Cafe bookkeeping for Melbourne, with Cup Day and WorkSafe in the weekly numbers.

Cup Day costs a cafe about $1,440 more than a normal Tuesday

Melbourne Cup Day is a public holiday across Victoria unless a council outside Melbourne has arranged a local one instead. In 2026 it falls on Tuesday 3 November. Eat-in cafes are usually on the Restaurant Industry Award, which pays casuals 250% of the minimum hourly rate on a public holiday against 125% on a weekday, and full-time and part-time staff 225% against 100%.

Take a cafe that rosters three casual floor staff for 7 hours each, and a casual cook and a part-time chef for 8 hours each, at the award rates in force since 1 July 2026:

• Casual Level 2 floor staff, 21 hours: $33.85 an hour on a Tuesday, $67.70 on Cup Day, so $710.85 more
• Casual Level 3 cook, 8 hours: $34.96 becomes $69.93, so $279.76 more
• Part-time Level 4 chef, 8 hours: $29.45 becomes $66.26, so $294.48 more
• Super at 12% on the extra $1,285.09: $154.21
• Extra cost of the day: $1,439.30

Super is due on the penalty because public holiday penalties count as qualifying earnings, and the super guarantee rate is 12%. At a 30% wage cost, the day needs about $4,800 more in sales just to hold the percentage. If last year's Cup Day didn't bring that in, we'd roster it lighter or shut for the day.

The roster mix matters on a day like this. We have costed casual against part-time rosters for venues deciding how to staff, and on a public holiday a casual's 250% against a part-timer's 225% is part of that sum. Our piece on cafe wage cost shows the whole wage line.

On a public holiday the award also pays a casual for at least 2 hours and a full-timer or part-timer for at least 4, however short the shift. Victoria's other days to roster for are Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday, the Friday before the AFL Grand Final, and this year Boxing Day on Saturday 26 December with an extra public holiday on Monday 28 December.

WorkSafe's 2026-27 rate for cafes is 1.181% of wages and super

A cafe needs WorkCover insurance unless it has no apprentices and pays no more than $7,500 in remuneration in a financial year. If your company pays you a wage, you're its worker too. Registration is due within 60 days of first needing cover, and you choose a WorkSafe agent when you apply.

WorkSafe rates Cafes and Restaurants at 1.181% for 2026-27, and remuneration includes super. With $200,000 or less of remuneration, the premium is worked from that rate and your remuneration. A cafe paying $3,400 a week in wages has $198,016 a year with super, so a premium of about $2,339 a year at that rate, plus GST. Above $200,000, your claims history moves it.

For 2026-27 the annual premium is due on 1 November 2026, and a premium of $1,000 or less has to be paid in full by then. Small employers certify their 2025-26 remuneration by 19 March 2027, and the minimum premium is $400 plus GST. We take the remuneration straight from the pay runs in Xero.

Victoria's lease rules start before you sign

Premises used mainly to sell retail goods or services are retail premises under the Retail Leases Act 2003, which takes in most cafes. Since 1 July 2026 a landlord negotiating a new retail lease has to give you the Victorian Small Business Commission's updated information brochure with the proposed lease, and the disclosure statement has to reach you at least 14 days before you enter the lease.

Under a retail lease you can't be charged land tax, and you pay outgoings only after the landlord gives you an estimate beforehand. The audited statement of actual outgoings is due within three months after each year. We code rent and outgoings as they arrive, so the statement can be checked against what you paid. A retail lease dispute goes to the Commission before VCAT.

Payroll tax reaches a cafe through its owners' other businesses

Victoria's payroll tax starts above $1 million of wages a year, at 4.85%, with super counted as wages. The cafe above pays under $200,000. Businesses controlled by the same people are grouped and treated as one, so a second cafe or a restaurant can bring the first one in. Our Melbourne restaurant bookkeeper page works that sum for two sites.

Melbourne cafes, done from Sydney

We work remotely from our office in Bella Vista, Sydney. Supplier invoices go to one capture email and we code each one as it arrives, so a roaster's or a dairy's price rise shows up in that week's cost of goods. We flag supplier price rises the week they happen. Our piece on cafe food cost shows how a weekly count turns those bills into a food cost percentage.

We look after over thirty venues in every state and territory this way, and our hospitality bookkeepers page sets out what changes from state to state.

What cafe bookkeeping costs with us

Core is $499 a month, about $115 a week, for payroll, supplier payments, reconciliation, the weekly P&L and a monthly call with Amit, who started Soul Burger and has spent 15 years in hospitality. On a cafe taking $12,000 a week, that's about 1% of sales. Essentials, at $599, adds monthly IAS and quarterly BAS, and Foundation, at $799, adds company and personal tax returns.

Our cafe bookkeeping page has the national detail, and every package is on our pricing.