Restaurant & Hospitality Accounting
Accounting for Montréal restaurants, cafés and hospitality businesses — payroll, sales taxes, tips and thin operating margins.
Restaurant accounting in Québec runs on three obligations most operators underestimate: mandatory sales recording module reporting, tip declaration and allocation, and GST/QST on a high volume of small transactions where a coding error compounds daily.
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Key facts
| Sales recording | Québec restaurants are required to use a sales recording module and issue compliant bills |
|---|---|
| Tips | Must be declared by employees and, in some cases, allocated by the employer |
| Payroll | Tips form part of pensionable and insurable earnings |
| Sales tax | GST and QST on prepared food and alcohol, with sector-specific rules |
| Authorities | Revenu Québec and Canada Revenue Agency |
Restaurants run on tight margins and complex payroll. A&S Financials helps Montréal hospitality businesses stay on top of GST/QST, tip reporting, delivery-platform reconciliations and prime-cost tracking, so you always know where the money is going. We keep your books current and your filings on time, and help you read the numbers that actually drive profitability.
Book a consultationHow we help
- GST/QST and tip reporting
- Payroll for hourly and tipped staff
- Delivery-platform reconciliations
- Prime cost and margin tracking
- Cash-flow and inventory support
- Year-end and corporate tax filing
Revenu Québec knows what your sales should look like
The sales recording module regime means transaction-level data is captured at the point of sale and reported. Revenu Québec compares that against filed returns and against sector norms for food and beverage cost ratios. A gap between recorded sales and declared sales is the fastest way into an audit in this sector, and the sector is audited more heavily than most. Where the gap is a coding error rather than unrecorded revenue, having reconciled books that demonstrate it is what closes the file quickly. The same data underpins the tip allocation rules, which apply where declared tips fall short of a percentage of taxable sales in establishments where tipping is customary.
Margins are thin enough that classification matters
Food cost, labour cost and occupancy are the three numbers that decide whether a restaurant works, and they only mean anything if purchases and payroll are coded consistently period over period. Delivery platforms complicate this. Platform statements net commissions, promotions and sales tax against gross sales, so booking the net deposit as revenue understates both sales and expenses — and understates the GST/QST collected that you are nonetheless liable to remit. Alcohol, prepared food and grocery items are not all treated identically for sales tax, and a point-of-sale system configured once and never reviewed will quietly misapply the rules across thousands of transactions.
Terms explained
Frequently asked questions
How should delivery platform sales be recorded?
Do I have to allocate tips to my staff?
What does the sales recording module require?
Can I deduct staff meals?
Speak with a Montréal CPA
Contact us to discuss your accounting and tax needs — in the language you prefer.