{"id":18124,"date":"2026-03-13T06:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T06:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/?p=18124"},"modified":"2026-03-13T06:03:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T06:03:25","slug":"is-your-finance-team-costing-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/management\/is-your-finance-team-costing-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Your Finance Team Costing You?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We don’t have to tell you how demanding running a hospitality business is you already live it. Margins are thin, regulations are strict, and the pace rarely slows down. In that environment, your accounting team isn’t just handling numbers; they’re either protecting your profits or quietly allowing them to slip away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Do you receive daily\/weekly POS reconciliation reports?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reconciliation reports are crucial to operating a healthy business. Although the frequency of these reports can vary from business to business, if you aren\u2019t reviewing them on a weekly basis, you may have a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your weekly reconciliation reports not only ensure financial accuracy, but they also help you detect fraud, monitor cash flow, prime cost, and manage tight profit margins (typically 3-7%). This is done by comparing POS data to your bank deposits. An accountant will send you these reports; a good accountant will tell you what they mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dialogue with your accountant about reconciliation can reveal defects in revenue, such as discrepancies between POS records and actual bank deposits. If left unchecked, these errors can cost you thousands of dollars in lost revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A secondary question to this could be is your inventory regularly monitored for waste or theft? Consistent reconciliation checks, especially on cash and voided transactions, help uncover employee theft, unauthorized transactions, or external theft immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Do you have real-time visibility into labor as a % of revenue?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Labor is typically your largest controllable cost, and it moves every single day. If you’re only seeing it when your accountant sends a monthly report, you’re already two to four weeks behind the problem. Best-in-class operators track labor as a percentage of revenue on a daily basis. When you can see that Tuesday dinner ran at 38% labor before the week is even over, you can adjust schedules, cut early, or re-examine your staffing model before it bleeds into your bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Is your tip pool structure reviewed for compliance?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tip pooling laws have changed significantly in recent years, and they vary by state. What was compliant two years ago may not be today. Beyond legality, a poorly structured tip pool creates resentment among staff and opens you up to wage claims that can be devastating. Have an employment attorney or a hospitality-focused accountant review your tip structure at least once a year, and any time you change your service model, add a new role, or expand to a new location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Is<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Can you compare performance across locations in real time?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you’re operating more than one unit, the ability to benchmark locations against each other is one of your most powerful management tools. Which location is running the best food cost? Who has the strongest revenue per cover? Where is labor creeping up? Without real-time comparison, your highest-performing managers carry the weight of your underperformers, and you never know it. Integrated POS and reporting systems make this possible; the question is whether you’ve set them up to work for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Does your accountant proactively flag cost variances?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There’s a meaningful difference between an accountant who reports the past and one who helps you manage the future. If your accountant is simply sending you financials without commentary, you may be missing the most valuable part of the relationship. A good hospitality accountant should be calling you when food cost spikes two points, when a vendor invoice looks off, or when payroll runs higher than projected. If that’s not happening, it’s worth having a conversation, or finding someone who works that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Is<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Do you receive a weekly prime cost report?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Prime cost, the combined total cost of goods sold and labor, is the single most important number in your restaurant. It should be hitting your inbox every week without you having to ask for it. Operators who track prime cost weekly can make meaningful adjustments before a bad period becomes a bad quarter. If you don’t know your prime cost right now, that’s the first thing to fix. A reasonable target for most full-service restaurants is 55\u201365% of revenue. Fast casual and counter-service models should aim lower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Do you have a clear cash flow forecast for the next 90 days?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Revenue and profit are not the same as cash. You can be technically profitable and still not be able to make payroll or cover a rent payment. A 90-day cash flow forecast accounts for your upcoming fixed obligations, rent, loan payments, insurance, contracted services, alongside projected revenue and variable costs. It tells you where the gaps are before they become emergencies. If you don’t have one, start simple: a spreadsheet tracking expected inflows and outflows over the next 12 weeks is far better than nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Results<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you go through these questions and find yourself answering “No” more than once or twice, that’s a signal worth taking seriously. If you answer no to even just three of these questions, there are gaps that are costing you money. You and your investment deserve better. At Paperchase, we’ve spent decades working exclusively in hospitality finance. We’ve seen firsthand how the right financial oversight can transform an operation \u2014 and how the wrong team can leave an owner flying blind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We don’t have to tell you how demanding running a hospitality business is you already live it. Margins are thin, regulations are strict, and the pace rarely slows down. In that environment, your accounting team isn’t just handling numbers; they’re either protecting your profits or quietly allowing them to slip away. Do you receive daily\/weekly […]\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18126,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18124"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18131,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18124\/revisions\/18131"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperchase.ac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}