Restaurant Accounting: Does your venue need the newest, most sophisticated kitchen equipment on the market?

Many commercial kitchen equipment items are now available on the market, all promising to make everything efficient and consistent. However, they come with a hefty price tag and restaurant and café operators should first consider their restaurant accounting and think whether or not purchasing one is a worthy investment.

Accounting for restaurants and hospitality businesses

To find out if equipment is necessary for your business, consider factors such as the importance of consistency, skill level and dining experience to your business. Before you commit to very expensive kitchen equipment, think of the scale and requirements of your operation.

It is easy to want sophisticated equipment, but most of the time it proves unnecessary. For example, combi ovens are capable of doing fantastic things but if your chefs have a high skill level, they won’t need a button to roast a chicken. There are pieces of equipment which you can control on your phone and preset to roast chickens, cook fish, make pasta or even bake éclairs. However, it’s like buying a MacBook Air and ending up using it to just send emails or buying a Ferrari to just to drop your kids to school.

These pieces of equipment are smart and can save you huge amounts of skill in the kitchen. Your venue will greatly benefit from them especially if you do event catering or mass production. However, many restaurants only need a convection oven. Combi ovens are needed more in franchise and fast, casual dining operations as they can use it to monitor hazard analysis control checks and transfer programs from one piece of equipment to another to maintain the same consistency and quality across their products.

Combi ovens could also significantly reduce costs because of reduction in wastage and labour costs. Tight profit margins force operators to hire fewer staff, so equipment that allows lesser skilled staff to be more efficient and productive becomes vital. Australia is facing a skill shortage between great chefs and average cooks, so these pieces of equipment may help reduce that gap. Check with your restaurant accounting group to find out if an expensive kitchen item can reduce your costs in the long run.

Dispensing systems also eliminate waste by detecting the appropriate amount needed at a time, therefore driving a much higher profit margin. Cafes and restaurants can reduce about 20 per cent of wastage by using these items. Remember that you should always purchase the best product because buying a cheaper alternative may lead to problems. You don’t want to have the piece of equipment repaired every week.

Restaurant Accounting

Need a bit of assistance with your hospitality business? Contact a Sky Accountants representative today and learn more about our fixed fees. You won’t regret it.

Some of our clients include Buckley’s Entertainment Center, Ballarat Leagues Club, Daylesford Hotel, Bacchus Marsh Golf Club, Campbell Point House, Midlands Ballarat, The Urban Newtown, Maryborough Midland Society, Brink Drinks, Dontek, UV Wraps and many more.

Aside from business consultation, we also offer small business and restaurant accounting, bookkeeping, back office, SMSF and POS services designed to help you achieve greater financial success.

You can click here to speak to a business, accounting and bookkeeping firm. We also offer hospitality business consultation and mortgage services. We will give you a call to know more about your needs. We will explain to you how we can improve your business.

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