Florida sales tax help
Separate food-vs-alcohol and the bed tax from sales tax, configured in QuickBooks.
Sales tax helpFlorida · Hospitality & Restaurant Accounting
Florida hospitality accounting that knows the bed tax from the sales tax.
Florida hotels, vacation rentals, and restaurants run on high-volume POS, tipped payroll under a $15.00 state minimum wage, and county bed taxes that vary from one county line to the next. We reconcile the POS, run tipped payroll cleanly, keep taxable and exempt sales apart, and keep the county Tourist Development Tax straight — prepared by a senior bookkeeper who works in your software, or by a signed specialist practice when your books need one.
Monthly bookkeeping: $500–$2,500+ a monthWhat sets the price
If your file needs our paid diagnostic first, its fee is credited in full against the cleanup. Either way, you get a fixed fee in writing before any work starts.
State rule
Florida rule: rent for a stay of six months or less in a hotel, condominium or similar lodging carries 6% state sales tax plus any county tourist development tax, which some counties collect themselves; the books post each to its own payable. Source: § 212.03 and § 125.0104, Fla. Stat.
§ The short version
Florida hospitality accounting from TechBrot reconciles high-volume POS sales to deposits, runs tipped payroll under the $15.00 state minimum wage, and posts each lodging tax to its own payable: 6% state sales tax plus any county surtax, and the county tourist development tax on stays of six months or less. Monthly bookkeeping runs $500–$2,500+/mo.
They took something that felt overwhelming to me as a first-year business owner and made it simple.
What stood out the most was TechBrot Inc’s attention to detail.
Intuit QuickBooks Certification Level 2 and QuickBooks Workforce Certification,
§ 01 · Why Florida hospitality books break
Three places Florida hospitality businesses lose the numbers.
A busy property can still bleed margin. Knowing which gap you’re in tells us where to start.
01POS
POS that never ties to the bank
High-volume restaurants and hotels generate thousands of transactions across cash, cards, and delivery apps — without disciplined reconciliation, the POS, the processor, and the bank never agree, and margin is a guess.02Bed tax
The Tourist Development Tax missed
Transient lodging owes a county bed tax on top of sales tax, at rates that vary by county and sometimes filed with the county directly. Books that don’t separate it create an exposure that compounds.03Tipped payroll
Tipped payroll done wrong
Tips, tip-outs, credit-card tips, and Florida’s rising minimum wage make hospitality payroll error-prone — and the errors are expensive and recurring.§ 02 · What TechBrot handles
How we close a Florida hotel or restaurant’s month.
Every engagement is scoped to your property or restaurant, delivered in your own QuickBooks file by your TechBrot team, with every close reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
01
High-volume POS reconciliation
Toast, Square, or Clover reconciled to deposits and processor settlements so the books match the register.
Bookkeeping services02
Tourist Development Tax tracked
The county bed tax on transient lodging tracked separately from sales tax so your county return ties — rate confirmed with your county.
Sales tax help03
Food-vs-alcohol sales tax
Taxable categories separated so 6% + county surtax is applied correctly across food, alcohol, and exempt items.
Sales tax help04
Tipped payroll handled
Tips, tip-outs, and credit-card tips tracked and run through payroll cleanly under Florida’s minimum wage.
Payroll05
Multi-location roll-ups
Multiple properties or locations consolidated with per-location margin so you see which one actually performs.
Monthly bookkeeping06
CPA-ready statements
Prime-cost and margin reporting your CPA can file from and you can manage labor and food cost against.
Financial statements§ 03 · Tools we work alongside
Connected to how you serve guests.
- Toast, Square, and Clover POS
- QuickBooks Online or hosted Desktop — your file
- Airbnb, Vrbo, and channel managers for vacation rentals
- Gusto, ADP, and hospitality payroll providers
- 7shifts and labor-scheduling tools
- Bill.com for vendor and food-supplier AP
We reconcile alongside the POS, channel-manager, and payroll tools you already run — the books read from how you serve guests.
§ 04 · How engagements work
From POS chaos to real margin.
Every Florida hospitality engagement follows the same rhythm — books accurate first, margin visibility second, advisory third.
- Step 1
Free POS & tax review
A QuickBooks ProAdvisor reviews your POS reconciliation, payroll, and Tourist Development Tax handling — at no cost. - Step 2
Written fixed-fee scope
A written scope and fixed fee within 3 business days — setup, cleanup, or monthly. - Step 3
Reconcile & separate
POS reconciled, bed tax and food-vs-alcohol separated, tipped payroll cleaned. - Step 4
Monthly margin close
A monthly close showing prime cost and per-location margin, CPA-ready.
§ 05 · Beyond the books
Clean margin is the start. Pricing and labor are the point.
When the POS ties and the taxes are separated, the decisions get real: which menu items and room types make money, where labor is outrunning revenue, whether the next location pencils — answered from numbers that hold.
That’s where fractional-CFO advisory picks up, on cleaned-up books, in coordination with your CPA.
Checked against the Florida Department of Revenue and § 212.03, Florida Statutes.
§ 07 · Around this page
Around Florida.
Florida QuickBooks ProAdvisor & bookkeeping
The state page: services, industries, cities and the Florida tax terms in one place.Also in Florida
Other Florida industries
Florida cities
Not sure where your file stands? Start with the free QuickBooks file review · how Florida compares: state-by-state tax quirks.
§ 08 · FAQ
Florida hospitality accounting questions.
What does Florida hospitality accounting include?
High-volume POS reconciliation (Toast, Square, Clover) to deposits and processors, food-vs-alcohol sales tax separated, tipped payroll handled under Florida’s minimum wage, the county Tourist Development Tax tracked on transient lodging, and multi-location roll-ups — in your own QuickBooks file.
What is the Tourist Development Tax and do I owe it?
The Tourist Development Tax is a county “bed tax” on transient lodging — hotels, motels, condominiums, and vacation rentals rented for a term of six months or less (§ 125.0104, Fla. Stat.) — charged on top of the 6% + county surtax sales tax. Rates vary by county, and a county that adopts a local-collection ordinance collects it directly rather than through the state. If you rent lodging short-term, you likely owe it; we track it correctly in the books, and your county and CPA confirm the rate and filing.
How do you reconcile high-volume restaurant POS?
We tie your POS (Toast, Square, Clover) to bank deposits and processor settlements by day or period, separate food from alcohol for sales tax, and account for tips, comps, voids, and delivery-app payouts — so the books actually match what happened at the register. That reconciliation is the foundation of real prime-cost and margin reporting.
How is tipped payroll handled in Florida?
Under Article X, Section 24 of the Florida Constitution the minimum wage reached $15.00 an hour on September 30, 2026, with inflation adjustments after that, and an employer may count tips toward it only up to the federal tip credit allowed in 2003 (Florida Constitution). So tipped payroll has to track the cash wage, the tip credit, tip-outs, and credit-card tips as separate items and run them through payroll correctly. We keep the records clean; your payroll provider and CPA handle the filings and any tip-credit compliance.
Can you handle multiple properties or locations?
Yes — we consolidate multiple hotels, rentals, or restaurant locations with per-location margin reporting, so you see which property actually performs rather than a blended number. Each location’s sales tax and bed tax are kept correct for its county.
Do you work in my own QuickBooks file?
Yes — your file, your data, in QuickBooks Online or hosted Desktop, with a senior bookkeeper assigned to your file, and every close reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor before it reaches you, connected to your POS and channel-manager tools rather than proprietary software.
Florida hospitality businesses start here