You may spend your days training staff, reviewing your menus, meeting with vendors, and working on marketing campaigns. There’s only so much time in the day, and it’s easy to overlook your books.

However, if you don’t keep track of your accounts, you may find your invoices piling up and the tax man calling.

Should you consider hiring a bookkeeper?

When to hire a bookkeeper is different for every restaurant owner. To help you make this decision, we’ll review the responsibilities of a bookkeeper, explain the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant, and explain the benefits of adding a bookkeeper to your staff (or bookkeeping services).

What Does a Bookkeeper Do?

Think of a bookkeeper as the financial quarterback of your business. They perform all the day-to-day financial tasks that keep your restaurant up and running. For example, the responsibilities of a bookkeeper often include:

• Paying invoices from your vendors
• Accepting payments on your invoices
• Performing payroll
• Tracking receipts
• Paying bills
• Recording all your business’s daily transactions

Bookkeepers are in charge of your business ledger and make sure it always balances.

Bookkeeper vs. Accountant

The terms “bookkeeper” and “accountant” are often used interchangeably, but these are actually two different positions with unique responsibilities. If your bookkeeper is the financial quarterback of your restaurant, an accountant will act as the financial coach of your business. An accountant looks at the big financial picture. They often create budgets, run reports, and handle your company’s taxes.

While a bookkeeper is typically a transactional role, an accountant is more of an analyst who will track the business’s financial health and make recommendations to improve cash flow and profit.

An accountant can perform bookkeeping duties but a bookkeeper cannot serve as an accountant.

When to Hire a Bookkeeper

If you have the funds, the best time to hire a bookkeeper is when you first begin your business. An experienced bookkeeper can set you up right, creating a well-organized ledger and developing best practices from the start.

If you’ve been doing your own bookkeeping and don’t have a strong accounting background, it may be difficult and time-consuming for a bookkeeper to come in later and re-organize your system to meet industry standards.

That said, if you need to save on funds, you may have to hold off on hiring a bookkeeper in the beginning until you can afford their services. If you find that you don’t have the time or ability to manage your payments and payroll, that’s a good clue that it’s time to hire a bookkeeper.

Hiring a Bookkeeper

Your bookkeeper will be managing your books and will have access to your accounts, so it’s imperative to hire someone who is organized, reliable, and trustworthy.

Look for candidates with experience, especially in restaurants. Don’t hesitate to call previous employers to ensure the job candidate left in good standing.

Should You Outsource Your Bookkeeping?

You may wonder why you should hire a bookkeeper. After all, adding another staff member will increase your overhead. In the restaurant business, where margins are infamously tight, another employee could be difficult to support.

However, implementing good bookkeeping processes is incredibly important. A bookkeeper keeps the bills paid and the lights turned on. They send out checks to your employees and ensure your books are balanced. No restaurant (or any business) can last for long without solid bookkeeping.

That said, you don’t necessarily need to hire a full-time or even a part-time bookkeeper. Instead, you can save overhead by outsourcing your bookkeeping needs. RASI is a company built to provide back-office services for the hospitality industry. That includes bookkeeping services. We are happy to take over your bookkeeping needs so you can focus on running your restaurant.

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Many restaurant owners start out by doing their own books, but as your business and responsibilities grow, you may find yourself too overwhelmed to handle the finances.

You need to hire someone but should you bring on an accountant or a bookkeeper? Though these terms are often used interchangeably, they are two separate positions with different responsibilities.

In this article, we’ll look at the difference between bookkeepers and accountants. We’ll review the function and responsibilities of each role, and then look at whether you should hire in-house or outsource.

What Is a Bookkeeper?

When it comes to accountant vs bookkeeper, think about your bookkeeper as the person who tracks your restaurant’s day-to-day transactions. They are on the ground, making sure your bills are paid, recording your sales, and keeping track of your taxes.

Bookkeeper responsibilities typically include:

• Performing payroll
• Sending invoices
• Paying invoices
• Recording receipts and bills
• Maintaining the business’s ledger

Bookkeepers are great at keeping your accounts organized and making sure everyone gets paid. They tend to be less expensive to hire than an accountant and can also give you a day-to-day understanding of your business.

What Is an Accountant?

While bookkeepers focus on the nitty-gritty of your daily business transactions, accountants look at the big picture. Their job is to generate reports, forecast trends, and help you make better financial decisions.

