Restaurant accountant in Halifax

Updated September 2026.

A season that has to pay for the year

Few restaurant markets in Canada are as seasonal as the Halifax waterfront. Cruise passengers, summer visitors and festival crowds fill the room from late spring into October, and then the city returns to its own residents. Revenue that concentrates in five or six months has to cover twelve months of rent, loan payments and a core staff, so the question every owner asks in August is how much of the bank balance is actually theirs. The answer is whatever is left after the HST collected, the source deductions owed and a winter reserve. We set those aside in the books every month so the balance you see is the balance you can spend. See managing a seasonal business.

HST on meals, drinks and gift cards

Restaurant meals and alcohol carry 14% HST in Nova Scotia, and the point-of-sale system is where that rate lives. Systems set up before April 1, 2025 at 15% had to be changed on the day, and a menu item still carrying the old rate overcharges customers and overstates what you owe. Gift cards follow their own rule: the tax is collected when the card is redeemed, not when it is sold, so gift card sales sit as a liability until used. Input tax credits come back on food supplies, equipment, rent and repairs. Whether an annual, quarterly or monthly return suits you depends on revenue, and an annual filer with a strong summer should put the tax aside as it is collected. See the quick method.

The point-of-sale reconciliation

A restaurant’s sales ledger is only as good as the daily reconciliation behind it. The POS report shows sales by tender; the bank shows card deposits net of processing fees, cash deposits a day or two later, and delivery app payouts net of commissions. Recording the net deposits as sales understates revenue and hides the fees, and the CRA compares reported sales to what the processors report. We record gross sales from the POS, the fees and commissions as expenses, and tie out cash, voids and comps each period so a gap shows up in the week it happened. Bank reconciliation explains why it matters.

Tips, tip pools and payroll

How tips reach your staff decides how payroll treats them. Tips that the employer controls — card tips collected and paid out through payroll, or a pool the employer sets and distributes — are pensionable and insurable, so CPP and EI apply along with income tax. Tips customers hand directly to a server, and that the server keeps or shares without the employer’s involvement, are not subject to CPP and EI, although they remain taxable income for the employee. Many Halifax restaurants have both kinds at once, and the POS tip report is the record that supports the treatment. See tip reporting and payroll in Halifax.

Hiring for summer, laying off for winter

Seasonal staff bring seasonal paperwork. Every hire needs a TD1 and a payroll record; every end of season needs a record of employment, issued on time so staff can claim EI. Vacation pay owed under Nova Scotia’s labour standards is paid out when someone leaves, and general holidays, including Heritage Day in February, apply to the staff who remain. WCB Nova Scotia premiums are assessed on the payroll you run. A payroll set up once, properly, handles the spring rush and the fall layoffs without rework. See the record of employment.

Tour operators, inns and the rest of the visitor trade

The same summer that fills restaurants carries harbour tour boats, walking tours, inns and short-term rentals. Their accounting shares the restaurant pattern — a few busy months, seasonal staff, deposits taken in winter for trips run in July — with a few differences. A deposit for a future tour or room is not yet revenue, and HST on it generally becomes payable when the deposit is applied to the booking. Boats and vans are capital assets claimed through capital cost allowance. Operators who own the building they trade from face the question of what share of repairs is capital. Where a restaurant owner also owns the property through a second company, rent between the two needs to be set and paid consistently. See multiple corporations and vacation pay rules for seasonal staff.

Food cost and inventory

Food and beverage cost is the number that tells an owner whether the menu works. It needs purchases coded consistently to food, beer, wine and spirits, and inventory counted at least at year end. That is because the stock in the walk-in and the bar on the last day of the year is not an expense of that year. A weekly or monthly count is better. Seafood-heavy menus in Halifax see supplier prices move with the landings, so a fixed menu price can lose margin in weeks when the catch is thin. Staff meals and the owner’s own dining with suppliers are recorded separately from food cost, because the meals and entertainment rule treats them differently. See the year-end inventory count.

Remote restaurant accounting from Abbotsford

EverStone is a sole practitioner CPA firm at 32615 South Fraser Way in Abbotsford, working with Halifax clients entirely online. There is no Halifax office and no local staff. Meetings are held by video or phone, documents are exchanged through a secure upload link and e-signature, and no visit is required at any point. Daily sales, tips and food cost tracking are handled from the systems you already run, not from a filing cabinet, and calls are booked outside service hours in Atlantic time.