Restaurant accountant in Burnaby
Burnaby eats along Kingsway, on Hastings Street through the Heights, in the food courts of the town-centre malls and in the podiums of the new towers at Brentwood and Metrotown. Each of those kitchens charges GST on the food, PST on the drinks, and pays staff who earn tips.
EverStone is a restaurant and hospitality accountant and a Burnaby small business accountant, at fixed fees, online.
Quick answer: A Burnaby restaurant charges 5% GST on meals and generally collects BC PST on liquor, so the point-of-sale has to split them item by item. Tips the employer controls generally run through payroll, and the daily POS report, card deposits and cash have to tie out. EverStone handles bookkeeping, payroll, GST and PST returns and the corporate year-end at a fixed fee.
For a one-owner Burnaby restaurant, monthly bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 with statements usually cost from $450 to $650 a month all-in. Bookkeeping alone starts from $300 a month with GST and PST filing included. The year-end covers the T2 with Schedule 50, the CCA schedule, the small business deduction and T4 or T5 slips for the owner’s pay. See the published fees.
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Two taxes on one bill
A Burnaby dinner bill can carry two taxes. Prepared food and non-alcoholic drinks attract 5% GST. Beer, wine and spirits attract GST and BC PST at the rate for liquor. A table that orders noodles and a pitcher therefore needs the POS to apply different tax to each line. When a new cocktail is added under a food button, PST goes uncollected and the restaurant owes it anyway.
The GST return goes to the CRA, with input tax credits claimed on supplies, equipment and rent. The PST return goes to the BC Ministry of Finance. Both should match the POS sales report for the period. Check the tax settings whenever the menu changes. The BC PST guide explains the categories, and current rates are on the BC tax facts page.
Tips, tip pools and the payroll that follows
Most tips now arrive on a card, which means they land in the restaurant’s bank account before they reach staff. Who decides how they are shared determines the treatment. Where the employer controls the pool or the split, tips are generally employment income run through payroll, with CPP and income tax withheld. Where tips go directly from guest to server, the treatment differs. A written tip policy, applied the same way every shift, keeps the payroll defensible. See the tip reporting guide.
Restaurant payrolls also turn over quickly. Each departure needs a record of employment and final pay within 48 hours of termination, and every worker needs a T4 by the last day of February. WorkSafeBC premiums apply from the first shift. See payroll services in Burnaby.
The daily close and the delivery apps
The books start with one report a day. The POS close shows sales by category, taxes, tips, discounts and payment type. Card settlements arrive a day or two later, net of processor fees. Cash goes from the drawer to the safe to the bank. If those do not tie each week, the monthly figures are guesses, and a cash variance on one shift goes unnoticed.
Delivery platforms add another layer. Each payout is net of commission, sometimes net of promotions and refunds. Recording only the deposit understates sales and loses the commission as an expense. Posting the platform statement in full — gross sales, tax, commission, payout — is the only way the GST return and the income statement agree. See bookkeeping in Burnaby.
Food cost, rent and cash between remittances
Food and beverage cost is the number an operator can actually move: through purchasing, portioning, waste and menu prices. It is only useful when purchases are coded to the right category and inventory is counted at least monthly, with liquor and proteins counted more often. A food cost that first appears at year-end cannot change a single order.
Fixed costs leave little slack. Rent, wages and supplier terms run on different cycles, and a slow month lands on a cost base that does not shrink. GST, PST and source deductions collected in a busy month belong to government. Moving them to a separate account as they are collected is the simplest protection. The payroll remittance calendar shows when deductions fall due.
Fit-outs in towers, food courts and older storefronts
A new restaurant in a tower podium, a food-court stall and a refit of an older Kingsway storefront all start with the same accounting question: what is capital. Kitchen equipment goes into a CCA class. Leasehold improvements are written off over the lease. Smallwares, uniforms and opening inventory are handled differently again. Timing a renovation around year-end changes the first year’s claim. The CCA classes guide covers the basics.
What EverStone handles for you
One CPA, one fixed fee agreed up front:
- POS, card, cash and delivery payouts reconciled each week
- GST and PST returns agreed to the sales reports
- Tip policy reflected in payroll, with ROEs and T4s
- Monthly food and liquor cost by category
- Kitchen equipment and fit-out on the CCA schedule
- T2 corporate return and year-end statements
Fixed fees, fully online
EverStone is an Abbotsford CPA firm serving Burnaby operators entirely online: email first, a video call when it helps, and a secure upload link for POS exports and invoices. Questions sent after close are answered by email, not by an appointment. Payroll and the year-end are added to a fixed monthly fee. See pricing and margin analysis for menu costing.
Prepared and reviewed by a Chartered Professional Accountant at EverStone CPA, an Abbotsford CPA firm working remotely with small businesses and incorporated owners across British Columbia. Updated . About the firm · Send an enquiry
What a restaurant has to get right
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Tips | Employer-controlled tips are payroll income with withholdings |
| Liquor sales | BC PST generally applies to liquor, not to the food |
| Daily close | POS, card deposits, cash and delivery payouts must tie out |
| Food and beverage cost | Counted monthly so it can still change purchasing |
| Sales tax where you operate | 5% GST plus 7% BC PST: two registrations, two returns |
Source: Restaurant and hospitality accounting. General information, not advice.
Burnaby accounting for restaurants and hospitality businesses FAQ
Is PST charged on food in a Burnaby restaurant?+
Do tips have to go through payroll?+
Why is the card deposit lower than the day’s card sales?+
How do we record delivery app payouts?+
Is a kitchen renovation deductible right away?+
Do you work with restaurants outside Burnaby?+
Related services and local guides
Nearby cities, the rest of what we do for Burnaby businesses, and the reference pages behind this one.
Fees are fixed and agreed in writing before the work starts; the published fee page shows the starting points.
Running a restaurant in Burnaby?
One CPA for your corporate tax, books and planning. Fixed fee, fully online. Send an enquiry.
Remote restaurant accounting from Abbotsford
EverStone is a sole practitioner CPA firm based in Abbotsford, serving Burnaby owners entirely online. There is no Burnaby office and no local staff. Documents come in through a secure upload link and are signed by e-signature, questions go by email first, and no visit is required at any point. Daily sales, tips and food cost are handled from the POS and payroll systems you already run, not from a filing cabinet.
Talk to a CPA about this
One Chartered Professional Accountant, start to finish. Fixed fees, quoted in writing before any work begins, and no obligation from a first conversation.
