Industries · Cafes & Restaurants
Accounting support built for cafes & restaurants.
Hospitality runs on thin margins, daily takings and weekend penalty rates. SML keeps the books, payroll and BAS matched to how a venue actually trades.
Where the money leaks
The pressure points we see in cafes & restaurants.
- Daily takings that never quite match the POS or the bank deposit.
- Payroll with penalty rates, weekend loadings and casual conversion rules — one wrong setting affects every pay run.
- A stack of supplier invoices and merchant/delivery platform fees quietly eating the margin.
- GST coding that mixes GST-free and taxable food items — a classic source of BAS errors.
- Cash flow that swings week to week while rent and wages stay fixed.
What SML handles
Done together, with the records behind it.
POS & daily sales reconciliation
Square, Lightspeed and other tills matched to bank deposits, so takings are provable.
Hospitality payroll & STP
Penalty rates, loadings, super and Single Touch Payroll set up and reviewed properly.
Supplier bills workflow
Invoices captured digitally and coded consistently — no more shoebox at BAS time.
GST & BAS for food businesses
GST-free versus taxable coding reviewed, BAS prepared with records behind every figure.
Cash flow you can read
Weekly rhythm reports: what came in, what's due out, what's left to trade with.
In practice
The two things that cost hospitality venues the most
The first is GST coding on food. Most people assume food is simply GST-free, but the line runs between food sold for consumption away from the premises and food sold to be eaten there. A loaf of bread taken home is GST-free; the same bread served at a table is taxable. Hot takeaway food is taxable. Soft drinks, confectionery, savoury snacks and most prepared meals are taxable regardless of where they are eaten. A venue that sells both — a bakery with seating, a cafe with a retail shelf — has to split its sales correctly at the till, and if the POS categories were set up once and never reviewed, every BAS since then carries the same error.
The second is payroll. Hospitality sits under an award with penalty rates that change by day, by time of day, and by employment type, plus casual loading, overtime, public holidays and junior rates. Getting a single pay category wrong does not produce one wrong payslip — it repeats every pay run until someone notices, and the correction usually reaches back across the whole period. Casual conversion obligations add another layer: a long-term regular casual may have the right to request conversion to permanent, which changes both entitlements and cost.
Underneath both sits a cash flow pattern most other industries do not have: money arrives daily, wages leave weekly or fortnightly, suppliers come monthly, and rent does not care which week was quiet. A venue can be profitable on paper and still run out of cash in a slow fortnight. That is a timing problem, not a profitability problem, and it is solved with a weekly rhythm rather than a year-end conversation.
The rhythm
What the year looks like.
Dates and thresholds change. We work to the current ATO requirements for your lodgement cycle rather than a generic calendar.
- Every week
- Takings reconciled to the POS and the bank, so sales are provable before they become a BAS figure.
- Every pay run
- STP reported to the ATO, and super now needs to reach funds in line with payday super timing.
- Quarterly
- BAS — generally due on the 28th of the month after quarter end. Check your own cycle with the ATO.
- Annually
- STP finalisation, workers compensation declaration, and the income tax return for the entity.
Free self-check · 3 minutes
Wondering where your venue leaks money — takings, wages, or supplier costs?
Take the free Business Money Health Check — ten quick questions, an instant score out of 100, and your weakest area pinpointed. Or go deeper with our Second Opinion Review: if we can't identify $500 of savings or cost-risks in writing, it's free.
Start the free checkCommon questions
Asked most often by cafes & restaurants operators.
Which food sales are GST-free and which are taxable?
Broadly, food for consumption away from the premises can be GST-free, while food sold to be eaten at the venue is taxable, as is hot takeaway food. Confectionery, savoury snacks, soft drinks and most prepared meals stay taxable. The practical risk is a POS set up once and never reviewed — that is where repeated BAS errors come from.
Do delivery platform fees change how I record my sales?
Yes. Platforms typically pay you a net amount after commission, but your sale is the gross amount the customer paid. Recording only the deposit understates both income and the GST on it, and loses the deduction for the commission. Each platform needs a mapping into your accounts.
My venue is profitable but there is never any cash. Why?
Usually timing. Daily takings, fortnightly wages, monthly suppliers and fixed rent land on different cycles, so a quiet fortnight creates a gap even in a profitable year. A weekly cash rhythm report shows it before it becomes a problem.
From the Knowledge Hub
Guides worth reading before we talk.
BAS Preparation Checklist
Read guideSuperannuation Guarantee for Employers
Read guidePAYG Withholding for Employers
Read guideCash Flow Management Basics
Read guideNext step
Talk to someone who knows your industry's numbers.
Book a conversation with SML and bring the issue you want fixed first — we'll shape the bookkeeping, BAS, payroll and tax around how your business actually runs.
Book a consultation