Accountant duties include

• Creating yearly, quarterly, and monthly budgets
• Doing the business’s taxes
• Creating financial statements and reports
• Analyzing a business’s performance
• Making recommendations to improve a business’s finances

While accountants can perform bookkeeping, bookkeepers can’t be accountants. An accountant gives you a better understanding of your restaurant’s financial health. They provide deep analysis and expertise that can lead to improved profits.

Accountant vs Bookkeeper: Which One Should You Choose?

When considering whether to hire an accountant or bookkeeper, the answer will depend on the specific needs of your company. If you simply need help keeping your books in order, a bookkeeper may be the right choice. If you want someone on your team to analyze the financial performance of your restaurants and help you structure a budget, an accountant could be the way to go.

These two positions are not mutually exclusive. As your business grows, you may find you need both an accountant and a bookkeeper. In fact, these two positions can work well together, with the bookkeeper performing the daily financial tasks and the accountant managing the business’s overall financial picture.

Should You Hire In-House or Outsource Bookkeeping and Accounting?

Now that you understand the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant, you can better determine what you need in your business. Bringing on a new employee, whether a bookkeeper or an accountant, can add a lot of overhead to your business. You may also find that you don’t yet have the need for a full-time bookkeeper or accountant.

In this case, it may make financial sense to outsource your bookkeeping and accountant. RASI can help. We offer a full suite of back-office services specifically for the hospitality market. We can take on all your bookkeeping needs and serve as your company’s accountant. Learn more about all the financial services we offer.

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Your restaurant won’t survive for long if you don’t pay your bills, track your receipts, or ensure your employees receive their paychecks. Yet, all these little back-office responsibilities can easily fall through the cracks if you’re busy running other aspects of your business. A bookkeeper can be a valuable addition to your team, ensuring that the lights stay on in your restaurant. However, adding another employee is expensive, so outsourcing may be the answer. In this article, we’ll look at how to outsource your bookkeeping.

What Is a Bookkeeper?

Before we dive into bookkeeping outsourcing, it can be useful to review what a bookkeeper actually does. In a nutshell, a bookkeeper manages a business’s day-to-day financial transactions. This can include

• Sending invoices
• Paying invoices and bills
• Performing payroll
• Tracking all payments and receipts
• Managing a company’s ledger and keeping it balanced

In other words, a bookkeeper tracks and manages your money and ensures bills don’t go unpaid. While some restaurant owners can perform their own bookkeeping, others prefer to outsource it to a professional. Bookkeeping outsourcing can free owners up to focus on higher-level tasks and ensure that their books are always done according to industry standards.

RELATED: The Key Difference Between Bookkeepers and Accountants

How to Outsource Bookkeeping

Most restaurants operate on hair-thin margins. You may not want to add the expense of a full-time or part-time bookkeeper to your staff. Fortunately, you can outsource your bookkeeping to save on costs.

Hire a Freelance Bookkeeper

You may be able to find and hire a bookkeeper in your area who performs bookkeeping services for multiple businesses. This option is ideal if you only need part-time help and if you can find a reliable and experienced individual. Freelance bookkeepers may charge an hourly rate or, more commonly, a set monthly fee for their services. Their rates will depend on their experience and the level of work you need.

Use a Virtual Bookkeeping Company

You can find companies that specialize in performing bookkeeping work. Typically, these agencies have a staff of multiple bookkeepers or contractors that share the work. Many of these companies will offer set rates for monthly bookkeeping services. They may also offer accounting services, which can include generating financial reports, preparing your company’s taxes, and providing financial analysis of your business. Their cost will depend on the level of work they perform.

When searching for a bookkeeping company, look for a company with an established reputation, good reviews, and industry-standard pricing.

RASI is a form of a virtual bookkeeping company. We offer bookkeeping services along with many other back-office services specifically for the restaurant industry.

How Does Outsourced Bookkeeping Work?

The actual details of outsourcing your bookkeeping will depend on the individual or company you work with. A local bookkeeper may actually visit your business in person to perform their bookkeeping services using your system and financial software.

However, these days, many bookkeepers and bookkeeping companies are entirely virtual. They will use software and cloud computing to track and manage your finances. They may start by setting up your company with an accounting software, then syncing that program with cloud-based bill pay, invoicing, expense management, and payroll programs.

