How do I know if my restaurant bookkeeper is doing a good job?

People ask me all the time, “What does a restaurant bookkeeper do?” We aggregate information correctly so that you or your CPA can act on it. We take data points (your POS system, bank transactions, payroll, etc.) and put them together into reports so you can see how your business is performing. We help restaurants stay organized. We also pay bills.

Effective bookkeeping is about reconciling bank accounts properly, being on top of transactions, understanding where transactions are coming from, being responsive, and being transparent.

Key takeaways

• A restaurant bookkeeper turns your POS, bank, payroll and vendor data into reports you or your CPA can act on, and can pay your bills too.
• Responsiveness matters: a good bookkeeper acknowledges your question quickly and comes back with an answer.
• Your bookkeeper should understand your systems and tell you what to change when your setup is creating bad data.
• Detail oriented bookkeepers notice when a statement looks different from last month and find out why.
• A bookkeeper who won't share access to your books is a huge red flag.

STAYING RESPONSIVE

Communication is key. If you reach out to your bookkeeper, they need to get back to you in a timely manner. Or at least acknowledge that you have a question, do the necessary research, and respond with an answer. If that doesn’t happen, it’s not the right person for you.

At FIXE, we pride ourselves on customer service. All of our bookkeepers and account managers need to be able to pick up the phone, answer a text message, or answer an email in a timely manner. Even if they don’t have the answer right away, they will acknowledge your concerns and be diligent about finding an answer. We don’t wait 3 or 4 weeks to ask a question about a transaction. Data is coming in daily, so we act upon it daily.

UNDERSTANDING AND UPDATING SYSTEMS

Bookkeepers need to understand what systems are doing in order to provide the correct data. I recently spoke with a prospective customer who wants to leave their current bookkeeper. They kept throwing their arms in the air and saying, “I don’t understand where this data is coming from or why it’s set up this way.” Their bookkeeper wasn’t willing to help them understand or fix it.

We may not know everything at FIXE, but we’re very good about researching and figuring out why a number is coming in the way it is. We may need to instruct customers to set something up in a different way. If a bookkeeper doesn’t understand your system or business,they’re not going to help. You don’t need another road block.

I hate when people say, “Garbage in and garbage out.” People think that because we’re able to charge such a competitive price at FIXE, that’s how we operate. That’s not how we operate.

One of our roles as a restaurant bookkeeping company is to advise on systems. In order for a bookkeeper to do their job well, they need to be able to say, “If you want us to do our job and help you stay organized, you’re going to need to tweak a couple of things that are hindering your organization. You’re hiring us for a reason. Let us work with you to come up with a better setup.”

If we’re coming in midstream, it’s because your old setup wasn’t working. Maybe your old bookkeeper didn’t have the knowledge or foresight to coach you on what you needed to do differently.

DETAIL ORIENTED

Your bookkeeper needs to be detail oriented so they can identify when something doesn’t look right. They should understand when something looks off or why a financial statement looks a little different from the month before. Maybe there was no rent last month, but there is this month. What’s going on? Technology can help answer that.

We have to make adjustments from time to time, but as bookkeepers, it’s our job to understand how the information is coming to us and what to adjust.

You set up your POS system, your payroll system, and all of your vendors. We take that information and make it as clean and cohesive as possible. We don’t just spit it back out to you.

TRANSPARENCY

One of the reasons I started FIXE was because my old bookkeeper lacked transparency.. Every time I asked for something, he would say, “Give me a few days and I’ll give it to you.” I’d ask, “Why isn’t it ready right now? It’s okay if it’s not perfect.” Eventually, when I got access to all of my financials and took it away from them, I found a lot of dirt brushed under the rug that I had to then uncover.

A lot of bookkeepers don’t want to share access to QuickBooks because they’re afraid of what the customer is going to see when they start logging in. Maybe they never reconciled bank accounts and credit cards or didn’t categorize transactions correctly. Or they’re not applying payments to invoices and nothing lines up correctly. These are all huge red flags. We’re 100% transparent, even if we’re not 100% perfect.

We encourage you to go into the FIXE portal, take a look and ask, “Why is that this way?” We’ll give you an answer every time. Sometimes it may just be that we just didn’t get around to adjust something yet.

A bookkeeper might say, “That’s the data that was given to me.” Or, “The customer never told me what it was for.” A good bookkeeper will do some digging and figure that stuff out.

Don’t be afraid to peel back the curtain. This isn’t like some of our customers who have super secret recipes. Bookkeeping should be straightforward. At FIXE, we have nothing to hide.

If you want to see how your own books measure up, get your Restaurant Financial Health Score.

Frequently asked questions

What does a restaurant bookkeeper do?

A restaurant bookkeeper takes data from your POS system, bank transactions, payroll and vendors and turns it into reports that show how your business is performing, so you or your CPA can act on them. They reconcile your bank accounts, categorize transactions, keep you organized and can pay your bills.

What are the red flags that my bookkeeper isn't doing a good job?

Slow or missing responses to your questions, not understanding where your data comes from, and refusing to share access to your books. Unreconciled bank and credit card accounts, miscategorized transactions and payments that aren't applied to invoices are all signs something's wrong.

Should my bookkeeper give me access to my books?

Yes. You should be able to log in, look at your numbers and ask why something is the way it is. A bookkeeper who won't share access may be hiding unreconciled accounts or miscategorized transactions. At FIXE, you can go into the portal, ask about anything you see, and we'll give you an answer every time.

More on Choosing a Restaurant Bookkeeper

This post is part of our Choosing a Restaurant Bookkeeper guide. Keep reading:

• Best restaurant bookkeeping services compared
• How Much Does Outsourced Restaurant Bookkeeping Cost?
• Outsourced restaurant bookkeeping: How it actually works