Restaurant Bookkeeping Spreadsheet

Keep your own books without an accounting degree. Log income and expenses as they happen, see where the money goes each month, and hand your accountant a clean year at tax time.

What is inside

• A transaction log with 1,000 rows and a location field for multiple outlets
• A payroll and labor log with hours and total labor cost
• A vendor directory and category master you can edit
• A monthly summary that totals every category across 12 months
• A dashboard with KPI cards, benchmark indicators and a trend view
• An annual snapshot for your accountant and a sales tax and reconciliation tracker

Who it is for

Owners of small restaurants, cafes, food trucks and bars who do their own bookkeeping or want cleaner records before handing them off.

How it works

One Excel file that also runs in Google Sheets. Set up your categories once, then log weekly and close each month with the checklist.

A look inside

The tabs, one by one

• Setup and Lists. Your business details, sales tax rate and the category master: 15 income sources and 72 expense categories in 12 groups, from food and beverage cost through labor, occupancy, marketing and technology. Switch off the ones you do not use.
• Transaction Log. Where the daily entries go. Date, income or expense, category, vendor, payment method, gross amount, tax, tips and processing fees. Month, week and net amount fill in for you.
• Payroll Log. One line per pay run or contractor payment, with regular and overtime hours, payroll taxes, benefits and workers comp added up to a total labor cost.
• Vendor Directory. Your regular vendors with contacts, terms and how you pay them, so names stay consistent in the log.
• Monthly Summary. Every category totaled across 12 months. Nothing to type here.
• Dashboard. Choose a month and see revenue, expenses, net income, prime cost, labor cost and food and beverage cost, each with the change from the prior month and the year to date.
• Annual Snapshot. The full year by category, laid out for your accountant.
• Tax and Reconciliation. Taxable revenue, sales tax collected against sales tax owed, the variance, and whether each month has been remitted.
• Month End Checklist. Fifteen steps with an owner and a due date for each.

How a week of entries works

You only type in three places: the Transaction Log, the Payroll Log and the Vendor Directory. Everything else calculates.

For sales you do not need a row per ticket. Enter one income row per day for each sales type, such as dine in, takeout and delivery, straight from your POS report. For a pay run, enter the hours and rate. Thirty two regular hours and four overtime hours at $18 comes to $684 in gross wages, because overtime is counted at time and a half, and the taxes and benefits you add bring it to the true labor cost.

The dashboard then measures you against three targets: prime cost below 65 percent of revenue, labor below 35 percent and food and beverage cost below 32 percent.

Is this the right tool?

Pick this one if you want a clean record of every dollar in and out. It is a log, not a P&L statement. If you want budget against actual and prior year, the Restaurant P&L Statement and Prime Cost Dashboard picks up where this one stops. To balance the drawer every night, see the Daily Sales Report and Cash Reconciliation. The routine itself is laid out in our restaurant bookkeeping guide.

Questions and answers

Does this replace accounting software?
For a small single location it can carry the year. It does not connect to your bank or file anything for you, and your accountant still prepares the return.

Can I add my own categories?
Yes. Rename or add categories on the Setup tab and the dropdowns follow.

Does it handle more than one location?
Every transaction has a location field, so you can log several outlets in one file.

How are delivery app sales entered?
Enter the gross sale and put the platform fee in its own column, so you see both what you sold and what you kept.

Does it work in Google Sheets?
Yes. Upload it to Google Drive and open it with Google Sheets.

How do I get the file?
Checkout is through our Etsy shop and the file is ready to download right after purchase.