You and your staff may need to undergo some level of training to learn how to use their preferred software. You will likely also work with your bookkeeper in the beginning to iron out your financial systems. For example, your bookkeeper may ask if you want to put spending limits on employee credit cards or how much oversight you want for approving invoices.

Ready to Outsource Your Bookkeeping?

Now that you know how to outsource your bookkeeping, is it time to take this responsibility off your plate? A virtual bookkeeper, like RASI, can allow restaurant owners to focus on the tasks only they can do. RASI also offers top-level financial oversight so nothing is ever missed. We provide an entire suite of back-office services, so you can expand with us as your business grows.

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If you own a restaurant or any type of business, you will have to perform bookkeeping to track all your income and expenses. A well-designed bookkeeping program can ensure that your bills are paid, you receive money for your invoices, and you have money set aside for your taxes. Not sure how to do bookkeeping for a small business?

This article will serve as a short overview of bookkeeping for a small business. We’ll review what bookkeeping is, how to get started, and whether you should consider outsourcing your bookkeeping services. 

Bookkeeping Basics for Small Businesses

In a nutshell, bookkeeping is the process of tracking and managing a business’s financial transactions. A bookkeeper will create a ledger or “set of books” for this purpose. Back in the day, these books were physical objects where transactions were written down. These days, almost all bookkeepers use dedicated software to make the process faster and more efficient.

A bookkeeper performs a number of important tasks for a business, usually including:

• Tracking all bills and receipts
• Paying invoices
• Sending invoices
• Handling payroll

The Difference Between Accounting and Bookkeeping

Many people assume that bookkeeping and accounting are the same thing. In fact, though they overlap in some areas, bookkeeping and accounting are two separate specialties. Bookkeepers are administrators, managing the day-to-day financial transactions of a business. 

An accountant takes a broader view of a company’s finances. They are more likely to generate profit and loss reports, prepare a business’s tax returns, and provide strategic financial advice. For example, an accountant may recommend how to cut costs or create departmental budgets.

How to Start Bookkeeping for a Small Business

Many small business owners start out by doing their own bookkeeping. If you are organized, self-motivated, and have taken accounting classes, you may be able to serve as your own bookkeeper. Even if you haven’t taken accounting classes in school, you can find many free or low-cost videos, books, and programs on bookkeeping basics for small businesses.

Step one is to invest in bookkeeping software.

You can find many great software reviews online. Look for software that meets your budget and the needs of your business.

Next, set up your books.

It can take time to determine different expense categories, input your vendors, and link your accounts, but this is worth doing right. In fact, you may even wish to hire a bookkeeper to set up your books and give you a quick how-to course on how to manage them before taking over the process yourself.

Step three, start bookkeeping.

You’ll want to carve out time on a regular basis to input all your business transactions into your software. Some business owners do this daily while others choose to perform their bookkeeping weekly. Some business owners even wait until the beginning or end of each month to do their bookkeeping, though this isn’t considered best practices.

Your bookkeeping software may also include invoicing, payroll, and reporting capabilities. Depending on your comfort level, you may want to utilize these features and handle more financial aspects of your business. 

Should You Outsource Your Bookkeeping?

As your business grows, your time often becomes more limited. Additionally, you may find that your bookkeeping grows in complexity as you bring on more employees, work with more vendors, and open additional locations. 

If you want to focus on higher-level tasks, it might be time to outsource your bookkeeping. You can do this in several ways. First, you can hire a dedicated full-time or part-time bookkeeper for your business. If you’d rather not bring on a new employee, you can hire a freelance bookkeeper or work with an online bookkeeping firm. Most bookkeepers will charge a set monthly rate based on how much work they perform for your company.

RASI offers bookkeeping services specifically for the hospitality market. We can take over your bookkeeping, payroll, accounting needs, and more. If you want to spend more time leading your company and less time managing your books, consider our comprehensive restaurant bookkeeping services!

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What Are Retained Earnings on a Balance Sheet

Retained earnings on a balance sheet are the net income that a company has decided to keep or ‘retain’ after distributing dividends to its shareholders. This balance, found under shareholder’s equity, can be utilized for reinvestment in business expansion, debt reduction, or reserves against future losses. It’s the profit that fuels a company’s growth and symbolizes its financial health.

What Do Retained Earnings on a Balance Sheet Tell You

Retained earnings on a balance sheet provide a window into a company’s financial health. A positive retained earnings balance suggests a profitable company, demonstrating that it has generated surplus income over its dividends and overheads. Conversely, negative retained earnings might indicate a company’s consistent losses or large dividend payouts. Observing the evolution of these earnings can reveal business profitability trends and the management’s dividend policies.

