Outsourcing of accounting and bookkeeping support services is an increasing trend among many businesses and is growing quickly in the restaurant industry. It’s a solution that addresses a confluence of factors affecting restaurants these days, especially restaurant businesses that are smaller and mid-sized operations.
餐厅, the challenge of finding qualified employees is affecting the back of the house as well as the front, 包括财务人员，如应付帐务人员, 簿记员及财务总监. 同时, restaurants of all sizes have in recent years adopted industry-specific technology to streamline their financial management. 这些技术解决方案的出现——比如Toast, one of the most widely used in the restaurant industry – signifies a broader transition to cloud-based platforms used for financial management throughout the industry. As a result, finance personnel must be familiar with these solutions and able to work with them.
Outsourcing of finance functions from bookkeeping up to the controller level means working with an outside provider – such as an accounting firm – that provides fractional services at a level that is customized to your organization. 很难找到记账员, AP文员和控制器, 如果你一周只需要25个小时, 更难的是. But an outsourced provider can dedicate 25 hours a week of personnel time – at the right staff level – to meet your needs.
此外, outsourced finance professionals are well versed in all the major platforms, 比如QuickBooks Online和Bill.com, and can help you keep current as new technology solutions come to market. Integration of accounting and bookkeeping functions has helped increase demand for cloud-based accounting services such as bank account linkage, 自动支付和商户服务, 以及像Bill这样的集成应用程序.. com, Expensify, Square, Tsheets和PayPal.
One factor fueling the adoption of cloud-based accounting platforms is the restaurant industry’s ability to automate quickly given that restaurants engage in the same types of transactions over and over. As platforms and integrations 比如QuickBooks Online和Bill.Com变得更加复杂, they have the ability to recognize repeated transactions and automatically code them to the right accounts. 这有助于减少错误.
此外, the immediacy of cloud-based financial management gives you real-time actionable information to help run your restaurant. Did your cash flow take a hit last month because the wholesale price of steak increased dramatically? 意图lizing that after one month is a lot better than finding it out after an entire quarter of operations. It gives you time to ask your meat supplier if there’s a comparable product at a lower price point you could sub out on your menu, 在造成太多的经济损失之前.
An outsourced accounting provider can spot these trends and advise you on how to deal with challenges based on what they are seeing among their other restaurant clients. For instance, here are some tips based on what we have seen recently among our clients:
- 在劳动力成本上涨的情况下，要注意自己的财务状况. Growing inflation and the difficulty in finding people creates problems for small margin businesses like locally owned restaurants.
- 密切关注现金流，销售和货物成本. If you’re not on top of your pricing and financial data, it can get out of control quickly.
- Look at what what’s on your menu and promote items that have the lowest cost within your quality standards. 重新评估所有菜单项目的盈利能力. With rapidly rising wholesale prices, menu items that were profitable a year ago may not be now.
- 在劳动方面, do what you can to make sure you’re maintaining a good work environment where people feel appreciated. 这可能包括支付推荐奖金或保留奖金. They don’t have to be high-cost measures, but they’ll make employees feel appreciated.
- Consider investing in technology that can help you keep your workers happy, 比如Kickfin, a cloud-based solution that enables credit card tips to be immediately uploaded to servers’ bank accounts.
- To keep cash flow healthy, create a budget and compare it to actual results. Identify where you’re not on target and where changes need to be made. You may find you need to add or swap out menu items, or tinker with employee schedules.
- Carefully examine your relationship with third-party delivery services, 哪个在大流行期间爆发了. 外卖仍然是餐馆收入的很大一部分, but it’s not very profitable since the GrubHubs and Door Dashes take a big chunk of your sales dollar – 20% to 30% typically. 虽然有这样的生意很好, the extra staff and the extra goods such as takeout containers eat into your revenue. 想办法在不增加成本的情况下做到这一点.
最重要的是, remember that timely financial information enables you to address problems quickly – while they’re still manageable – and improve profitability. 当您与外包会计提供商合作时, you should have at least monthly meetings and receive reports with understandable key performance indicators and dashboards that indicate the health of your business. Above all, your provider should listen to your concerns and find solutions that fit your business.
联系 your 意图 advisor if you would like to have a conversation about our outsourced accounting services for restaurant companies.
Mike Lewis(都柏林办事处)