Accounting for restaurants, hotels, pubs and bars

Accountants for restaurant businesses

We offer a host of accounting services specifically for restaurants, hotels, pubs, bars and the hospitality industry generally. For general questions about accountants and costs, see here.

There are few tougher business sectors, if any, than restaurants, pubs, hotels, bars and the leisure sector generally. Competition is fierce and we know that restaurant or leisure entrepreneurs are amongst the most commited and determined business owners.

Financial and tax issues for restaurant and leisure businesses

Typical difficult issues can include :-

• Cash nature of business and volume of transactions can mean record keeping is very hard work and can also result in increased risk of fraud and need for tight budgeting, management accounts and planning.
• Complex nature of demand, trends, supply chains and costs generally mean that tight budgeting and clear visibility on income/expenditure are essential.
• Cash flow problems are especially quick to arise and escalate and can destroy restaurants and leisure businesses quickly.
• Restaurants and food and drink and entertainment business are a sector that HMRC keeps a close watch on. You are probably more likely to face VAT scrutiny and an inspection before other types of business do.
• Employment law issues - compliance, staff problems and relatively high staff turnover can be problematic, as can payroll when you have staff on flexible employment terms such as zero hours contracts or contractors
• The need to have a clear and compelling business plan - passion alone may not be enough to succeed. Competitor analysis, market research, strategy are all key and also for raising finance and/or keeping lenders such as banks on your side if things get difficult.

Experienced accountants in the restaurant and hospitality sector

We understand all of the above issues and the ways in which we can help.

We know how tricky it can be to deal with tips, VAT and payroll in the hospitality industry. We can help you navigate the tax complexities of troncs and cash payments and help you put practical systems in place to make sure that you comply with the tax rules whilst keeping admin to a minimum. If that sounds complicated, we make compliance easy with a full range of online accountancy services. We're also a certified Xero accountant and can help you automate a lot of your bookkeeping, invoice processing and supplier payments. We can also help you to migrate to Xero from another software package and help you train your team to use it.

We also regularly commission bespoke research into the industry, and have helped our clients analyse their business to help maximise capacity utilisation and margins. Our Business Consultants are industry specialists, so you can expect accounting expertise and commercial advice all under one roof.

Get in touch to find out about our track record in helping restaurants, bars and leisure sector businesses with accounts, tax, legal issues and strategy.