How Retained Earnings on a Balance Sheet is Used

Retained earnings serve multiple purposes, integral to a company’s financial well-being. This money can be used to fund business expansions or to finance new projects and product development, propelling the company’s growth. Retained earnings can also help reduce liabilities by repaying debts, thereby improving the company’s debt-to-equity ratio. Furthermore, they can act as a financial cushion for future downturns or unforeseen expenditures, strengthening the company’s financial resilience.

How to Calculate Retained Earnings on a Balance Sheet

Understanding how to calculate retained earnings on a balance sheet is crucial to assessing a company’s financial strength. The calculation starts with the retained earnings at the beginning of the period, adds the net income or subtracts net loss of the current period, and then deducts any dividends paid out. The formula is as follows:

Retained Earnings = Beginning Retained Earnings + Net Income – Dividends Paid

Example of Retained Earnings on Balance Sheet

To illustrate how to calculate retained earnings on a balance sheet, imagine a firm starting the year with $50 million in retained earnings.

It earns a net income of $30 million during the year but decides to distribute $10 million as dividends to its shareholders.

In this case, the retained earnings at year-end would be calculated as $50 million (beginning retained earnings) + $30 million (net income) – $10 million (dividends paid) = $70 million.

Difference Between Retained Earnings and Dividends

Retained earnings and dividends represent different paths for a company’s net income. Retained earnings on a balance sheet are those profits that a company chooses to reinvest in its operations or hold as a safety net. In contrast, dividends are a portion of the profits distributed to shareholders. The decision to reinvest profits as retained earnings or distribute them as dividends depends on the company’s growth strategies and financial health.

Limitations of Retained Earnings

Although retained earnings provide crucial insights into a company’s ability to generate profits and reinvest in its operations, they are not without limitations. High retained earnings could mean the company is consistently profitable, but it could also suggest the company isn’t reinvesting its profits effectively or isn’t returning enough profits to its shareholders. Therefore, when examining retained earnings on a balance sheet, it’s important to consider other financial indicators for a well-rounded view.

Understanding retained earnings on a balance sheet and how to calculate them helps you to steer your company toward greater growth and success. For more assistance with your restaurant accounting, please schedule a demo or call us today at (720) 826-9900.

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What is Net Income on a Balance Sheet

Net income on a balance sheet is the ultimate result of all business activities during a given period. It is calculated as the difference between a company’s total revenue and its total expenses. The net income is critical as it not only shows the profitability of the company but also influences other areas of the balance sheet, including retained earnings and shareholder’s equity.

How to Calculate Net Income on a Balance Sheet

To calculate Net Income on a balance sheet, take your total revenue and subtract all expenses, including cost of goods sold, operational costs, interest and taxes. The resulting number represents the net income, a key indicator of a company’s financial health and profitability.

Calculating net income on a balance sheet is a critical skill for any financial analyst or business owner.  

Components of Net Income Calculation

Net income on a balance sheet is the end result of a multi-step calculation involving several essential components:

• Revenue Recognition: This is the process of recording revenue when it is earned rather than when it is received. It gives a true picture of a company’s financial performance during a particular period.
• Deducting Expenses: Expenses related to business operations, such as the cost of goods sold, rent, salaries, and utilities, are deducted from the total revenue. This step ensures that the net income calculation considers the cost of conducting business.
• Depreciation and Amortization: Depreciation accounts for the loss in value of tangible assets like machinery or buildings, while amortization applies to intangible assets like patents or trademarks. Both deductions help accurately assess a company’s net income by accounting for the gradual use or expiry of assets.

Importance of Net Income on a Balance Sheet

Net income on a balance sheet serves as a crucial indicator of a company’s profitability. By demonstrating how much revenue exceeds expenses, it provides a direct view of a company’s financial success. For investors and stakeholders, net income becomes a key metric that influences investment decisions, as it gives insight into how effectively the company is being managed and its potential for future growth.

Presentation of Net Income on a Balance Sheet

Net income on a balance sheet is presented under the equity section, specifically as a component of retained earnings. A balance sheet consists of three primary sections: assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity. The net income flows from the income statement to the balance sheet, increasing the retained earnings under shareholders’ equity. In effect, net income represents the increase in a company’s wealth over a specific period.

