Restaurant Bookkeeping
Clear books, real insight, from a partner who speaks restaurant and finance.
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Running a restaurant is complex enough, so your bookkeeping shouldn't be. We handle the day-to-day so you can focus on what you do best, and we make sure the numbers reflect your business reality. With Prepshift, you'll have the clarity to filter out the noise and focus on the decisions that move your bottom line.
Bookkeeping Plans
Whether you need the basics or want a fuller financial picture, we have a plan that fits. Not sure what plan is right for your business? We can help.
Prepshift Essentials
Cash bookkeeping to simplify financial management and give you peace of mind. Starting at $445/mo.
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Transaction Recording — Every transaction entered accurately, so your books always reflect reality.
Bank & Credit Card Reconciliation — Routine reconciliations that reduce errors and give you confidence.
Monthly Profit & Loss Statement — Easy-to-understand reports right in your inbox every month.
Payroll Reconciliation — Reviewed quarterly to keep your labor numbers accurate.
Monthly Meals Tax Payment — One less deadline for you to track.
Revenue Reconciliation — Reviewed quarterly to make sure your sales data holds up.
Dedicated Client Portal — One place to see your financials and documents, always up to date.
Access to the Prepshift Team — Easy to schedule, whenever you need it.
Custom Chart of Accounts — Set up to reflect how your business actually runs.
QuickBooks Ledger — Included at no cost to you.
Year-End Accountant Hand-Off — Clean books, ready to go at year's end.
Balance Sheet Reconciliation — Including loans, equity, and other longer-term accounts, reviewed annually.
Tie to Tax Return — Your books reconciled against your filed return each year.
Prepshift Accrual
Accrual bookkeeping to unlock informed decisions, track results, and drive growth. Starting at $1,050/mo.
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Accrual Bookkeeping — Precise, up-to-date records that reflect your business's true financial performance, so you can plan for growth and manage cash flow with confidence.
Bank & Credit Card Reconciliation — Routine reconciliations to reduce errors.
Monthly Profit & Loss Statement — Easy-to-understand reports in your inbox every month so you always know where you stand.
Payroll Reconciliation — Keeping your labor numbers accurate.
Monthly Meals Tax Payment — One less deadline for you to track.
Revenue Reconciliation
Third-Party Delivery Reconciliation — We reconcile DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, and other delivery platform payouts against your books, so nothing slips through the cracks between what you're owed and what actually lands in your account.
Quarterly Insights Report — Personalized advice to help you seize opportunities and address business weaknesses early.
AP Management through BILL† — We manage your AP workflow so vendors get paid on time and you don't have to think about it.
Dedicated Client Portal — One place to see your financials and documents, always up to date.
Access to the Prepshift Team —Have a question or want to talk through your numbers? We’re here to help.
Custom Chart of Accounts — Set up to reflect how your business actually runs.
QuickBooks Online‡
Prepshift Diagnostic — A complimentary business health check across finance, operations, people, and strategy.
Year-End Accountant Hand-Off — Clean books, ready to go at year's end.
Balance Sheet Reconciliation*
Tie to Tax Return — Your books reconciled against your filed return each year.
*Balance sheets produced upon request.
†Monthly BILL membership fee not included.
‡Monthly QuickBooks membership fee not included.
Client Success Story
From "I think" to "I know": A New Era of Prosperity for
a Second-Generation Bakery
From overdue taxes to vendor errors, learn how streamlined bookkeeping systems and financial support turned financial chaos into clarity for this New England bakery.
Why Choose Prepshift
Restaurant & Bookkeeping Expertise Under One Roof
Whether you're a restaurant owner with one location or five, we make sure your financial records are clear and actionable. Our team has hands-on restaurant experience, so we understand prime costs, labor swings, seasonality, and the dozens of other things that make food business finances unique.
Education To Boost Your Business & Your Confidence
We don't just manage your books; we explain what's happening, why it matters, and how it impacts your bottom line. If a number moves, you'll know why, not just that it did.
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At Prepshift, we’ve had the privilege of peeking under the hood of hundreds of restaurants. We help you understand how your restaurant is performing against industry standards, your peers, and your own history, giving you a clear, nuanced picture that turns directly into action.
A Smooth, Structured Start
[ Something about switching bookkeepers is hard]. Our structured onboarding is built to do the heavy lifting for you upfront, so you can get back to the things that matter most. In a few short sessions, we’ll securely transfer your accounts, connect your systems, and tailor your chart of accounts to how your restaurant actually runs. From there, you'll start getting Profit & Loss statements delivered to you every month.
