Finding the right restaurant accounting software is essential for efficiently managing your business. Although it's not always fun, one of the most critical processes for any restaurant manager is maintaining accurate financial records and ensuring your finances, bookkeeping, and taxes are up to date at the end of every day.
Luckily, accounting software makes this easy for anyone to manage, even if you don’t have accounting knowledge or experience. If you use an accounting solution designed for restaurants, the process becomes easier.
In this guide, we’ve selected and reviewed some of the best restaurant accounting software tools your business can use.
What is Restaurant Accounting Software?
Restaurant accounting software performs a range of accounting and bookkeeping tasks for your restaurant. Restaurant owners use these accounting systems to input and store all of their financial data and keep track of all financial records.
You probably oversee many transactions every day, so it’s important to use accounting software that lets you easily and accurately manage your finances. Even if you have no accounting experience, the right accounting software can help you manage your bookkeeping and accounting tasks. This makes it much easier to complete your tax returns and access detailed financial reporting.
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Restaurant accounting software can also automate accounting processes. This saves time and ensures the system always uses accurate financial data. When you manage your finances manually, there’s a lot of room for error.
Accounting software for restaurants generally integrates with POS systems to easily capture all transactions. As these software platforms are valuable restaurant management tools, they often include restaurant-specific features, like inventory management.
Some accounting solutions offer an extensive set of features to cover all of your accounting and bookkeeping needs. Other accounting tools only focus on specific areas of accounting (like accounts payable), and require integrations with other platforms you use.
8 Best Restaurant Accounting Software Tools
When looking for the best accounting software for restaurants, you’ll want to consider the specific features of each platform and how it will work with your restaurant’s existing systems and operations.
To help you get started, here are some of the best restaurant accounting software options available.
1. Restaurant365
Restaurant365 is a robust restaurant management software solution. The platform includes a wide range of features designed for the restaurant industry. Beyond the tools for restaurant operations management, workforce management, and insights, Restuarant365 also includes a powerful accounting tool.
Unlike accounting software tools that are designed for general small businesses, this solution is focused purely on the needs of restaurants. This means its features like restaurant bookkeeping, financial reporting, and budgeting and forecasting are much more practical for you to work with.
You can use Restaurant365 to manage all accounting and bookkeeping tasks for your restaurant business. This includes overseeing accounts payable, invoicing, ordering, inventory management, catering management, and staff scheduling.
Restaurant365 does not offer payroll services, but there is a payroll integration with ADP. The platform also integrates with banks for payment reconciliation, POS systems, and vendors.
Main Features
- Accounts payable automation
- Financial reporting
- Fixed assets
- Restaurant bookkeeping
- Budgeting and forecasting
- Modern banking
2. Quickbooks Online
Quickbooks Online is probably the most popular accounting solution for small businesses. While it’s not specifically designed as accounting software for restaurants, it includes all the accounting and bookkeeping features your restaurant will need to operate smarter and more efficiently.
Quickbooks is incredibly easy to use. Even if you have zero accounting knowledge or experience, you can use the platform to accurately manage your restaurant’s finances. Quickbooks integrates with most POS systems and other restaurant management tools, which makes it a convenient restaurant accounting software solution.
The platform includes a wide range of accounting features, like invoice creation, expense tracking, handy tax features, receipt organization, sales tax tracking, inventory tracking, and plenty more. There are also some very useful automation workflows you can apply to save time and improve accounting accuracy.
Main Features
- Invoices
- Expense tracking
- Inventory management
- Sales tax tracking
- Detailed reports
3. Xero
When it comes to finding an accounting system for any small business, Xero is a great option. As accounting software, Xero offers a solid set of features to manage all areas of restaurant accounting and bookkeeping.
This includes all of the basic accounting features you’d expect: payroll processing, vendor payments, income and expense tracking, cash management, detailed financial reports, bank reconciliation and invoicing, and more.
The downside to using Xero is that it’s not a dedicated restaurant accounting system. Rather, it’s designed for any kind of business. This means setting the platform up to match your specific restaurant operations can take some time.
That being said, Xero’s wide range of accounting features should work well for your food business. The platform also includes an inventory management system.
Main Features
- Bill payments
- Bank reconciliation
- Cash management
- Claim expenses
- VAT management
- Payroll management
- Accept payments
4. TouchBistro
TouchBistro is an all-in-one restaurant management system that incorporates a wide range of tools into a single platform. The system includes features like a POS, kitchen display system, marketing tools, payment processing, online ordering, and more. The platform also incorporates accounting software for restaurants.