Analysis and Interpretation of Net Income

Analyzing net income on a balance sheet offers a wealth of insights into a company’s financial health. This figure plays a pivotal role in computing profitability ratios, such as the net profit margin, which reflects how efficiently a company converts revenue into profit. The quality of earnings, discerning the regularity of income, is another essential factor. Furthermore, net income integrates with several other financial metrics, influencing computations like return on equity and earnings per share.

Understanding net income on a balance sheet is essential to growing your business and tracking your progress. For more assistance with your restaurant accounting, please schedule a demo or call us today at (720) 826-9900.

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What is Included in a Balance Sheet?

How to create a balance sheet begins with documenting and understanding its key components:

• Assets: Current (all cash, accounts receivable, marketable securities, prepaid expenses, inventory) and long-term assets (any fixed assets, intangible assets, long-term securities).
• Liabilities: Current liabilities (utilities, taxes, accounts payable, short-term debt) and long-term liabilities (bonds payable, long-term debts).
• Shareholders’ equity: Share capital and retained earnings.

Once you know how to create a balance sheet and account for your small business’s assets, liabilities, and shareholders’ equity, let’s see how to use this crucial financial tool.

Internal and External Importance of a Balance Sheet

Understanding how to create a balance sheet is a key element of both internal and external business analysis.

• Internally: Internally, your balance sheet is a tool for assessing your small business liquidity, identifying financial trends and issues, and prompting necessary operational adjustments.
• Externally: Externally, a well-documented balance sheet assists investors, lenders, and stakeholders assess your financial position, determine available resources and financing methods, and ensures compliance with reporting laws for external auditors.

Now that we understand what a balance sheet includes and the crucial role it plays in financial analysis, it’s time to learn how to put together a balance sheet for your small business. We’ll break it down into manageable steps.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Balance Sheet

      The process of how to create a balance sheet involves several key steps:

1. The first step is selecting the balance sheet date, commonly set on a quarterly or monthly basis, which signifies the period you’re examining.
2. Next, you need to list all your assets, arranging them by liquidity, from cash and accounts receivable to longer-term investments.
3. After listing your assets, verify the total assets against your general ledger, which acts as a master list of all financial transactions, to ensure accuracy.
4. Then determine your current liabilities, which include money you owe soon, such as accounts payable, short-term notes payable, and accrued liabilities.
5. Next, calculate your long-term liabilities that extend beyond one year, such as long-term notes, bonds payable, pension plans, and mortgages.
6. Following your liabilities assessment, add up all your current and long-term liabilities to provide a complete financial picture.
7. Then calculate your owner’s equity, factoring in retained earnings and working capital, essentially showing the value left for owners after all your debts are paid.
8. Finally, validate your balance sheet by ensuring the total liabilities and owner’s equity match your total assets.

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Understanding how to create a balance sheet lets you effectively steer your small business toward financial stability and ongoing growth. For more assistance with your restaurant accounting, please schedule a demo or call us today at (720) 826-9900.

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Profit margin can be used as a tool for pricing, and as a measurement of production efficiency. 

• As a pricing tool, profit margin can be used to reverse engineer the right price to sell a dish at. That is, you start with your expenses and desired profit, and from those numbers you calculate what the sale price of the dish should be. Let’s say you know it costs $5 to make a breaded chicken entrée, and you want to make at least $9 dollars in profit on the dish. Adding these numbers together, you can see that the minimum the dish can be sold for is $14.
• As an instrument for cost control, you can set a goal for a given level of profit from your operations. Say you want to clear 15% profit after all expenses are accounted for. You can then use this number to see the maximum allowable production expenses for a given level of sales. Say you have a busy restaurant that averages $10,000 in sales per night. If you want to maintain a 15% profit margin, then you cannot allow costs to exceed $8,500 per day. (10,000 * ((100 – 15)/100) = 8,500)

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Restaurant Profit Margin Calculator: Benefits and Use

The restaurant profit margin calculator replaces manual procedures for determining your profit margin. The calculator takes your business data and performs the necessary computation to arrive at the margin of profit. Using this calculator is the best approach to how to calculate profit margin in a restaurant.

Understanding Profit Margin

Profit margin is fundamentally a measure of how much money the business makes above its costs, expressed as a percentage. You can think of profit margin as the remainder after all expenses have been accounted for. For 100 dollars of revenue, say that 90 dollars are consumed by expenses (labor, food costs, overhead). The remaining 10 dollars is the profit, and your profit margin is 10 out of 100, or 10 percent. That’s how to calculate profit margin.

