Alcohol buried in food sales
When the POS maps every sale to one income line, the gross receipts tax has no clean base, and the bar’s margin disappears into the kitchen’s. Separate lines for liquor, beer and wine, mixers and food fix both.
Texas · Restaurant & Bar Accounting
Texas restaurant accounting, from the POS to mixed-beverage tax.
A Texas restaurant’s books close every day on the POS: card batches, cash, delivery-app payouts, tips and comps, each of which has to meet the bank. We reconcile that daily, keep alcohol sales apart from food so the bar taxes come out of the right numbers, and run tips through payroll, by your TechBrot team, with every close reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
Texas rule: a mixed beverage permittee owes the 6.7 percent mixed beverage gross receipts tax on alcohol, ice and mixers and may not add it to the bill as a separate charge; in QuickBooks, a monthly expense accrued on bar sales. Source: Texas Comptroller.
Bookkeeping & advisory · Fixed-fee · written scope in 3 days
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, held by TechBrot’s senior reviewer (verification on request) · TechBrot, Inc. · Delaware corporation · est. 2023
§The short version
Texas restaurant accounting from TechBrot closes the POS against the bank every day, keeps alcohol, ice and mixers apart from food, and accrues the 6.7% mixed beverage gross receipts tax as a monthly expense, separate from the 8.25% mixed beverage sales tax. Tips run through payroll; monthly bookkeeping runs $400–$2,500+/mo.
§Why Texas restaurant books break
Where Texas restaurant books go wrong.
A full dining room can still lose money between the register and the bank. These are the three gaps we close first.
Mixed beverage taxes posted together
The gross receipts tax is the permittee’s own expense; the mixed beverage sales tax is collected from guests. Posted to one liability account, the balance never matches either return, and the bar’s real cost stays hidden.
A POS that never meets the bank
Card batches arrive net of processing fees, delivery apps pay weekly net of commissions and refunds, and cash is short or over. Without a daily match, a month of small differences is too many to trace.
§What TechBrot handles
What TechBrot handles for Texas restaurants.
Scoped to your locations, POS and bar, in your own QuickBooks file, by your TechBrot team, with every close reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
Daily POS-to-bank reconciliation
POS daily summaries matched to card settlements, cash deposits and delivery-app payouts, with fees, refunds and over-and-short posted where they belong.
Texas bookkeeping services →Mixed beverage tax figures
Alcohol, ice and mixer receipts summarized monthly, the gross receipts tax accrued as an expense, and the mixed beverage sales tax tracked as its own liability, ready for whoever files.
Texas sales tax help →Sales tax on food & merchandise
QuickBooks tax rates set to the state rate plus each location’s local rate, and the collected tax reconciled to the POS each month.
Texas sales tax help →Tips through payroll
Card tips held as a liability until paid out, tip-outs and pools recorded through the payroll provider, and receipts and tips summarized for Form 8027 where the IRS requires it.
Payroll management →Food & beverage cost
Supplier invoices coded to food, liquor, beer and wine, with counts at month end, so cost of goods and prime cost come from real numbers.
Restaurant accounting →Multi-location close
Each location tracked as its own class, with its own sales-tax rate and bar figures, and a combined monthly P&L that shows which one carries the group.
Texas monthly bookkeeping →§Tools we work alongside
Connected to the POS, the apps and the payroll.
- Toast, Square and Clover POS daily summaries
- QuickBooks Online or hosted Desktop — your file
- DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub payout reports
- Gusto, ADP and restaurant payroll providers
- 7shifts and other scheduling and tip tools
- Invoice-capture tools and Bill.com for supplier AP
We work from the summaries your systems already produce: POS daily sales, delivery-app payout reports, payroll registers and bank deposits. Nothing about your service changes.
§How engagements work
From a POS that never ties to a close that does.
Every Texas restaurant engagement runs in the same order: the POS mapped first, the deposits matched second, then a daily and monthly close.
Free POS & tax review
A QuickBooks ProAdvisor reviews how your POS maps to QuickBooks, how bar and food sales are split, and how deposits are matched — at no cost.
