12 Services to look for when hiring Accounting Services for Cafes

Opening and operating a cafe requires handling major financial administration tasks like tracking daily sales, managing payroll, paying vendors, filing taxes, and more. Juggling these critical money responsibilities on top of serving customers can be extremely challenging for any cafe owner. 

Bringing on an accountant or bookkeeper to oversee these accounting duties allows you to better focus your efforts on crafting great menus, training staff, and exceeding customer expectations.

This blog shares the 12 key accounting services that rapidly growing cafes need for simplified operations and financial control. Read on to learn how an accountant can provide value to your business.

Automating Daily Sales Tracking

Having clear insight into your revenue and transaction data is vital for spotting issues early. 

An accountant can set up automated daily sales tracking through a cloud-based point of sale (POS) system tailored to cafes. This specialised software accurately records all cash, credit card, mobile and online purchases in real time. 

Advanced POS systems even track your most popular menu items, busiest hours, average customer spend, and other metrics to inform better decisions. Here are key reasons cafes need reliable sales tracking in place:

• Real-time analytics: See your earnings and top-selling items any time through easy-to-use reporting dashboards.
• Error prevention: Automated tracking minimises human data entry mistakes that lead to number discrepancies. 
• Faster ordering: Keeping tabs on inventory needs based on sales data means you never run out of key ingredients.

If trying to manually compile spreadsheets leaves too many financial blind spots or questions for your café, bringing accountants onto your POS system provides transparency. They can also run sales reports and provide insights customised to your growth goals.

Inventory Management That Minimises Waste

For cafes, having too little inventory on hand leads to immediate lost sales when customers can’t get their preferred items. But having excess inventory wastes money as ingredients expire and supplies become obsolete. New cafes often struggle to find the perfect balance. Accountants use proven techniques to optimise ordering while reducing waste, including:

Usage rate tracking: Analysing historical dishes and beverages sold to accurately predict future volume needs. This minimises guessing.

Par stock thresholds: Setting ideal quantity minimums and maximums for all ingredients and supplies to know exactly when and how much to reorder.

Expiration date tracking: Monitoring perishable items by expiry date in inventory reports to reduce write offs.

Supply cycle analysis: Identifying seasonality trends that impact supply needs to accommodate sales spikes for holidays, summer upticks, etc.

Accountants handle supply vendor negotiations, purchasing, receiving, storage, and reporting to run a leaner cafe inventory operation.

 Payroll Management for Accurate Pay and Tax Filing

Even small payroll errors can negatively impact employee morale and trust. But accurately tracking hours across a fluctuating cafe team, calculating wages including tips, deducting taxes, garnishing wages when needed, and distributing pay is highly complex. Accountants manage the entire payroll process end-to-end so owners don’t have to:

• Time tracking according to pay periods
• Supporting employees to submit hours worked
• Importing hours into payroll software
• Calculating regular, overtime and tipped wages
• Applying local, state and federal tax deductions 
• Managing benefit contributions like health insurance 
• Direct deposit distribution or check generation
• Pay stub creation and delivery 
• Tax form preparation and filing 

Reliable accountant-managed payroll keeps staff paid accurately and on time while removing significant administrative work from owners.

 Automated Accounts Payable for Seamless Vendor Payments 

Cafes rely on many vendors, suppliers and service providers for key items like food ingredients, beverages, packaging materials, cleaning services, and more. 

Without paying these partners on time, vendor relationships and business credit scores suffer. Accountants track all accounts payable in a simple dashboard view, including:

• Vendor names, contacts and payment terms
• Itemised purchase details from every invoice and order
• Total amounts owed and exact due dates
• Payment transaction records after clearing invoices

This centralised tracking allows accountants to automate recurring payments on fixed schedules. Bills get paid on time without you needing to remember due dates or manually send transfers. This reduces late fees and keeps vendor relationships strong.

Detailed Accounts Receivable Tracking 

While accounts payable means money your cafe owes to vendors, accounts receivable (A/R) refers to money owed to your business by customers. 

This includes outstanding invoices, scheduled payments from large clients, payment plans, and any other income due to the cafe. Meticulously tracking accounts receivable is vital for reliable financial planning.  

Accountants use A/R ageing reports to track all outstanding customer payments with columns showing how long invoices have been open. 

This flags any consistently late customers so you can course correct. Accounts receivable tools also automate payment reminder emails for smoother collections. 

With clearer insight into upcoming income expectations, accountants can build more accurate cash flow projections to inform smarter business decisions.

Financial Statement Generation

While day-to-day transactions are important for cafes, stepping back to view overall financial health is critical too.

 Financial statements provide this aerial snapshot into the business’s performance. Accountants can generate essential financial statements on set schedules to evaluate growth. Key examples include:

Income Statements: Shows all revenue minus expenses over a set timeframe to indicate profitability.  

Balance Sheets: Provides a single-point financial position detailing all assets, liabilities and equity to showcase what the cafe owns and owes.

Cash Flow Statements: Tracks actual cash availability in real time to inform future needs. 

Reviewing financial statements monthly, quarterly or annually with accountants allows owners to spot issues sooner. You can course correct challenges early before they spiral. These reports also support smarter planning for goals like funding new locations.

Full-Service Tax Prep and Payment

Federal, state and local taxes pose multifaceted compliance requirements for cafes. From sales tax to payroll taxes to income taxes, missing filings can put your business at risk. Accountants proactively handle tax prep, filing, payments and audits: 

Sales Taxes: Track point-of-sale system data to calculate accurate sales tax owed. File returns and pay local taxes monthly, quarterly or annually depending on jurisdiction.

Payroll Taxes: Pay federal and state-level payroll taxes each pay period based on wages paid to employees. Manage annual filings like W-2s and 1099s.

Income Taxes: File annual federal and state income tax returns for your business. Look for deduction opportunities to minimize tax liability legally. 

Audits: Maintain thorough documentation should tax agencies select your cafe for review. Navigate correspondence and meetings.

Relying on accountants eliminates tax headaches so you can feel confident your obligations are met responsibly.

Budgeting Guidance for Profitability 

Creating reliable budgets that actually serve as a helpful guide is tough for busy owners. Accountants use your historical financial data to build pragmatic budgets. This sets realistic expectations for income and expenses month over month so you can try to hit key revenue goals.

Budgets also allow you to spot problems sooner and adjust spending accordingly in areas like:

• Food costs
• Labor costs 
• Rent  
• Equipment leases
• Insurance
• Marketing initiatives

Regularly reviewing and updating budgets with accountants keeps your cafe on track for profitability.

 Conclusion

As this overview illustrates, bringing on accounting experts allows cafe owners to offload critical but time-consuming money tasks. Accountants handle everything from daily sales tracking automation to inventory optimization to payroll and tax filing. This enables owners to better focus their efforts on customer experience, cafe operations and growth initiatives.

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