Profit come in different varieties: gross and net. It’s helpful to think about these definitions in terms of the sale of a single dish at a restaurant. Gross profit is your sale price minus the cost of the ingredients. Net profit is the sale price minus all expenses, such as labor, utilities, rent and ingredients. Net profit measures the income that can potentially be distributed to owners.

Factors Affecting Profit Margin

To fully understand restaurant profit margin, it’s critical to know the most common sources of expenses. In restaurants the most important expenses are known as “the big three”. These are labor, cost of goods sold (COGS), and overhead. Roughly speaking, each of the big three expenses consume a third of the expense total. So, labor is 33% of your expenses, and so on. Each big three category presents the opportunity for cost reduction and optimization. Can you more strategically allocate shifts to exactly meet demand? Can you change suppliers to reduce your ingredient costs? Can you negotiate with your landlord for a better deal on rent?

RELATED: How Do Small Business Restaurants Make a Profit?

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How to Use a Profit Margin Calculator

To calculate your restaurant profit margin, simply input your restaurant revenue, labor costs, cost of goods, and other expenses – then click Calculate Profit Margin! Once calculated, you’ll see your restaurant profit margin for both gross and net profit.

Tips for Improving Profit Margins

There are two approaches to a better profit margin—increase sales and reduce expenses. Increasing sales is the most effective of two methods, so we’ll examine it in detail. You can increase sales in a number of ways: engage in menu engineering, increase table turnover, add tables, and increase upsells. 

• Menu engineering is the process of examining the menu for opportunities to increase sales and reduce costs. This is done by creating more popular dishes using favorite ingredients and favorite types of preparation, to increase sales. Then to reduce costs, you remove unpopular items from the menu, which allows you to stock less inventory, thereby reducing your food costs. 
• Table turnover can be increased by using technology to process orders from servers and transmit them to the kitchen via a kitchen display monitor. Additionally, you can train your waitstaff to regularly check in on customers, and (without pressuring) swiftly deliver bills once guests are ready to depart.
• Adding tables is one of the easiest ways to increase sales. Review your table layout and see if there’s space for extra tables, a counter service/bar area, or additional seats at existing tables.
• Upsells are items added to the customers order. Beverages, appetizers, and deserts are the most common upsells. Train your staff to ask customers if they want these items, and encourage your servers to recommend their favorite appetizers, deserts, and drinks. Because they have the highest profit margin on the menu, alcoholic drinks are a particularly potent upsell.

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Tip pooling is the practice of collecting all tips for the day and dividing them among working employees according to a formula. The formula can be as simple as an even division among all workers. Another popular formula is to weigh the tips by position in the restaurant according to a point system. 

There are laws regulating tip pooling, which vary by state. Legally, tip pooling is distinct from tip sharing. Tip sharing is a voluntary arrangement created by employees for the division of tips, while tip pooling is a company policy. Tip pooling can be extended to include non-tipped employees if tipped employees are paid the full minimum wage.

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Purpose of Tip Pooling Calculator

A tip pooling calculator (or tip splitting calculator) allows you to consistently apply the same formula to your tip division, increasing consistency and fairness while reducing effort. The exact formula applied by the calculator can be customized to your needs. You can choose to use a point formula that assigns more tips to servers and less to bussers (for example, imagine servers get 20 points while bussers get 10) or you can divide tips evenly among workers. As a manager, using a tip calculator saves you time and creates a repeatable process you can easily explain to employees who want to understand how they get tipped.

Benefits of Using a Tip Pooling Calculator

Using a tip share calculator creates a simple procedure that you’ll follow every time. You input the data, and the calculator does the rest. This saves time and puts an end to manual number crunching. Another benefit of a tip calculator is its accuracy: tips are calculated according to the same formula each time, based on clear data. Your employees will appreciate the fairness of this method. And if they ask how tips are divided, you’ll have a tool to show them, increasing transparency. Finally, using a tip calculator reduces your compliance risks, as the calculator is designed to meet the legal requirements around tip pooling. 

