Hospitality - Food, Beverage and Lodging

Food and Beverage

While core accounting principles are similar for all businesses, accurate bookkeeping for food and beverage establishments requires a more nuanced approach and specialized knowledge base.

At Bespoke Bookkeeping, we consider being in the restaurant and bar business almost a family tradition!  It started with Penny’s parents, who passed it on to Penny, who in turn passed it on to Scott.

Some of the aspects that make bookkeeping for restaurants and bars different or more challenging are: tip management; frequent inventory counts to help control food costs; cash flow management; high employee turnover; tracking operating and occupancy expenses; weekly accounting periods with more frequent reporting; and utilizing prepaid accounts to distribute annual expenses evenly into each accounting period.

In addition to just tracking profit and loss, food and beverage businesse salso need to calculate their prime cost (combined cost of food, ingredients and labor expenses), the food and beverage expenses-to-sales ratio, and the revenue per seat. And in many states, bars and restaurants also have lottery sales, which need to be very accurately tracked and reported to the appropriate state agency.

Lodging

The lodging industry has a special place in the hearts of both Penny and Scott.  Penny grew up living in the manager’s quarters of her parents’ 120 unit Best Western motel.  Scott was an AirBnb SuperHost when he lived on Kauai.  That’s why at Bespoke Bookkeeping, we also have a focus on the other aspect of hospitality:  lodging.  This can encompass boutique hotels, bed and breakfast inns, lodges, resorts, retreat centers, hostels, and short term rentals such as AirBnbs.

Just as with restaurants and bars, lodging businesses also have their own special accounting needs and challenges.  These include:  

• being (in many or most cases) a continuous operation operating 24/7/365; 
• the need to track and separate multiple streams of income (room rent, food, beverage, room service, meetings and events, parking, gift shop, spa); 
• changing room prices (dynamic pricing); 
• complex payroll costs (large number of employees with a high turnover rate, from salaried with commission to hourly with tips); 
• and relying heavily on their booking software (making smooth integration with the accounting system vital).  
• In addition, lodging businesses have additional metrics to track, such as:  occupancy rate; operating cost/room night; average daily rate, and revenue per available room (to name just a few). 

Bookkeeping for the Hospitality industry

Bespoke Bookkeeping can tailor custom tailor bookkeeping services for your hospitality business, whether food and beverage service or lodging.  Let’s chat!  Click HERE to schedule a day and time to talk!  The only thing it will cost you is 30 minutes of your time.