A restaurant bookkeeper in Sydney, with the NSW wage costs counted.

Who we work with in NSW

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

We clean up the historic books before we start, free, and as your registered tax agent we bring any overdue BAS, IAS and STP lodgments up to date. Then it's one page every Friday with sales, wages, food cost and a BAS put-aside figure, so Boxing Day's wage bill shows up the week it happens.

NSW sets the public holidays, and the award sets what they cost

A Sydney restaurant pays its staff under the same award as a restaurant in Perth. The Restaurant Industry Award covers employers in the restaurant industry throughout Australia, and a restaurant run in or by a hotel usually goes on the Hospitality Award instead. Our piece on which award covers a cafe or restaurant sets out where the line falls.

What NSW decides is the calendar. Public holidays differ by state, and the NSW list includes Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. When Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Day falls on a weekend, NSW adds a public holiday on the following Monday or Tuesday.

In 2026, Christmas Day is a Friday and Boxing Day a Saturday, so Monday 28 December is a public holiday too, and New Year's Day follows on Friday 1 January 2027. Under the Restaurant Award, public holiday hours are paid at 225% of the minimum rate for full-time and part-time staff and 250% for casuals, against 125% and 150% on an ordinary Saturday.

What Boxing Day and the Monday after add to a restaurant's wages

Take a restaurant on award rates whose usual Saturday costs $2,700 in casual wages and $1,500 for part-timers, and whose usual Monday costs $1,250 and $800, all before 10pm. If it opens on Boxing Day and Monday 28 December in 2026:

• Boxing Day casuals: $2,700 at 150% becomes $4,500 at 250%, so $1,800 more
• Boxing Day part-timers: $1,500 at 125% becomes $2,700 at 225%, so $1,200 more
• Monday 28 December casuals: $1,250 at 125% becomes $2,500 at 250%, so $1,250 more
• Monday 28 December part-timers: $800 at 100% becomes $1,800 at 225%, so $1,000 more
• Super at 12% on the extra $5,250: $630
• Extra cost of the two days: $5,880

Super is due on the extra, because public holiday penalties count as qualifying earnings, and the super guarantee rate is 12%. Our piece on payday super covers how it now goes out with each pay run.

So those two days have to take $5,880 more than a usual Saturday and Monday before they earn anything extra. We'd roster each day against its own sales forecast, and keep Monday 28 December lean if the forecast looks like a normal Monday.

icare's premium starts at 2.25% of a restaurant's wages, super included

A NSW restaurant with staff needs a workers compensation policy with icare. The only employers who don't are those that pay $7,500 or less in wages a year, hire no apprentice or trainee and aren't part of a group of businesses.

icare puts restaurant operation in its Cafes and Restaurants class, rated at 2.25% of wages for 2026-27, after this year's reforms held the 2025-26 rates. The wages it counts include employer super and payments to working directors.

After each policy year you have four months to declare actual wages. Miss it and icare loads the wages in your next renewal by 30%. On a restaurant with $600,000 of wages and super a year, that's $180,000 of wages you never paid, and $4,050 more premium at 2.25%.

A declaration is only as good as the payroll behind it. In files we've taken over we have found a pay run missing from the books entirely, which makes those weeks' wages look lower than they were.

Payroll tax counts the whole group's wages against one $1.2 million threshold

NSW charges payroll tax at 5.45% on wages above $1.2 million a year, and employer super counts as wages. A single restaurant needs about $23,000 a week of wages and super to get there. A second site gets there sooner, because businesses controlled by the same people are grouped and only one member of a group can claim the threshold.

The test runs monthly. A business or group has to register within 7 days after the month its Australian wages pass the monthly threshold, which for 2026-27 is $101,918 in a 31-day month. Once the yearly tax is over $20,000, it's paid monthly, 7 days after each month ends.

Our page on restaurant accounting in Sydney works the sum for two restaurants in two companies. We'd run it before the second lease is signed.

Lease outgoings get settled once a year, after the landlord's audited statement

A shop under 1,000 square metres that sells goods and services, on a lease of six months to under 25 years, is covered by the Retail Leases Act 1994. If your lease makes you pay outgoings, the landlord has to give you an estimate before each year and an audited statement within three months after it, and then one of you pays the difference.

On a July to June year, last year's audited statement was due by 30 September. If it hasn't come, ask in writing. If it still hasn't come 10 business days later, you can stop paying outgoings until it does. We code the rent and outgoings bills as they arrive, so you can check the statement against what you've paid.

Sydney restaurants, done from Bella Vista

We work remotely from our office at Colab in Bella Vista. A restaurant in the Inner West, the Eastern Suburbs, the CBD, the North Shore, the Northern Beaches, Parramatta or the Hills gets the same week: supplier invoices sent to one capture email, payroll processed in your Xero file, the bank reconciled, and one page of numbers on Friday.

We look after over thirty venues in every state and territory the same way. The week itself is laid out on our restaurant bookkeepers page, and if you also trade interstate, our hospitality bookkeepers page covers what changes from state to state.

What we'd check first on a Sydney restaurant's file

• Payroll tax: the group's wages and super, month by month, against the monthly threshold.
• icare: the class on the policy, and whether last year's actual wages were declared.
• Public holidays: that the last ones, Labour Day on 5 October included, were paid at public holiday rates.
• The lease: last year's outgoings statement against what you paid.
• STP: that every pay run was filed, and that last year's finalisation was lodged.

We'd go through these in the historic clean-up, which is free and comes before the weekly work starts.

What a Sydney restaurant bookkeeper 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. Essentials, at $599, adds monthly IAS and quarterly BAS lodged by a registered tax agent. Foundation, at $799, adds company and personal tax returns.

If you'd rather keep your accountant, Core leaves the BAS with them. The tax side is on our hospitality accounting page, and every package is on our pricing.