FlipsideReality

I tend to recommend Quickbooks for pretty much every small business I come across, it’s (relatively) cheap, well supported, well known and does nearly everything that you will need. It also only takes about half an hour to learn (how to do the day to day stuff). I am looking for a solution for a restaurant at the moment, and specifically something to replace an ageing POS system.

During the Quickbooks setup wizard choose ‘Uniform System of Accounts for Restaurants’

Let’s go back to the Chart of Accounts for a moment because it is truly the “heart” of your accounting system. It defines exactly how every financial transaction that occurs in your restaurant can be recorded and used to help you manage your business. Unfortunately the Chart of Accounts that QuickBooks utilizes for restaurants is less than desirable (though I’ve got to cut them some slack here as they maintain a database for hundred’s of business types). You should use the Uniform System of Accounts for Restaurants as your guide (http://www.restaurant.org/store). The Uniform Systems of Accounts for Restaurants provides all restaurants with an industry standard accounting classification system, one that not only will allow you to make common sense of your sales and expenses, but will also permit you to compare your restaurant’s performance against industry standards.

If you are using the QuickBooks Easy Step Interview to setup your company file you have two options as it relates to the Chart of Accounts: 1) select the account list for Restaurants that QuickBooks recommends, or 2) select the alternate option to create no accounts at the current time. If you let QuickBooks create restaurant accounts for you then you can always edit the list later (though the process will be tedious and time consuming). If you choose to have no accounts setup at this time you have the opportunity to either manually create your own accounts or even better to “import” a better chart of accounts than is offered by QuickBooks, a process that is simple so long as you have such a list to import. The good news is that I have created such an account list (one that mirrors the Uniform System of Accounts for Restaurants), and you can download the file free at www.rrgconsulting.com/restaurant_coa. I have also provided detailed instructions for setting up your company file and importing the download. into your QuickBooks file.^[1]