Bookkeeping for retail, restaurant, and e-commerce businesses
You get paid at the moment of sale.
This page covers restaurants, retail stores and e-commerce businesses. They record thousands of small sales a month, use more than one payment processor, and see margin move with one or two points of cost of goods.
You will recognize this if…
- Deposits do not match sales, because fees came out first
- Inventory is counted, but shrink is never really explained
- You cannot compare one location against another with any confidence
- Sales tax is collected across places you are not certain you are registered
Why the close is hard here
These are the three things that most often make the monthly close wrong here, and what has to be true for it to be right.
Gross sales never equal the deposit
Processor fees, chargebacks, tips, and platform commissions all come out before the money lands. Booking the deposit as revenue understates both sales and expense, and hides your real cost of accepting payment.
COGS is where the margin is decided
A point or two of food or product cost is the difference between a good year and a bad one. That requires COGS accurate monthly, not trued up at year end when it is too late to act.
Locations only compare if they are built the same
Unit-level P&Ls are only useful when every unit uses the same chart of accounts and the same allocation rules. Otherwise you are comparing bookkeeping habits, not performance.
What we do about it
- Daily sales reconciled from the POS through processor fees to the bank
- COGS and inventory maintained monthly, with shrink identified
- Unit- and location-level P&Ls built on one consistent structure
- Sales tax liability tracked by jurisdiction
Questions we get asked
Can you reconcile our POS to the bank?
Yes. Daily sales are traced from the point-of-sale system through processor fees and holdbacks to the deposit, so gross sales and the cost of accepting payment are both visible.
Do you maintain inventory?
We maintain the accounting for it, COGS, valuation, and identifying shrink from your counts. Physical counts stay with your team.
Can you compare our locations?
That is the point of a consistent chart of accounts across units. Where units have drifted apart, standardizing them is the first step.
Do you handle sales tax filing?
We track the liability by jurisdiction so you know what is owed and where.
Who this is for
If your business earns this way, the mechanics are the same whatever the label.
- Restaurants and quick service
- Bars and taprooms
- Retail and specialty stores
- E-commerce and direct-to-consumer
- Breweries and distilleries
- Coffee and bakery
- Grocery and convenience
- Salons, spas and med spas
- Childcare and early education
- Wholesale and distribution
Not sure this is you?
Most owners sit across two of these. A short conversation sorts out which parts actually apply.
Free Consult →Markets we see this in
The filing rules change by state, and that is usually what makes the books harder than the work. Each page below sets out what filing there actually involves.