Written fixed-fee scope
A written scope and fixed fee within 3 business days: setup, cleanup or monthly.
Map & reconcile
POS items mapped to income lines, the two mixed beverage taxes separated, open months reconciled to the bank.
Daily & monthly close
Deposits matched every business day and a monthly close with bar and kitchen margin, tax figures and prime cost.
§Beyond the books
A daily close is the floor. Prime cost is the point.
Once the register ties to the bank and the bar is separated from the kitchen, the questions get specific: which menu items carry the margin, whether the bar pays for its labor, what happy-hour pricing does to the gross receipts tax base, and whether a second location would pay for itself.
That is where fractional-CFO advisory picks up, on cleaned-up books, coordinated with your CPA.
Checked against the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
§FAQ
Texas restaurant accounting questions.
What does Texas restaurant accounting include?
Daily reconciliation of the POS to card settlements, cash deposits and delivery-app payouts; alcohol, ice and mixer sales separated from food for the mixed beverage gross receipts tax and the mixed beverage sales tax; sales tax on taxable food and merchandise at each location’s rate; tips run through payroll; food and beverage cost; and a monthly close by location, in your own QuickBooks file, by your TechBrot team, with every close reviewed by a Certified QuickBooks ProAdvisor.
Which taxes does a Texas restaurant with a bar deal with?
Sales tax on taxable sales, at the 6.25 percent state rate plus up to 2 percent local. A mixed beverage permittee also owes the mixed beverage gross receipts tax, 6.7 percent of gross receipts from alcohol and from the ice and nonalcoholic mixers served with it, and collects the mixed beverage sales tax, 8.25 percent on each mixed beverage. The Comptroller notes that a mixed beverage permittee also needs a sales tax permit, and that only sales tax applies to wine, beer and ale sold by the holder of a wine and beer retailer’s permit.
How should the mixed beverage taxes show up in QuickBooks?
As two different things. The gross receipts tax is the permittee’s own cost: the Comptroller says it may not be added to the selling price as a separate charge, so it is accrued monthly as an expense on bar receipts. The mixed beverage sales tax can be passed to the guest as a line item or included in the price, so it sits in its own liability account until it is paid. Both are due by the 20th of the month after the period they cover.
How do you reconcile the POS to the bank?
Every business day, the POS daily summary is matched to what actually arrived: card settlements net of processing fees, cash deposits, and delivery-app payouts net of commissions and refunds. Comps, voids, gift cards and over-and-short each post to their own account, so the month closes on differences that are one day old, not thirty.
How are tips handled?
Card tips are a liability from the moment the guest leaves them until staff are paid. They run through payroll with tip-outs and pools recorded by the payroll provider, and the books keep receipts and tips summarized by period. Employers with a large food or beverage establishment report receipts and tips to the IRS each year on Form 8027; the books keep those figures ready for whoever files it.
How long must a Texas restaurant keep its sales records?
The Comptroller says to keep sales and use tax records for at least four years, and longer for any period under audit until the audit is completed. The records have to show total gross receipts and support any deductions or exclusions you claim. A daily close that keeps POS summaries, deposits and tax figures together is the simplest way to have them.
Do you file my Texas taxes?
No. TechBrot does not prepare or file tax returns; we work with your CPA or EA, or introduce you to one. We keep the monthly figures for the sales tax and mixed beverage returns, by income line and by location.
§Around this page
Around Texas.
Texas QuickBooks ProAdvisor & bookkeeping
The state page: services, industries, cities and the Texas tax terms in one place.
Restaurant accounting, nationally
The national engagement this page is the Texas version of — same scope, same written fixed fee.
Also in Texas: Bookkeeping services · Monthly bookkeeping.
Texas cities: Dallas · Houston · Fort Worth — served remotely, in your own QuickBooks file.
Not sure where your file stands? Start with the free QuickBooks file review · how Texas compares: state-by-state tax quirks.
Texas restaurants start here
A daily close that ties, and bar taxes figured from the right numbers.
Call us, or book a call time, and tell us where the books stand; we recommend the engagement that fits.
If we miss you, we return your call within one business day. Written fixed-fee scope within 3 business days. No hourly billing.