted for, and monthly reports built for decision-making.
Insight
Numbers with context
Food cost, labour, occupancy and channel performance tracked over time so owners can see where margin is improving or drifting.
Why hospitality is different
A busy till does not mean a healthy business.
Restaurants and cafés have daily sales, card settlements, cash movements, delivery-platform receipts, supplier invoices, wages and stock spending competing for attention. It is a high-volume, low-margin record to keep, and errors accumulate quietly.
Smartbook brings monthly discipline to those records. We reconcile the information, keep payroll and submissions moving, and produce reporting that helps owners look beyond turnover to the business underneath it.
The problems we solve
The problems behind the full tables
Most restaurant owners are not looking for another accountant. They are looking for one specific thing to stop going wrong.
“We’re busy every night and there’s still nothing in the bank.”
Turnover and profit are different numbers. We open the gap between them across food cost, labour, rent, merchant fees and delivery commission.
“Cash moves everywhere and nobody can explain the shortfall.”
We put a monthly reconciliation routine around cash-ups, deposits and petty cash so unexplained variances surface while they are still traceable.
“Supplier invoices live in boxes and WhatsApp groups.”
Uncaptured invoices make food cost and supplier balances unreliable. We organise the supporting records into a consistent monthly flow.
“The delivery-platform sales never match the bank.”
Gross sales, commission, fees and net settlements are different numbers. Recording them separately makes channel performance and VAT clearer.
“Payroll changes every month.”
Starters, leavers, casuals and shift teams create constant movement. We run an agreed cycle for payroll inputs, payslips and recurring declarations.
“The VAT bill keeps arriving as a surprise.”
When sales and input records are processed consistently, the likely VAT position becomes visible before the submission deadline.
Cash control
Cash is the easiest money in a restaurant to lose.
Card sales leave a trail. Cash moves between the till, float, safe, petty cash and bank — and every handover can create a gap.
- Daily cash-ups compared with point-of-sale sales
- Bank deposits matched to the available cash records
- Cash expenses captured with supporting slips
- Variances flagged while the trading period is still recent
- Cash sales included correctly in turnover records
- Owner drawings and staff loans kept out of the cash-control fog
The aim is not suspicion. It is a routine strong enough that unexplained cash movement becomes visible instead of becoming part of year-end noise.
Suppliers and food cost
Your food cost is only as accurate as your invoice pile.
Gross profit depends on cost of sales. If supplier invoices are late, duplicated or sitting uncaptured, menu and margin decisions are being made from an unreliable number.
Captured
Food, beverage, packaging, cleaning and consumables organised into categories that make operating sense.
Reconciled
Supplier statements checked against the records supplied so missing invoices, credits and duplicates can be investigated.
Visible
A clearer view of what is owed, what was spent and how supplier movement affects monthly margin.
What’s included
Monthly accounting for a fast-moving operation
Sales reconciliation
Sales summaries, settlements and bank activity brought into one dependable monthly record.
Supplier bookkeeping
Food, beverage and operating invoices captured, categorised and reconciled from the records supplied.
Hospitality payroll
Payslips, leave information and recurring employer declarations aligned to your employee count.
VAT and tax
Applicable VAT, provisional and income-tax work handled within the selected accounting plan.
Financial statements
Annual financial statements prepared from books maintained consistently through the year.
Monthly reporting
Management information that gives owners a clearer view of sales, costs, margin and cash position.
Your existing systems
No forced migration before the books can improve
We build the monthly handover around the reports and records your operation can reliably produce. During onboarding we confirm the exact exports, timing and responsibilities.
Sales data
Point-of-sale summaries and trading-day reports
Payments
Card, cash and settlement records
Delivery
Platform sales, fees and payout reports
Suppliers
Invoices, statements and credit notes
Payroll
Employee changes, hours, leave and payslips
Accounting
Xero-led monthly books and supporting documents
Industry insight
The handful of numbers that decide whether a restaurant makes money.
