Eight Five

Restaurant bookkeeping services

Restaurant Bookkeeping for Food & Beverage Businesses

Restaurant bookkeeping services built around the way your business actually operates.

Your POS, delivery apps, payroll, merchant processors, food costs, sales tax, and bank account all tell different pieces of the story. We bring them together so your books are accurate and your financial reports actually show how your restaurant is performing.

Eight Five provides specialized bookkeeping for restaurants in Alexandria, Northern Virginia, the DMV, and nationwide.

Tools we know inside and out

ToastSquareDoorDashUber Eats7shiftsGustoQuickBooks Online

From Toast and Square to DoorDash, 7shifts, Gusto, QuickBooks, and more — we work with the tools that keep your restaurant running.

Why restaurants are different

Your restaurant isn't a generic business. Your books shouldn't be either.

Simply categorizing what hits the bank doesn't give you accurate restaurant financials. We reconcile the systems behind the transactions so your books reflect what actually happened — and give you numbers you can use to run the business.

A lot of moving pieces

  • Toast says one thing. DoorDash deposits another amount.
  • Payroll hits the bank as a net payment.
  • Merchant fees are deducted before you ever see the cash.
  • Food and beverage purchases need to land in the right cost categories.

What we handle

Bookkeeping Built for Restaurants

On top of our core bookkeeping services, restaurants get:

POS & Delivery App Reconciliation

Know that every dollar of sales is accounted for.

We reconcile sales and payouts from platforms like Toast, Square, DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub to QuickBooks Online and your bank account.

Instead of recording a $970 deposit as $970 of revenue when the customer actually paid $1,000, we record the gross sale and separate the fees deducted before the payout reached the bank. The result: cleaner revenue, properly recorded merchant and delivery fees, and deposits that actually reconcile.

  • Toast
  • Square
  • DoorDash
  • Uber Eats
  • Grubhub
  • QuickBooks Online

Restaurant-Specific Chart of Accounts

Financial reports organized around how restaurants actually operate.

A P&L that's easier to understand and more useful for decisions, with visibility into:

  • Food sales
  • Beer, wine & liquor sales
  • Catering & other revenue
  • Food costs
  • Beverage costs
  • Direct labor
  • Merchant & delivery fees
  • Operating supplies
  • Repairs & maintenance
  • Occupancy
  • Marketing
  • Administrative

Payroll Reconciliation

Your payroll reports should match your books.

We reconcile payroll systems like Gusto, ADP, Paychex, and workforce platforms such as 7shifts to QuickBooks Online.

Wages, employer payroll taxes, liabilities, benefits, and other payroll activity are broken out properly — not lumped into the net withdrawal from the bank account.

Accrual Accounting & COGS

See what you actually earned and spent during the period.

Vendor invoices get paid weeks after product arrives. Card sales settle days after the sale. Inventory purchases don't equal the food actually used this month.

When appropriate, we use accrual accounting to recognize revenue and expenses in the periods they belong, for a clearer picture of restaurant profitability.

Know more than your bank balance

Restaurant Financial Reporting That Helps You Make Decisions

Good restaurant bookkeeping shouldn't end with an accurate set of books. We build monthly financial reports around the numbers that matter to restaurant owners — where your money is going, how your margins are changing, and what's driving profitability.

  • 01Food & beverage costs
  • 02Labor costs
  • 03Gross profit & margins
  • 04Operating expenses
  • 05Merchant & delivery fees
  • 06Location performance
  • 07Month-over-month trends

The goal isn't to send you more accounting reports. It's to give you financial information you can actually use.

Multi-location & multi-entity

Multiple Restaurants? One Clear Financial Picture.

Multi-Location & Multi-Entity Restaurant Bookkeeping

As restaurant groups grow, bookkeeping gets more complicated. Separate bank accounts. Separate QuickBooks files. Shared expenses. Intercompany transactions. Different locations and concepts. We help build a consistent accounting structure across the whole organization.

  • Standardized charts of accounts across entities
  • Location-level financial reporting
  • Intercompany transaction tracking
  • Consolidated financial statements
  • Individual and consolidated P&Ls
  • Consistent monthly close across locations

See each restaurant individually — and the business as a whole.

Sales & Meals Tax Support

Restaurant sales tax isn't something you want to figure out at the end of the year. We keep sales and meals tax activity properly recorded and reconciled as part of the monthly bookkeeping process, and can assist with applicable filings based on your service plan and jurisdiction.

For restaurants in Virginia and throughout the DMV, we keep the books organized around the state and local requirements affecting your operation.

Restaurant software

We Already Know the Systems You Use

You shouldn't have to teach your bookkeeper how restaurant technology works.

POS & Payments

  • Toast
  • Square

Delivery

  • DoorDash
  • Uber Eats
  • Grubhub

Accounting

  • QuickBooks Online

Payroll & Labor

  • Gusto
  • ADP
  • Paychex
  • 7shifts

Why Eight Five

We Know Restaurant Bookkeeping.

We already work with restaurants, bars, and hospitality businesses, so you don't have to explain why your Toast deposit doesn't match yesterday's sales — or why recording every food purchase to a generic "Supplies" account isn't very useful. Learn more about our team.

Accurate

POS, payroll, bank accounts, credit cards, merchant processors, and other systems are reconciled as part of a structured monthly close.

Available

Your books stay current throughout the year instead of becoming a cleanup project when your CPA needs them.

Actionable

Your financials are organized around the way your restaurant operates, giving you a clearer view of costs, margins, and profitability.

Local & nationwide

Restaurant Bookkeeping in Northern Virginia & the DMV

Eight Five Bookkeeping is based in Alexandria, Virginia and works with restaurants throughout Northern Virginia, Washington DC, and the greater DMV. Our process is remote-friendly, so we also work with restaurant owners and multi-location operators nationwide.

Whether you're operating one neighborhood restaurant or managing multiple locations and entities, we can build the bookkeeping process around your operation.

Serving restaurants in

  • Alexandria
  • Arlington
  • Fairfax
  • Falls Church
  • Vienna
  • McLean
  • Tysons
  • Springfield
  • Washington DC
  • Nationwide (remote)

FAQ

Restaurant bookkeeping questions

Want to see how we price engagements? View our pricing.

Spend Less Time Managing the Books. Get More From the Numbers.

Your restaurant already generates plenty of financial data. We'll make sure it all comes together. Schedule a consultation to walk through your restaurant, your current bookkeeping process, and the systems you use. You'll leave with a clear recommendation and custom monthly price.