How to keep the accounts of a restaurant in Excel

Faced with the need to manage our businesses, we are always on the lookout for methods and tips to make our lives easier. For example: How to keep the accounts of a restaurant in Excel.

Excel, or any other spreadsheet software, can seem a bit intimidating, especially for those of us who are not used to using it on a day-to-day basis.

However, discovering its potential takes a bit of practice and effort.

What do you get out of it? Having one of the best tools to manage your restaurant and keep track of various aspects, without complications and in a centralised way.

Read on to find out how to keep your restaurant accounts in Excel, manage your inventories and manage your business like a pro.

Keys to keep the accounts of a restaurant in Excel

There are several solutions we can take beyond accounting.

For example, you can control your inventories, which will help you keep your stock at the required level and rotate each ingredient, ensuring that each dish is prepared with the best you have in your restaurant.

Feeling a little apprehensive, can’t find the start button?

Don’t worry, let’s take a look at the key things you need to be very clear about before you turn on your computer and click on the Excel icon.

Key 1: Clarify the present

Before filling in the first Excel cell, we recommend that you define your present, i.e. collect and have at hand all the data that you will use throughout your restaurant management process.

What is this data? These are some of them:

• Current suppliers
• Investment in raw materials
• Expenditure budget
• Employee payroll
• If you use them, commissions and payment schemes
• Budget for fixed and variable services
• Allowance for unexpected expenses
• Accumulated debts and expense forecasting

With that data clear and at hand, you’ll start thinking about how to do restaurant accounting in Excel.

Key 2: Keep track on a daily basis

If you are on your way to learning how to do restaurant accounting in Excel, the first thing you need to be clear about is that you need to keep track of your day-to-day.

In other words, you need to keep track – in detail – of everything that comes in and goes out of your till.

Every input and output should have a reason. This way, you will have the information you need to identify opportunities for improvement and growth.

Key 3: Payroll? A day at a time, please!

The expense forecast must take into account each of the fixed or variable outputs of your restaurant.

One of the most important is payroll.

The right way to manage payroll is to have each worker identified, the salary you should pay them, the commission scheme or variable payments.

In addition, it is ideal to know the date of entry, position and functions of each of the people who are part of your restaurant.

Don’t wait for the payment date to process your payroll, you should do it in advance to know -as soon as possible- if you need to make any special provision.

Key 4: Accounting hours

The worst mistake you can make is to let work pile up.

Set a day for bookkeeping. Try to stick to that schedule and keep all information up to date.

In addition, during that accounting day, you will be able to organise and schedule payments to suppliers, services and payroll, among others, having everything in advance to avoid rushing at the last minute.

Key 5: Digitised invoices are best

Invoices for a restaurant can be a myriad of invoices, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, service, repairs, utilities, everything needs to be up to date and organised.

The ideal is to digitise invoices, keep them in a system that gives you the opportunity to analyse changes and use them as data for future seasons.

Remember that a few cents extra on an ingredient that you use every day means more than you think. Wouldn’t it be good to make provision for those seasonal increases?

Digitise your bills and you’ll have what you need to see the future while looking back.

Types of Excel you need to know

With these five keys, we are sure that you will have – at hand – all the information you need to keep the accounts of a restaurant in Excel.

Now, it’s time to find out what you can do in Excel.

Excel for dish analysis

Studying the sales of the dishes you have on your menu is healthy for your restaurant, so you know what ingredients you need and how much each one costs.

What should this Excel contain?

Data such as name of the dish, cost of preparation, ingredients needed, selling price, number of dishes sold and the profit margin you are making on each dish.

To know the popularity of the dishes on your menu, it is also advisable to set up a column that shows the percentage of sales of that dish out of all the dishes sold during the period analysed.

Excel of ingredients

The ingredients you use in your restaurant are – obviously – one of the variable costs of your restaurant.

However, it is rare to find up-to-date data on these costs in a restaurant’s kitchen.

So, don’t follow that tradition and keep track of every single ingredient you use in your restaurant, monthly expenditure, frequency of purchases and the supplier.

With that record, it will be easier to decide when and how much a dish on your menu should be increased,

Payroll Excel

As we indicated earlier, you need to keep track of your payroll. What better way to do this than with Excel?

Make sure you have cells with data such as worker’s name, position, fixed salary, variable salary, commissions or any other payment concept you have to honour each person.

On a separate sheet, it is ideal that you have a forecast with the increases in staff that you will need according to special times of the year, for example: summer, Christmas, holidays and any other season that you have identified as the busiest time of the year.

Excel for sauces and pre-serves

For the preparation of your dishes you need bases, sauces and some pre-preparations, the costs of which are not included in the Excel of dishes.

In this case, you must have a space to calculate the costs of these preparations.

In this Excel you should include the ingredient, food family it belongs to, quantity consumed, dishes it is used for, processing costs and the quantity prepared: litres, kilos, etc.

Excel for consumables

Your restaurant’s consumables also need a special Excel file and you need to create one to keep track of everything.

What are these consumables? Napkins, cleaning products, tablecloths, takeaway containers, bags, uniforms, everything that is consumed in your restaurant to keep it running smoothly.

In that Excel you should include the type of products, frequency of use, quantity to be purchased, frequency of purchase, costs, supplier and products that could serve as substitutes.

It is important that you include the details of the trusted supplier for each of the consumables.

With this Excel, we are sure that keeping the accounts of your restaurant, and a control over the income and expenditure of your business will be very simple.

As a last recommendation, if you are looking for a supplier, we invite you to visit our online shop: Monouso, where you will find everything you need to run your restaurant.