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Tips for Effective Tip Pooling Management

Successful tip pooling requires clear communication with employees on how the process works and why it is designed that way. The more transparent you can be with staff, the more trust they’ll have in the process. Trust leads to employee buy-in, meaning you’ll get less objections to your tip distribution calculator. It’s important to periodically examine your tip pooling process and evaluate whether it’s achieving the outcomes you designed it for. Are your employees feeling valued? Are the points being fairly allocated? Ask for feedback from your staff, and if it’s relevant, try to take it into account. A solid tip pooling procedure is a valuable business asset, one that pays dividends in a happy and hard working staff.

RELATED: How to Record Tips in Accounting

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A produce order guide is the ultimate money saver, and it’ll ultimately benefit your customers and your bottom line. With a little up-front planning and timely purchasing, you’ll immediately notice an improvement with ingredient utilization and optimization. 

While we’re known for our world class restaurant accounting solutions, RASI also knows a thing or two about day-to-day restaurant processes. With this online produce ordering for restaurants, you can maximize your leverage with suppliers and producers. Buyers Edge Platform also has its own division for produce management. Visit BEP today to learn more about their services that help ensure safe handling, storage, and usage of produce products. 

Why Proper Produce Ordering is Essential

Accurate, on-point produce ordering is vitally important in order for your restaurant to make tasty, memorable meals for your customers. Here are a few reasons why it helps to follow a sustainable, flexible restaurant produce order guide:

• Increased order speed
• Proper designation and quantities for seasonal-specific ingredients
• Reduced order errors
• On-the-fly adjustments are easy to implement for seasonal items and special promo entrees
• Seamless process – easy for someone to fill in and order produce without missing a beat (or beets, if that’s your thing)
• Optimal ROI and less kitchen waste
• Enhanced menu engineering
• And many more

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Tips for Ordering Produce

The core of any efficient produce order guide starts with ordering produce at the best possible price for your restaurant kitchen, along with optimal freshness and storage time. Follow these simple steps, and you’re well on your way to adhering to an easy-to-follow restaurant produce order guide:

Assess your needs.

Along with your regular go-to, staple menu items, stay ahead of the curve for seasonal favorites and upcoming new entrees & appetizers. For example, your produce ordering requirements in April might differ substantially from your September produce purchases.

Finding Reliable Suppliers

In other words, find a vendor management strategy that works for you. Check out RASI’s helpful article on this subject for invaluable tips. Vendor management is a critical component of every well-run online produce ordering system for restaurants.

Understanding Lead Times and Special Orders

We touched on this earlier, but it’s hard to stress the importance of anticipating bulk orders, special produce purchases, and the like. There’s a bit of trial & error in play here, especially for less experienced chefs & kitchen managers, but once you build a reliable supplier network, it’s easier to handle this tricky task. Should you buy in bulk now? How does my produce inventory impact my balance sheet? These and other questions are answered by controlling the cost of goods (COGs) for your eatery.

Quality Control and Food Safety

Produce freshness depends on impeccable quality control and food safety measures. For your restaurant produce order guidelines, this means:

Thorough Delivery Inspection

• Never just accept a produce delivery without a cut-no-corners inspection. Always check for proper firmness, color, and aroma.

Storing Produce Properly

• To get the most out of your produce order guidelines, ensure you have a clearly defined produce storage plan in place. 

Preventing Cross-Contamination

• Pay attention to cross-contamination with your produce. For example, never store fresh produce next to meat, dairy, and other non-produce ingredients.

Optimizing Produce Usage and Minimizing Waste

Want to produce the best results for your restaurant produce? Try these tips: 

Reduce Over-Ordering

• This goes along with our previous point about anticipating seasonal ingredient trends and similar special circumstances. Another helpful aspect of limiting over-ordering and having too much produce on hand? Get on a regular, reliable schedule with trusted partners & suppliers.

Implement Creative Ways to Use Excess Produce

• When you have some extra produce on hand, a great way to ensure it’s used before expiration is to add a new menu item (or more) to utilize soon-to-expire ingredients.

Donating Excess Produce

• If your menu is already at full capacity and it’s not feasible to create new menu entries, donating to local food bank is always a good idea.

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RASI: The Ultimate Solution for Produce Ordering, Accounting & More 

From online produce ordering & management for restaurants on the Buyers Edge Platform to accounting services and more, RASI & Buyers Edge Platform will help your BOH restaurant system run more efficiently. We offer everything from tax & compliance help, balance sheet optimization, multi-unit inventory expertise, and much more.

Request a demo today or call us directly at (720) 826-9900. Thanks for visiting RASI – we look forward to hearing from you soon!

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