A useful monthly report makes food cost, labour, occupancy and channel contribution visible as a share of turnover and tracks the direction over time.
Monthly report
Your restaurant · percentage of turnover
Food cost__._%
Beverage gross profit__._%
Labour cost__._%
Occupancy cost__._%
Dine-in contribution__._%
Takeaway contribution__._%
Delivery after commission__._%
Prime cost__._%
Reported monthly · trended · explained
Your accountant
One accountant who knows your business.
You get a named accountant who handles your monthly work, understands how the operation is set up and can connect today’s question to last month’s numbers.
That continuity matters in hospitality. Supplier increases, another delivery channel, a second site or a new salary are easier to discuss when the person answering already understands the records behind the decision.
Advisory
Beyond the monthly books
Once the accounting is reliable, it can support deeper commercial work. Advisory is scoped separately so the monthly retainer stays clear.
Menu and recipe costing
Gross-profit and margin review
Break-even analysis by site
Pricing and specials modelling
Stock-control process review
Per-site performance comparison
Cash-flow forecasting
Lender and landlord reporting packs
How we work
From daily trading to dependable monthly books
Understand the operation
We learn how money moves through your business, who handles what and where the admin currently gets stuck.
Set up a clean monthly flow
We agree a practical routine for bank records, invoices, payroll information and the documents our team needs.
Handle the monthly work
We process and reconcile the books, prepare the recurring returns in your package and keep the records organised.
Explain the numbers
You get clear reporting and a dedicated team that can answer questions without burying you in accounting jargon.
The commercial model
A fixed monthly rhythm, without surprise invoices
A fixed monthly retainer
The recurring scope is agreed up front, so the core monthly service is predictable.
Monthly work, not annual archaeology
The books are handled while the trading period is still fresh and questions are still answerable.
Catch-up work quoted separately
If records are behind, we assess the backlog and quote that work before it starts.
No surprise invoices
Routine questions and the agreed monthly reporting conversation are part of the retainer.
Getting started
What we need to get started
Your current point-of-sale and banking setup becomes the starting point—not something we replace for the sake of it.
Business bank statements and access to the agreed records
Sales invoices, platform reports or point-of-sale summaries
Supplier invoices, receipts and expense records
Payroll inputs and employee changes, where applicable
Previous financial statements or tax submissions, if available
A short handover on how your business currently runs
Common questions
Questions restaurant owners ask us
Can you work with our point-of-sale reports?
We use the agreed sales summaries and settlement records as part of the monthly accounting process. During onboarding we confirm what your system can export and what the team needs.
Do you provide payroll for restaurant staff?
Yes. Smartbook offers separate payroll packages based on employee count, covering payslips, leave management and listed SARS and UIF declarations.
Can you handle VAT submissions?
VAT submissions are included in the relevant accounting packages for VAT-registered businesses, using the records supplied and processed during the period.
What if our paperwork is currently behind?
We first assess what records exist and what needs to be brought up to date. Any catch-up work outside the normal monthly package is scoped clearly before work starts.
How do you handle delivery-platform settlements?
We use the platform reports and bank settlements available from your setup to separate gross sales, fees and net payouts. During onboarding we confirm exactly which exports are required.
How are tips accounted for?
Tips should be kept separate from trading turnover and tracked through to the amounts paid to staff. We map the treatment to your operating and payroll setup during onboarding.
Can you report on more than one site?
Where the accounting setup and supporting records allow it, reporting can be structured by site as well as consolidated. We confirm the required tracking during scoping.
Is it difficult to switch accountants?
Switching is a normal professional handover. We review the available financial statements and current records, identify what is outstanding, and agree the cleanest date to take over.
Related services
Last reviewed: August 2026. Smartbook keeps this page current with CIPC and SARS rules.
Run the floor. We’ll keep the numbers in order.
Walk us through how sales, suppliers and payroll move through your business. We’ll map the monthly routine and explain the right accounting setup.
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