Hospitality bookkeepers for Hobart, with Regatta Day in the payroll.

Who we work with in Hobart

Roger Financial does the bookkeeping, payroll and BAS for cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs in Hobart and the rest of Tasmania, from a single venue to a small group. Hospitality is the only industry we work in.

Taking over a file, we clean up the history first at no charge and, as your registered tax agent, bring any overdue BAS, IAS and STP lodgments up to date. After that you get one page every Friday with sales, wages, food cost and a BAS put-aside figure, so Regatta Day's wage bill shows up in that week's numbers.

Hobart pays a different set of holidays from the north of the state

Tasmania's Statutory Holidays Act 2000 sets some public holidays for the whole state and others for parts of it. Hobart observes the Royal Hobart Regatta in February and the Royal Hobart Show in October. Recreation Day, Monday 2 November this year, applies only in the parts of the state that don't observe Regatta, so in Hobart it's an ordinary Monday.

Staff get the public holidays of the place they're based for work, wherever they work on the day. A group with a venue in Hobart and another in Launceston runs two holiday calendars: Regatta and Hobart Show Day for one, Recreation Day and the Royal Launceston Show for the other.

Easter Tuesday is on the list too, marked as generally for the Tasmanian Public Service only, so check your award or agreement before paying it as a holiday.

Easter Sunday becomes a Tasmanian public holiday in 2027

An amendment that applied from 9 October 2026 added Easter Sunday to Tasmania's statutory holidays. The first one is Sunday 28 March 2027. Under the Restaurant Award a Level 2 casual costs $67.70 an hour on a public holiday and $40.62 on an ordinary Sunday, so each Level 2 casual hour that day costs $27.08 more than it did at Easter 2026.

Christmas runs differently here as well. When Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, as it does this year, Tasmania moves the holiday to the Monday. Monday 28 December is the public holiday, and Saturday 26 December is paid as a Saturday.

What Regatta Day costs a $12,000-a-week cafe

The next Regatta Day is Monday 8 February 2027. Take a Hobart cafe doing $12,000 a week that opens as usual, with a part-time Level 2 cook on 8 hours and three Level 2 casuals on 26 hours between them, all under the Restaurant Award:

• Cook, 8 hours: $216.64 on a normal Monday, $487.44 on Regatta Day
• Casuals, 26 hours: $880.10 on a normal Monday, $1,760.20 on Regatta Day
• Extra wages: $1,150.90
• Super at 12% on the extra: $138.11
• Extra cost of opening: $1,289.01

Super applies because public holiday penalties for ordinary hours count as ordinary time earnings, at the 12% rate. With food and drink at 30% of sales, the till needs about $1,841 more than a normal Monday, before GST, just to cover the extra. If Regatta trade won't bring that in, a shorter day costs less than a full one.

A cafe run by a hotel can sit under a different award with different Sunday rates. Our piece on which award covers your cafe sets out the split.

Payroll tax has two rates in Tasmania

The State Revenue Office charges nothing on the first $1.25 million of Australian wages a year, 4% on wages from $1.25 million to $2 million, and 6.1% above $2 million. Businesses under common control form a group and count their wages together.

A venue paying $8,000 a week in wages and super pays $416,000 a year, about a third of the threshold. Four venues that size, owned by the same people, are past it.

Suggested workers compensation rates for cafes and restaurants went up

Every Tasmanian employer has to insure with a licensed insurer or hold a permit from the WorkCover Tasmania Board to self-insure. Six insurers are on the licensed list.

WorkSafe Tasmania publishes suggested premium rates each year as a guide for those insurers. For cafes and restaurants the 2026-27 suggested rate is 1.43% of wages, up from 1.24%. On $416,000 of wages that's $5,949 a year at the suggested rate, $790 more than at last year's.

Your lease still runs on the 1998 code

Tasmania passed the Retail Leases Act 2022, but only two sections have commenced, so the Fair Trading (Code of Practice for Retail Tenancies) Regulations 1998 still govern retail leases. The code covers restaurants, cafeterias and coffee lounges of 1,000 square metres or less. It sets a minimum five-year term unless your lawyer certifies they've explained a shorter one, and it limits rent reviews to set methods, such as the Hobart CPI or market rent.

In a dispute you and the landlord negotiate first. Then either side can ask Consumer Affairs Tasmania to help negotiate a solution, and after that the matter can go to court.

How we run a Hobart venue's week from Sydney

We're in Sydney and look after over thirty venues in every state and territory, Tasmania included. Your suppliers send invoices to a capture email, we code them as they arrive and pay them in one weekly run, payroll goes out every week with STP and super, and on Friday you get one page with sales, wages, food cost, profit and your BAS put-aside figure.

Since 1 July super goes out with every pay run, Regatta penalties included. Our piece on payday super covers what that does to weekly cash.

When we take over a payroll, one of the first things we check is whether last year's STP finalisation was lodged. For some new clients it wasn't, which is why their staff couldn't do their tax returns.

Our hospitality bookkeepers page sets out the weekly service. Core is $499 a month with a monthly call with Amit. Essentials, at $599, adds monthly IAS and quarterly BAS from a registered tax agent, and Foundation, at $799, adds company and personal tax returns, which our hospitality accounting page covers.

Who we're not for

If you want a bookkeeper you can meet in Hobart each week, a local one will suit you better. We work remotely, through Xero, email and the monthly call with Amit.

If remote suits you, tell us about your venue below and we'll reply within one business day with a flat price.