Restaurant accountant in Courtenay

For a one-owner Courtenay restaurant, monthly bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 with statements usually cost $450–$650 a month all-in. Bookkeeping on its own starts from $300 a month with GST and PST filing included. Every fee is on the pricing page.

Food and drink in the valley’s culinary hub

The City of Courtenay describes its downtown as the commercial, cultural, social and culinary hub of the Comox Valley, set between the Courtenay River and the Comox Glacier. Restaurants, cafés and pubs there and across the valley serve several markets at once. Locals eat out through the week. Summer brings visitors for the beaches, the marine tours and the golf courses. Winter brings skiers through on their way to and from Mount Washington Alpine Resort. Comox Valley Airport has scheduled flights to Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton, so visitors arrive by air as well as by road and ferry.

The valley’s farms and shellfish growers are part of the menu too. The Comox Valley Regional District describes the area around Baynes Sound as Canada’s oyster capital, and many local farms sell directly to customers. Buying from small producers means more suppliers, more invoices and more variation in what is on hand, which the books need to handle without fuss.

The result is uneven weeks rather than one clean season. Sales, staffing and food orders all swing, and the books need to show those swings by week so labour and purchasing can follow them.

GST on the meal, PST on the drink

Restaurant meals carry 5% GST. Food is generally exempt from BC PST, but liquor is not, and PST on liquor applies at its own rate. A bill with dinner and a bottle of wine therefore carries GST on everything and PST on the wine only. The point of sale must be set up to split them correctly, because the two taxes go to different governments on different returns. Rates are on BC tax facts, and the BC PST guide covers registration.

On the purchasing side, GST paid on food, supplies, equipment and rent comes back as an input tax credit. PST paid on equipment and supplies generally does not, so it is part of the cost. Liquor bought for resale is handled differently again, which is why liquor purchases need their own accounts. Many liquor licence applications in Courtenay also need city approval alongside the provincial licence, and the licence costs belong in their own account rather than in general expenses.

Card tips and the payroll that follows

How tips flow decides how they are taxed. Tips a customer hands directly to a server, and that the employer never controls, are the server’s own income to report. Tips paid by card and distributed by the employer, or pooled and divided by a formula the employer sets, are generally controlled tips. Controlled tips run through payroll with income tax, CPP and EI premiums deducted, and they appear on the T4. Tip reporting and payroll explains the line.

Getting it wrong is expensive. If the CRA decides tips were controlled, the employer owes the source deductions that were never taken. We look at how your tips actually move before setting up the payroll.

The nightly close: POS, cash and card deposits

Every day, the point of sale reports what was sold, the card processor deposits what it collected less its fees, and the cash goes somewhere. Those three need to agree. A daily close that records gross sales, GST, PST, tips, card settlements, cash and comps turns a pile of reports into numbers you can trust. When the card deposit does not match the POS, the difference is found that week, not at year-end.

Food and liquor cost come next. Weekly purchase totals against sales, with an inventory count at month-end, show whether menu prices still work after supplier increases.

At year-end, the food and liquor on hand is counted and valued, and that count moves profit between years. Year-end inventory counts sets out a method that holds up. Staff meals, owner meals and comps each need a consistent treatment, so the food cost percentage means the same thing every month.

Staffing for summer, ski season and the weeks between

Restaurants hire and lay off more often than most businesses, and BC employment standards apply to every hire. Vacation pay is at least 4% of wages, rising to 6% after five years. Statutory holidays require an average day’s pay for eligible staff and premium pay for those who work. Final pay is due within 48 hours of the employer ending the job, and every departure needs a record of employment. Final pay rules cover the details. Payroll in Courtenay covers the full cycle, and the stat holiday pay calculator works through a single shift.

Restaurants also register with WorkSafeBC and pay premiums on assessable payroll. A server who also drives deliveries in a personal car, or a cook who works across two locations, needs the right setup from the first shift.

Fit-outs, equipment and the lease

Opening or renovating a Courtenay restaurant usually means spending on the space before the first meal is sold. Leasehold improvements, kitchen equipment, furniture and the POS system are capital assets written off through capital cost allowance, not expensed. Leasehold improvements are generally written off over the lease term, so the lease length matters. Landlord allowances toward the fit-out have their own treatment. Getting the classes right in the first year sets up every year after it.

Small wares, such as dishes and utensils, are usually expensed. Major equipment replaced mid-lease is a capital item again. A food truck is a different case again: the City of Courtenay licenses mobile food vendors, and the truck itself is a vehicle with its own CCA class.

Most owners also face the incorporation question once the restaurant is steady. A corporation pays the combined small-business rate on active income and lets the owner choose between salary and dividends, but it adds a T2, year-end statements and a BC annual report every year. Should you incorporate? walks through it. Money taken from the till or the company card for personal use belongs in the shareholder loan account, and it needs clearing within a year of the year-end to avoid being taxed as income.

Remote restaurant accounting

EverStone is a one-CPA firm, serving Courtenay owners remotely. There is no Courtenay office and no local staff. Questions go by email first, with a video meeting when one helps, documents come in through a secure upload link and are signed electronically, 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.