The Prepshift Diagnostic
Every client is eligible for a complimentary Prepshift Diagnostic, our proprietary business health check across finance, operations, people, and strategy ($2,000 value). It gives you a clear snapshot of where your business stands today, how you compare to industry peers, and where to focus first. It's the same diagnostic that anchors all of our consulting work, and it means we start your bookkeeping relationship already understanding your business, not just your transactions.
The Prepshift Quarterly Health Check
Every quarter, accrual clients get a breakdown of their P&L into the metrics that matter, including revenue, cost of goods sold, direct labor, overhead, and net operating profit, and we tell you in plain language what’s healthy, high, or worth watching. We benchmark your results against industry averages, your own goals, and your prior performance so you can see where you stand and where you're headed.
What you'll see in every report:
A plain-language read on revenue, COGS, labor, overhead, and profit
Your performance vs. your targets, in percentages and dollars
Trailing quarterly and year-over-year comparisons so you can spot real trends, not noise
Specific, actionable recommendations tied to your numbers, not generic advice
Bookkeeping is the Foundation,
Not the Finish Line
We started offering bookkeeping because we kept seeing the same thing: consulting clients who wanted to grow but didn't have financial data they could trust. We were spending our first few months with them just cleaning up the books before we could even start the real strategy work.
So we built a bookkeeping service that solves that problem from day one. When we're the ones keeping your books, we're not starting from scratch when it's time to talk strategy; we already know your numbers, which means the advice we give you is specific to your business. Many of our bookkeeping clients eventually bring us in for deeper CFO advisory or consulting work, and when they do, we're not learning their business for the first time. We're already in it.
You don't need to be ready for that conversation to start with bookkeeping. But if and when you are, we'll already have the foundation in place.
Financial Clarity Backed by Industry Expertise
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Cash bookkeeping tracks money when it hits your account, and expenses when you pay them. It's simple and gives you a clear read on your day-to-day cash flow.
Accrual bookkeeping tracks income and expenses when they're actually earned or incurred, not just when cash changes hands, which gives you a more accurate picture of true profitability. For example, say you book a large catering order in March, but the client doesn't pay until May, or you place a big liquor inventory order and don't pay the invoice for 30 days. Cash books wouldn't show that income or expense until the money actually moves, which can make a given month look stronger or weaker than it really was. Accrual books would reflect it right away, matched to when the work happened. Most smaller or newer restaurants do well with cash. As you grow, accrual tends to give you the fuller picture you need to make big decisions. If you're not sure which fits your business, that's exactly the kind of thing we help you figure out.
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We record your payroll expenses as part of standard bookkeeping, but we don't run payroll processing itself. Most clients use a payroll provider like Gusto or ADP, and we make sure everything from that system flows cleanly into your financials.
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We pay your monthly meals and sales tax filings on your behalf as part of your plan. For income tax preparation, we prepare clean, organized books and hand them off to your accountant, so tax season is fast and painless. If you don't have a tax accountant, we're happy to make a recommendation.
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Just ask. Custom reports and add-ons like AP management are available, and if something comes up that falls outside your plan, we're happy to have a conversation to understand your needs before doing any extra work, so there are never any surprise charges.
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Yes. You'll have view-only access to your QuickBooks account at all times, so you can log in and see your data and reports whenever you want. To keep your books clean and consistent, we handle entries and edits for you, but the numbers are always yours to review.
If you're coming to us already using QuickBooks, it's usually a good sign you're ready for a bookkeeping partner. More often than not, though, restaurant books that have been self-managed or handled informally tend to have gaps or inconsistencies, even when the intentions were good. We'll take a look at what you have, let you know what it'll take to get it in shape, and go from there together.
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Straightforward on your end. We'll ask for access to your existing books and financial accounts, and take it from there. Before we take over ongoing bookkeeping, we do a full review of your books to make sure everything is accurate and organized. If cleanup is needed, we'll walk you through exactly what that involves and what to expect before any work begins.
We know switching bookkeepers can feel daunting, so we handle as much of the transition as we can. That includes coordinating directly with your previous bookkeeper when needed, gathering historical records, and answering the "wait, what about..." questions that tend to come up along the way to make the handoff as smooth as possible.
What Our Clients Have to Say
