Midlands Accountancy provides restaurant accounting in Birmingham and the West Midlands: daily takings reconciliation, delivery platform records, tips and tronc payroll, VAT and management figures for independents, cafes, takeaways and small groups. Restaurants generate more transactions in a week than some businesses see in a year: hundreds of covers, three payment channels, daily supplier deliveries and a payroll full of changing rotas. The accounting either keeps pace daily or falls hopelessly behind. This page explains how we keep restaurant numbers current and useful, and what a quote from us covers.

Kitchens and dining rooms we work with

We act for independent restaurants, cafes, takeaways, street food operators moving into premises, and small groups running a handful of sites. Owners who cook, owners who run front of house, and owners who have stepped back all get the same service shaped differently. Restaurant clients sit within our wider hospitality accountants hub, alongside pubs, hotels and caterers.

Serving the city’s food scene and beyond

Birmingham’s food scene is one of the country’s liveliest and it is our home turf. We support restaurants across the city and throughout the West Midlands, working through cloud records and till data day to day, with site visits when it helps to see the operation run.

Structures at the pass

Most established restaurants trade as limited companies, partly for the separation between business risk and personal assets in a trade where margins are tight. Street food traders and single-owner cafes often start as sole traders and incorporate as they grow; partnerships appear where families run sites together. The structure decision affects tax, filings and what happens if a site fails, and we help owners choose deliberately rather than by default.

Three tills in one: cash, card and delivery

Restaurant revenue now arrives through at least three channels: cash at the till, card through the terminal, and delivery platforms that remit on their own schedules after deducting commission. Each needs its own reconciliation. Daily takings must tie the till reading to the cash banked and the card settlements received; delivery platform statements must be reconciled gross, so sales and commission are both recorded rather than just the net cash that lands. Restaurants that book only net delivery receipts understate both sales and costs, which distorts margins and can create VAT errors.

Tips, tronc and service charges

Money left for staff is its own record keeping category. Cash tips, card tips and discretionary service charges each carry different treatment for tax and pay purposes, and rules govern how tips must be passed to staff. Where a tronc arrangement distributes tips, it needs proper records and correct payroll handling. The details depend on how your arrangements are set up, so we review what you actually do and make sure the records and payroll treatment match.

Stock, wastage and the margin that feeds you

Food and drink stock is bought daily, spoils quickly and walks out the door in ways that need watching. Regular stock counts, recorded wastage, and purchases matched to supplier statements let you calculate a true gross margin by category. Kitchen margin problems, over-portioning, price creep from suppliers, theft, show up in the gap between theoretical and actual margins, but only if the records exist to compute both. The failures that follow when these records are missing are the subject of our guide to bookkeeping problems that delay year end.

A payroll that changes every week

Hospitality payroll is high churn and high variation: hourly staff, changing rotas, overtime, starters and leavers mid-month, students and second-jobbers, and tips flowing through pay. Reporting to HMRC happens each pay period, with workplace pension duties on top, and GOV.UK sets out the employer obligations. Our payroll service is built for exactly this kind of moving payroll, and clean rota-to-payroll records also protect you in any dispute about hours or holiday pay.

Food VAT is notoriously fiddly: treatment can differ between eat-in and takeaway, hot and cold, and food and drink categories, so the till and delivery records need to capture sales at the right treatment from the start. Registration questions arrive quickly at restaurant turnover levels, and the current thresholds are on GOV.UK. We prepare returns through our VAT returns service from records structured for the purpose, which is far cheaper than unpicking a year of mis-keyed till buttons.

Numbers to read before Friday service

The weekly figures that keep a restaurant honest: takings by day against last week and last year, gross margin on food and on drink, staff cost percentage against takings, delivery platform share of sales and its commission cost, and cash position after the supplier payment run. Monthly management accounts then confirm what the weekly numbers suggested. Restaurants fail through cash flow more often than through lack of custom, and short forecasts around rent quarters, VAT payment dates and seasonal dips prevent most crises.

Where restaurant books go wrong

The recurring failures: takings recorded net of delivery commission, no daily cash-up so till discrepancies compound, tips handled informally outside payroll, stock never counted so margins are a guess, supplier invoices missing against statement lines, VAT buttons on the till set up wrong on day one, and the owner’s own meals and drawings drifting through the books unrecorded.

Pricing your restaurant accounting

A quote needs the basics: sites and covers, structure, staff headcount, payment and delivery channels, the till system in use, and whether the books are current or need catching up. Catch-up jobs are half our new restaurant work, so arrears are no barrier to starting, and our guide to catch-up bookkeeping costs explains how that side is priced.

Frequently asked questions

How should delivery platform sales appear in my books?

Gross sales on one side, commission and fees as costs on the other, reconciled to each platform statement. Booking only the net deposit hides your real sales level and misstates the channel’s cost.

What records do I need for staff tips?

Records of what was received through each route, how it was distributed and to whom, and payroll treatment matching the arrangement. Requirements around passing tips to workers make informal handling riskier than it used to be.

Can you tell me why my food margin is shrinking?

If the records capture purchases, sales by category, stock counts and wastage, yes, usually within a month or two of data. The answer is normally supplier price creep, portioning or untracked loss, and the numbers point to which.

Do you work with restaurants that are behind on everything?

Frequently. We triage filings first to stop penalties accruing, then rebuild the books forward from the last reliable point, as a defined project with a defined cost.

How often should a restaurant look at its numbers?

Takings daily, the key ratios weekly, full figures monthly. The rhythm matters more than the sophistication: a simple weekly sheet reviewed without fail beats a beautiful monthly pack nobody reads.

We do the bookkeeping, payroll, VAT, accounts, tax and management figures and help you set up cash-up and stock routines front of house can actually follow; we do not run your till system, negotiate with delivery platforms, or advise on licensing, food safety or employment disputes, though our records will back up the people who do. Tell us how many covers you do and how you take payment, request a quote, and we will price it.

Accountants for restaurants