Hospitality accounting from the people who do your books every week.

Your accountant should be reading last week's numbers

An accountant who sees a venue's books once a year can only tell you what last year did. Hospitality accounting works better when the people lodging your BAS reconciled your bank last Thursday and read your wage cost last Friday.

That's how we run it. The same team does your weekly books and your tax work, as a registered tax agent, RAN 26371473, so the BAS is a review of books that are already clean.

What a hospitality accountant lodges for a venue, and when

• Every pay run: STP, on or before payday, and super to each fund within 7 business days.
• Every month: an IAS for the tax withheld from wages, if you withhold $25,001 or more a year.
• Every quarter: the BAS, with the quarter's GST and any withholding not already on an IAS.
• Every year: STP finalisation for your staff, then the company and personal tax returns.

A venue withholding $500 a week of tax from its staff is at $26,000 a year, past the $25,001 line, so it lodges 12 statements a year instead of 4. Lodging the quarterly BAS through a registered agent may also get you extra time, except for the October to December quarter, which already has a one-month extension.

A bookkeeper can't charge you for any of this unless they're registered, and only a tax agent can do your return. Our piece on bookkeepers, BAS agents and tax agents sets out who can do what.

The BAS money comes out of every week

Every weekly report we send has a BAS put-aside figure: what that week added to your next BAS. Move it to its own account the same day and the quarter's bill is already there when it's due.

On a venue taking $22,000 a week, all taxable, so $20,000 before GST:

• GST collected on sales: $2,000
• Less GST credits on supplier bills, rent and other costs: $650
• Plus tax withheld from staff wages: $800
• Put aside this week: $2,150

Over a 13-week quarter that is $27,950. The $10,400 of withholding goes on an IAS for each of the first two months and on the BAS for the third. The $17,550 of GST goes on the BAS.

Skip the weekly put-aside and that $27,950 arrives as three bills in one quarter, paid from whatever is in the account that week. ATO debt parked in a file and forgotten about is one of the things we find when we take over a venue's books.

The GST side depends on your POS too. Dine-in and hot takeaway carry GST and cold takeaway goes item by item, so one button on the wrong code repeats on every sale. Our piece on GST on takeaway food shows what that costs over a quarter.

Tax returns start from a year of reconciled weeks

Foundation, at $799 a month, adds your annual company and personal tax returns. Fifty-two reconciled weeks means the return starts from a file that already balances, so the work goes into the tax questions.

How you pay yourself decides a lot of it. A sole trader's drawings aren't a wage, and the tax is on the profit. A company can put you on the payroll, but if it pays your private bills the ATO can treat that as a Division 7A deemed dividend. Our piece on how much to pay yourself covers each structure.

Stock comes up at year end too. Under the ATO's simplified trading stock rules, an eligible small business that reasonably estimates its stock changed by $5,000 or less over the year doesn't need a stocktake for tax. Your weekly food cost still needs a count.

Two ATO accounts can mean two payment plans

As your registered tax agent we can deal with the ATO for you on every account. If you're behind, your activity statement account and your income tax account need separate payment plans, so a venue owing $15,000 of GST and withholding and $5,000 of income tax has two plans to set up.

If you are already behind, our ATO debt help page sets out how we get a venue back on track, from overdue lodgments to director penalty notices.

Super is the other debt we see. Before 1 July we lodged super guarantee charge statements for venues that came to us with super paid late or not at all. Now the ATO works the charge out for every missed payday, and paying the fund before the ATO assesses you reduces it. Our payday super piece covers the change.

Prime cost is what we read with you every month

Every package includes a monthly call with Amit, who started Soul Burger and has spent 15 years in hospitality. It's half an hour on your tax position, labour, supplier prices, menu prices and what a good net profit looks like for your venue.

We aim for prime cost, food and drink plus wages and super, at 70% of sales or under. On a $20,000 week every point over is $200 a week, or $10,400 a year. The weekly P&L puts food cost and wages on the same page, so you can see which one moved.

Structure questions go to a specialist

Sole trader, company or trust, or a second site in a new entity: those are legal and tax decisions that last for years. We'll show you what your numbers say and refer the structure itself to a lawyer or specialist adviser, with your figures ready for them.

What hospitality accounting costs with us

The accounting starts in Essentials, $599 a month, which lodges your monthly IAS and quarterly BAS on top of the weekly payroll, supplier payments, reconciliation, P&L and monthly call. Foundation, $799 a month, adds annual company and personal tax returns. Core, at $499, is the bookkeeping without the BAS.

If you keep your own books and only want a tax return each year, we're not the cheapest option. Every package includes the weekly bookkeeping, and a once-a-year accountant will cost you less.

Moving your accounting to Roger

If your venue runs through a company, partnership or trust, you nominate us yourself in Online services for business, under Profile and then Agent details, with our registered agent number, 26371473. Let us know once it's done.

Then give us access to your Xero. We take the handover from whoever does your books now, clean up the history for free, and lodge from reconciled books from then on.

The weekly side is on our hospitality bookkeepers page, and restaurant owners will find more on our restaurant bookkeepers and accountants page.