x

Best accounting/bookkeeping service for restaurant using Square?

Hello all,

 

I have been using Square at my 2 quick service restaurants for several years and using Quickbooks Online for bookkeeping. We are currently under construction on a 3rd location and I began thinking of how much time I currently spend on bookkeeping.  I tried the integration with Square and QBO, but it was WAY TOO MUCH info being transferred from Square to QBO.  Like every menu item from every receipt.  SO, I now spend 30 minutes a day manually entering the info I need from Square to QBO.  Is there a better program than QBO for restaurants that integrates with Square?  Thanks!

 

Jacob

1,765 Views
Message 1 of 6
Report
5 REPLIES 5
Super Seller

Hello @jcrafton !

 

From what I've heard, QBO in the restaurant world is nothing short of mind numbing. I'm currently using the desktop version of QuickBooks and it seems to be going relatively well.

 

Each night, I or my bookkeeper takes the daily sales from square and enters it into a Daily Operating Report spreadsheet. The spreadsheet allows me to make sure I have an accurate snapshot of the day's sales, and allows me to be able to adjust things that are odd. What I mean from odd is something like if I had a commissioned sale from an artist with work in my store: we take a 15% commission from the sale, not the whole amount. If the customer paid with a card, that sale is 100% on my books. The DOR allows me to take the commissioned sale part off of my sales.

 

From that DOR, we enter it as a General Journal entry in QuickBooks. I've never liked the way QB does their sales reporting: the GL allows us to enter everything just right. By using GL templates, we're able to speed up the process immensely.

 

In all, I'd say we spend roughly 5-10 minutes per day entering the dailies from the prior day.

 

I do have a question, though, and PLEASE don't take this the wrong way: with three stores, why are you doing the data entry? I'm working on opening my second right now, and I put the data entry onto my bookkeeper: she charges $25/hr, so about $100 a week with everything including report generation. I'm able to see a snapshot of my QB file usually up to date within the last 72 hours, and I can focus on generating the revenue for the store. I'm very curious to know why you'd like to keep doing it: what am I missing?

Ryan Wanner
Golden Pine Coffee Roasters
Colorado Springs, CO, USA

Super Seller: I know stuff.
Beta Tester: I break stuff.
he/him/hey you/coffee guy/whatever.

Happy Selling!
1,749 Views
Message 2 of 6
Report

I do the same with QBO as what you are doing, just wondering if there is a bookkeeping program that integrates better with Square. I enter all sales, discounts, refunds, cash deposits and credit card deposits into a daily sales receipt. The answer to why I do my own books is simple. The last bookkeeper I hired managed to steal about $35k from me before I caught on. 

1,747 Views
Message 3 of 6
Report
Super Seller

OUCH. Yeah, that's a really good reason to keep it in house.

 

I'll keep my ear to the ground, but I haven't heard of many other solutions for restaurants. And knowing my luck, If I do find a great one my accountant wouldn't support it....

Ryan Wanner
Golden Pine Coffee Roasters
Colorado Springs, CO, USA

Super Seller: I know stuff.
Beta Tester: I break stuff.
he/him/hey you/coffee guy/whatever.

Happy Selling!
1,743 Views
Message 4 of 6
Report

I have been using Square for Restaurants -> Shogo -> QBO with 6 locations and it works pretty well.  You have to take care of mapping your Square report line items with QBO accounts, but for daily sales reporting it works pretty well for us.  Shogo is very helpful.  I can recommend checking them out.

1,652 Views
Message 5 of 6
Report
Admin

Thanks @cbenson! I just wanted to add that anyone interested in learning more about this integration can do so from the Apps section of your online Square Dashboard > slect the Accounting & Tax filter > click Shogo

️ Helen
Seller Community Manager

Did you find help in the Seller Community? Mark a Best Answer to help others.
1,639 Views
Message 6 of 6
Report