Restaurant accountant in Richmond

Monthly bookkeeping for a Richmond restaurant starts from $300 a month, with GST and PST filing included. For a one-owner restaurant company, bookkeeping, payroll and the year-end T2 with statements usually come to $450 to $650 a month all-in, covering the CCA schedule, the small business deduction and T4 slips for the staff.

GST on the meal, PST on the drinks

Restaurant meals are subject to 5% GST. BC PST generally does not apply to prepared food but does apply to liquor, at its own rate, on the same bill. The POS has to be set up so each menu item carries the right tax codes. A cocktail coded like a dinner, or a takeout order coded like a sit-down meal when the rules differ, produces a PST return that does not match what was collected. The error repeats on every sale until someone checks the codes. The BC PST guide covers registration and returns.

On the purchasing side, GST paid on food supplies, equipment and rent comes back as input tax credits on the GST return. PST paid on kitchen equipment, smallwares and furniture generally does not come back, so it belongs in the cost of the asset.

Card tips and the payroll that follows

Most tips in a Richmond dining room now arrive on a card, and that money passes through the restaurant’s bank account before it reaches the staff. How it is paid out decides the treatment. Tips distributed through payroll as part of wages are generally subject to CPP, EI premiums and income tax withholding and appear on the T4. Tips handed out directly, or through a pool the employer does not control, are generally treated differently. Whatever the arrangement, it should be written down and applied the same way every pay. Restaurant tip reporting sets out the distinctions, and payroll in Richmond covers the pay runs.

The nightly close: POS, cash and cards

A restaurant’s daily sales report is the starting point for the books. Card batches settle a day or two later, net of processing fees. Delivery apps settle weekly or every two weeks, net of commissions and promotions. Cash goes to the safe and then the bank. Each channel needs its own clearing account so that the gross sales, the fees and the deposits can be tied to each other. A variance found the next morning is a missed batch or a miscounted float. The same variance found at year-end is just a number nobody can explain.

Food cost and menu pricing

Food and beverage cost is usually the largest line after wages, and in a busy Richmond kitchen with imported ingredients and frequent price changes it moves quickly. Recording purchases by category, food, liquor, and packaging for takeout, and counting inventory at month-end, turns that line into a percentage the owner can act on. Waiting for the year-end count tells you what went wrong a year too late. The pricing and margin analysis service goes further for owners rethinking the menu.

Steveston and the seasonal year

A restaurant on the Steveston boardwalk and one in a City Centre food court have different years. Steveston’s waterfront fills with visitors in the warm months and quietens in winter, while City Centre dining runs more evenly through the year. A seasonal business has to set aside GST, PST and source deductions as they are collected, because the remittances keep arriving in the slow months. The seasonal cash flow guide sets out a method.

Fit-outs, equipment and the lease

Opening or renovating a restaurant means leasehold improvements, kitchen equipment, furniture and a POS system. Each is a capital asset written off through CCA rather than expensed in the year it is bought, and leasehold improvements are written off over the lease term. A landlord’s tenant improvement allowance has its own treatment and should not simply be recorded as income. Getting the fit-out classified correctly in the first year sets the deductions for the next several. CCA classes explains the schedule.

Kitchens also carry WorkSafeBC registration and premiums from the first hire, and a group of related restaurants that grows past $1,000,000 of combined BC remuneration starts paying the BC employer health tax. The WorkSafeBC registration guide covers the first; the rates for the second are on the BC tax facts page.

What EverStone handles for you

• Bookkeeping from the POS, card, cash and delivery-app reports
• GST and BC PST returns, with the tax codes reviewed
• Payroll with tips, stat holiday pay and T4 slips
• Inventory and food cost by category
• CCA on equipment and leasehold improvements
• T2 corporate return and year-end statements

Remote restaurant accounting from Abbotsford

EverStone is a sole practitioner CPA firm based in Abbotsford, serving Richmond owners entirely online. There is no Richmond office and no local staff. Questions go by email first, with a video meeting when it helps, documents come in through a secure upload link and are signed by e-signature, 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.