While TouchBistro has much to offer, it may not be the most robust accounting software solution. However, the platform is a top choice for restaurants due to the many integration opportunities. It’s also straightforward to use.
If you’re looking for a restaurant-specific platform to manage functions like food costing and determining restaurant profit margins, payment processing, and accessing basic accounting data, then TouchBistro is a reliable choice.
The many features designed for restaurant owners make this a good software to have on board. Plus, you can still integrate TouchBistro with Quickbooks if you want greater accounting power and functionality.
Main Features
- Food costing
- Inventory management
- Basic accounting features
- Payment processing
- Tools to determine profit margins
- Customer ordering tools
5. Craftable
When it comes to accounting software for small businesses, Craftable is another contender. Unlike Quickbooks and Xero, Craftable was created with the hospitality industry in mind. This makes it an ideal accounting solution for restaurants, bars, and hotels.
Craftable has many general accounting features, which can fit into your restaurant’s systems easily. The platform is an extensive accounting solution, and it includes all of the accounting tools your restaurant will need for more accurate and efficient financial management.
Craftable is a user-friendly platform. You can use it to easily automate invoice management, payments, and operational reporting. The platform is designed to save time and help your business go paperless with an efficient online accounting system.
This platform also offers some helpful integrations with POS systems and other restaurant software solutions. This can make it a convenient restaurant accounting software tool.
Main Features
- Automated invoice management
- Payment automation
- Operational reporting
- Over 60+ integrations
6. MarginEdge
MarginEdge is a pretty unique restaurant accounting software solution. The platform integrates with other popular accounting software platforms, like Quickbooks, Xero, or Sage, and offers restaurants more advanced accounting functionality. This includes features like more detailed menu and recipe analysis, cost management tools, and inventory and food usage management.
As a standalone accounting system, MarginEdge is a good choice, although it doesn’t offer as many features as you’d get from a platform like Quickbooks.
One particularly useful feature of MarginEdge is the platform’s daily profit and loss statement. This helps you see exactly how your revenue and expenses are performing each day. This can help you to better understand the bigger picture behind your restaurant’s performance.
Main Features
- Invoice processing
- Cost management
- Inventory and food usage
- Recipe and menu analysis
- Back office efficiencies
7. ZipBooks
ZipBooks is another simple, but effective, accounting solution for businesses across all industries. You can use ZipBooks to manage and simplify your restaurant accounting.
This platform offers features like automated expense tracking, billing management, customer and vendor management, and detailed financial reports.
ZipBooks is one of the best accounting software options due to its competitive pricing. There’s a free version available, which is helpful if you want to get a feel for what the platform can do. Although, the free option is fairly limited. If you choose a paid version, the accounting system can work out to be very affordable compared to other options.
Beyond the price, the other main appeal of ZipBooks is that it's simple. While it won’t offer advanced accounting functionality, it does include everything you need to accurately manage your business’s finances - even if you have zero accounting experience.
Main Features
- Online invoicing
- Complete, simple accounting solution
- One-time and recurring billing
- Automated expense tracking
- Detailed financial reports
8. Plate IQ
Plate IQ is a slightly more advanced restaurant accounting software tool that focuses on automation to simplify tasks.
The platform’s main focus is on invoice processing and accounts payable. Automation is applied throughout the entire lifecycle of these tasks to speed them up and ensure efficiency.
As a busy restaurant owner with lots of vendors and daily transactions, using a tool like this can make your life a lot easier.
The downside of using Plate IQ is that the platform doesn’t offer a complete accounting solution. You may still need additional software tools if you’re looking for a wider range of accounting features.
That being said, Plate IQ is a powerful software solution that can streamline your restaurant accounting in a big way. It can also be integrated with thousands of other platforms, so fitting Plate IQ into your existing workflow is relatively easy.
Main Features
- Automatic invoice data capturing
- Coding by line item
- Vendor payments
- Automated accounts payable and receivable
- Reconcile vendor statements
Conclusion
Accounting and bookkeeping are areas you can’t take any chances on when you run a restaurant.
Every transaction needs to be accurately recorded, and all of your financial information needs to be carefully managed. In a restaurant where there are many daily transactions, this is incredibly important. The restaurant accounting software tools above offer some of the best solutions for all kinds of restaurants.
If your restaurant also runs events, then you can maximize efficiency by using the right event management software tool. Try Perfect Venue for free to see how the platform can help you run your restaurant more effectively.
