Hiring a restaurant specialist, CPA, is very important for restaurants today. Following the pandemic, we have witnessed countless restaurants closing down for one reason or another in the last three years. One of these reasons was their accounting and the lack of proper care for the business’s financial health. As reported by Tim Carman of the Washington Post, while the lockdowns certainly impacted restaurants and forced closures, the underlying problem that restaurant advocates narrowed down was the sheer amount of debt incurred by restaurants.
A restaurant cannot run and weather hard times without the proper accounting support, and a CPA specializing in restaurants is the perfect safety measure to ensure that your cozy little hole-in-the-wall isn’t forced to shut down. The looming shadow of poor financial choices and excess debts is the core of the issue here and the spark that lit a fire in our experts at Expertise Accelerated to start the conversation and spread awareness among restaurant owners that they need to find a CPA specializing in restaurants.
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What is a CPA Specializing in Restaurant Accounting?
We all know what a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is, but mentioning a CPA specializing in restaurants begs the question: What’s the difference?
The answer is simple: Experience.
While any regular CPA suffices for handling restaurant accounting, the experience and insight from someone working in the industry for years is a massive difference-maker. For one, the restaurant industry is highly competitive, and you must constantly think about newer and better ways to compete with the big shots. KFC, McDonalds, Subway, and the rest have rooms full of people, ensuring they stay competitive.
While this does feel like a hopeless struggle, this is exactly where a veteran CPA specializing in restaurants can level the playing field. Such a CPA brings a host of added utility and input that can fundamentally change the business and help you stay on track to growth and culinary happiness.
5 Reasons to Hire a CPA Specializing in Restaurant AccountingThe Information Network
It’s no secret to even amateur entrepreneurs that information is your biggest asset in today’s day and age. Starting a restaurant today is hard, and staying competitive even harder. In a 2018 article by Restaurant Business Magazine, experts reported over a million restaurants in the US, with fifty thousand new additions yearly. While the pandemic certainly threw a wrench in that growth rate, the fact remains that the restaurants that survived those hardships and have firmly grounded themselves in the industry are all formidable rivals to take on.
Your restaurant can use any edge, and the information network brought by a restaurant specialist CPA is one big edge. Think about it: such a professional is experienced in handling the books and knows their way around the industry. They know the taxation officers and the auditors, they have ties to other restaurants, and they know suppliers and vendors. A restaurant specialist CPA has to interact with all the other functions of the business regularly and has connections throughout the industry. This information network is priceless.
Say you need some ingredients supplied, but your usual supplier is unavailable. Your CPA can make a quick phone call to alternative suppliers they have worked with and built a relationship with within their career and, without missing a beat, find a solution that would otherwise take much more work to reach.
The Reputation
While restaurants are part of the service industry, it is important to remember that you are still a business, and businesses need to have a good business reputation. Regardless of your reputation among customers, you also need to appear trustworthy and dependable to your fellow restaurants, as well as to investors and banks.
A CPA specializing in restaurants can earn you this trust and fast. An accountant known and liked in the industry is an invaluable asset. Investors will trust you, knowing that your finances are in trustworthy hands. Other restaurants will collaborate with you based on good rapport, and your reputation in the community will rise tremendously.
The Skills
Besides the more social and network-related benefits, the skills are another big part of why you want a CPA specializing in restaurant accounting. Restaurants might seem like they work just like any other business, but there are intricacies and nuances that only a seasoned CPA is familiar with. Devising a business strategy that will drive growth for a restaurant is monumentally different from most other industries. There are separate concerns that need to be addressed and routes that need to be taken, and a specialist CPA can guide you through the whole thing. Speaking of restaurant accounting, here is a helpful guide to the restaurant chart of accounts, which you should be savvy with, even with a CPA on the scene.
Tax and Audit Support
We all know how tedious and draining tax and audit season can be. As a restaurant owner, you only want to practice and hone your craft and bring smiles to your customers while earning a bit of money to keep yourself going. Tax and audit season throws a giant wrench into that plan. Especially in the food and beverage sector, with prices spiking and dropping regularly and many receipts and invoices to go through, it’s not easy to deal with these things on your own.
While any regular CPA can get the job done, a CPA specializing in restaurant taxation will be far more effective. They know the tax code like the back of their hand and also have extensive knowledge of filing returns and tax write-offs. On the audit front, a specialized CPA will be intricately familiar with the process and regularly maintain and file financial statements and other documents so that you’re ready for an audit. Plus, when it comes to things like external audits, a recognized name in the industry as your CPA inspires confidence in auditors and the authorities.
The Risk Management
Another unsung benefit of leveraging restaurant accounting services from a CPA specializing in restaurants is added risk mitigation. As with any business, restaurants have their own pitfalls that they can fall into without sound financial advice. As discussed earlier, debt is the root cause of many restaurant shutdowns in the last two years. Adept debt management and bolstered financial health could have saved those businesses and saved yours from meeting a similar fate.
Outsource Your Restaurant Accounting with Expertise Accelerated
That said, we know that the cost of such a glorified professional would be astronomical. But- what if that was not the case?
By leveraging Expertise Accelerated’s outsourced accounting services, restaurants of any size can leverage the services of a gold-standard restaurant specialist CPA. EA CEO Haroon Jafree is a US food and beverage veteran and intimately familiar with its workings. Under the supervision of Haroon and his handpicked team of specialists, your restaurant’s financial problems are as good as gone. And all of this at a fraction of the US cost for similar services.
Book a free consultation with Haroon today.