Accounting built around the realities of restaurant operations — POS activity, merchant deposits, delivery platforms, payroll and tips, sales tax, food and labor costs, multiple locations, financial reporting and tax.
Restaurant finances become difficult to manage when POS sales, merchant deposits, delivery platforms, payroll, sales tax and financial reporting all operate separately.
Evening Star brings those numbers together through coordinated restaurant bookkeeping, payroll support, sales-tax reconciliation and financial reporting.
Serving businesses since 1985 · Schoharie headquarters and NYC meeting location · Secure remote service
Restaurant accounting is not only about categorizing transactions. Sales must reconcile to deposits, payroll must reconcile to the books, and liabilities must be visible before they become problems.
ESBS is not a low-cost outsourced bookkeeping service. We work with operators who need reliable financial reporting, not only bank reconciliation — and smaller restaurants are still welcome to contact us.
Accounting for multi-location restaurant groupsIf the numbers from your POS, payroll system, bank account and financial statements do not tell the same story, the accounting process needs to be rebuilt around the restaurant's actual operations.
Get Your Restaurant Accounting QuoteTax strategies depend on each restaurant's facts; not every item above applies to every business.
Collect sales information by category, location and relevant operating segment.
Identify gross sales, fees, adjustments and net deposits from processors and delivery platforms.
Reconcile operating accounts, credit cards, deposits and transfers.
Record payroll expense, taxes, tips and payroll liabilities consistently.
Reconcile taxable sales, collected tax, payments and remaining liabilities.
Review balance-sheet accounts, income-statement classifications and unresolved exceptions.
Deliver financial statements and appropriate restaurant operating indicators.
Food cost, actual cost of goods sold and prime cost require reliable inventory information. When inventory counts are unavailable, ESBS can report purchases as a percentage of sales but should not present that figure as actual food cost.
ESBS can work with information exported or integrated from commonly used restaurant systems. Integration availability and workflow depend on the client's specific platforms and access. Platform names are listed for reference only and do not indicate a partnership.
Restaurant accounting engagements generally begin around $1,250 per month. Final pricing depends on the number of locations, transaction volume, payroll frequency, POS and merchant systems, sales-tax jurisdictions, bookkeeping condition and reporting requirements. Primary restaurant engagements commonly combine bookkeeping, POS and deposit reconciliation, payroll coordination, sales-tax support and financial reporting.
Starting around $1,250 per month per location
Potential scope
Starting around $2,000 per month per location
Potential scope
Pricing based on locations and complexity
Potential scope
These are starting points, not automatic quotes. ESBS confirms scope and pricing after reviewing the restaurant's systems and accounting requirements.
Recording POS sales, reconciling merchant and delivery-platform deposits, bank and credit-card reconciliation, payroll journals, sales-tax liability tracking and a monthly close that produces financial statements. The exact scope is confirmed after we review your systems.
Yes. We work from the sales and settlement reports those systems produce and reconcile them to what reached the bank, identifying fees, refunds, tips and timing differences. How the data reaches us depends on your platform and the access you provide.
Yes. Platforms usually deposit a net amount. Where their reports provide it, we record gross sales, commissions, promotional adjustments and fees separately so delivery costs are visible.
We process payroll for hourly and salaried staff, including multiple pay rates and reported cash and credit-card tips, and file payroll taxes. Your tip-pooling and wage policies are yours to set; legal questions belong with employment counsel.
Yes. Books can be structured to report each location separately as well as combined, with shared costs allocated on a basis agreed with you.
Yes. Cleanup is scoped separately after we see how far behind the records are and what source data is available, then the recurring monthly process begins.
We reconcile taxable sales, tax collected and payments to your books and POS reports, and can support filing based on your applicable requirements.
In most cases, yes. We work with information exported or integrated from commonly used systems rather than requiring a change.
Yes. We can reconcile an outside provider's payroll to the books, or discuss moving payroll to ESBS if coordinating both would help.
Only when reliable inventory counts exist. Without them we report food and beverage purchases as a percentage of sales and label it as purchases, not actual food cost.
Engagements generally begin around $1,250 per month per location. Final pricing depends on locations, transaction volume, payroll frequency, systems, sales-tax requirements and the condition of the books.
We serve restaurants in New York and North Jersey most often and can work remotely elsewhere, subject to the applicable state requirements.
An accountant reviews your answers and contacts you to discuss your systems and needs. If it looks like a fit, we outline scope and pricing before any engagement begins.
Tell us how your restaurant currently handles bookkeeping, payroll, POS reporting and sales tax. You do not need to diagnose the accounting problem before contacting us.
