Restaurant and hospitality bookkeepers for Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Who we work with in Queensland

Roger Financial does the bookkeeping, payroll and BAS for cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs in Brisbane, on the Gold Coast and on the Sunshine Coast, from a single venue to a small group. Hospitality is the only industry we work in.

When we start, we clean up the old books for free and bring any overdue BAS, IAS and STP lodgments up to date as your registered tax agent. Every Friday after that you get one page with sales, wages, food cost and a BAS put-aside figure, so the Christmas Eve wage bill is in that week's numbers.

Christmas Eve is a public holiday in Queensland from 6pm

Since 2019, Queensland has made 6pm to midnight on Christmas Eve a part-day public holiday. In 2026 that's Thursday 24 December. Christmas Day is the Friday, Boxing Day the Saturday, and Monday 28 December is a public holiday as well.

Pay rates come from the national award. Restaurants and eat-in cafes are usually on the Restaurant Industry Award, which pays 250% to casuals and 225% to full-time and part-time staff on a public holiday, against 125% and 100% on a weekday evening before 10pm. A casual working a public holiday is paid for at least 2 hours and a full-timer or part-timer for at least 4, and hours worked straight before 6pm in the same shift count towards that minimum. Our piece on which award covers your venue has the test for takeaway-led and hotel-run venues.

What four hours on Christmas Eve add to a Brisbane restaurant's wages

Take a restaurant running dinner service from 6pm to 10pm on Christmas Eve, at the award rates in force since 1 July 2026:

• Six casual Level 2 floor staff, 24 hours: $33.85 an hour becomes $67.70, so $812.40 more
• Two casual Level 3 cooks, 8 hours: $34.96 becomes $69.93, so $279.76 more
• One full-time Level 4 chef, 4 hours: $29.45 becomes $66.26, so $147.24 more
• Super at 12% on the extra $1,239.40: $148.73
• Extra cost of the four hours: $1,388.13

That's about $347 an hour on top of a normal Thursday night, before the restaurant sells anything extra. We'd price a set menu for the night, or roster it to the bookings.

Super goes on the penalty too, because public holiday penalties count as qualifying earnings and the rate is 12%. Some venues came to us with super paid late or not at all, and we have lodged super guarantee charge statements to fix it. Our piece on payday super covers how super now leaves with each pay run.

Two Queensland show holidays depend on where the venue is. The Royal Queensland Show holiday, Wednesday 12 August in 2026, applies in the Brisbane area only, and the City of Gold Coast's show holiday was Friday 11 September. A group with a venue in each pays public holiday rates on different days. Easter Sunday is a Queensland public holiday too.

WorkCover Queensland charges cafes and restaurants $1.16 per $100 of wages

Every Queensland employer with workers needs workers' compensation insurance, which in most cases means an accident insurance policy with WorkCover Queensland. For 2026-27 the industry rate per $100 of wages is $1.160 for cafes and restaurants, $0.937 for takeaway food and $1.776 for pubs, taverns and bars, before GST and stamp duty.

A new policy pays wages divided by $100, times the industry rate, for its first 18 months. After that, a venue with up to $1.5 million of wages pays between 80% and 120% of the industry rate, depending on its claims. Wages include super, and directors aren't covered by the policy, so their pay stays out of the declaration.

Each year you declare last year's actual wages and this year's estimate by 31 August, and pay by 30 September to keep your cover. The 3% pay-in-full discount ends on 16 September. Miss the declaration and WorkCover assumes your wages went up. Both figures come from the pay runs we process in Xero.

Queensland payroll tax starts at $1.3 million, with no regional discount in Brisbane

Queensland charges payroll tax at 4.75% for employers and groups paying $6.5 million or less in Australian wages a year, above a $1.3 million threshold, and super counts as wages. The deduction shrinks by $1 for every $7 of wages above $1.3 million, and a group's wages are added together against one threshold.

A group paying $1.6 million of wages and super a year keeps a deduction of $1,257,143 and pays about $16,286. You have to register within 7 days of the first month the group's Australian wages pass $25,000 a week.

Regional employers can take 1% off the rate until 30 June 2030. For this purpose regional Queensland is Cairns, Townsville, Wide Bay, Central Queensland, Darling Downs and Maranoa, Mackay, Isaac and Whitsunday, and the Outback. A venue whose registered business address is in Brisbane or on the Gold Coast pays the full rate.

Cafe and restaurant leases are retail shop leases in Queensland

A lease is a retail shop lease under the Retail Shop Leases Act 1994 if the shop is under 1,000 square metres and used for a retail business, and the regulation lists takeaway food outlets, cafes and restaurants as retail businesses. Bars and pubs selling drinks for the premises aren't on the list, though a lease inside a retail shopping centre can still be covered. The Act gives a tenant disclosure before signing or renewing, and a low-cost way to settle disputes.

A retail shop lease dispute goes to the Queensland Small Business Commissioner for mediation, held by video or phone, and it goes ahead unless the applicant withdraws. If it doesn't settle, the mediator refers eligible matters to QCAT. For 2026-27 applications the fee is $396.64, split equally between landlord and tenant.

Brisbane and Gold Coast venues, done from Sydney

We work remotely from our office at 217/14 Lexington Dr, Bella Vista, in Sydney. A restaurant in Fortitude Valley or West End and a cafe in Burleigh Heads get the same week: supplier invoices sent to one capture email and coded as they arrive, payroll run in your Xero file, the bank reconciled, and a P&L on one page.

We look after over thirty venues in every state and territory this way. Our hospitality bookkeepers page lays out the week, and our restaurant accounting page shows what a drifting week costs a restaurant.

What hospitality bookkeeping and accounting cost 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. Essentials, at $599, adds monthly IAS and quarterly BAS, lodged by us as a registered tax agent. Foundation, at $799, adds company and personal tax returns.

The tax side is on our hospitality accounting page. If the ATO is already chasing you, our ATO debt help page sets out what we do first, and every package is on our pricing.