A restaurant chart of accounts: which accounts you need and how your sales are posted
Many restaurant owners ask their accountant for a month-end report without knowing how the accounts are arranged. Knowing the basic structure lets you read your own numbers and spot errors early.
The basic structure
Six groups are enough for most restaurants:
| Group | Examples in a restaurant |
|---|---|
| Assets | Cash, bank, inventory, customer receivables, equipment |
| Liabilities | Suppliers, sales tax payable, accrued salaries, loyalty liabilities |
| Equity | Capital, retained earnings |
| Revenue | Dine-in, takeaway and delivery sales |
| Cost of sales | Food, drink and packaging, waste |
| Expenses | Salaries, rent, utilities, marketing, maintenance, commissions |
How a sale is posted
A cash sale of 5.80 JOD including 16% tax is posted like this: debit cash 5.80, credit sales 5.00, credit sales tax payable 0.80. At the same time the item cost is posted: debit cost of sales, credit inventory. When buying materials: debit inventory, credit suppliers or cash. Illustrative examples for explanation.
What RAWA automates
RAWA posts every sale automatically with double entry including tax and item cost, and posts purchases, suppliers, expenses, waste and loyalty liabilities, giving you a trial balance and profit and loss without manual entry. This does not remove your accountant's role in review and filings.
Try RAWA free for 7 days with no card: rawaerp.com/register. Questions: [email protected].
Try RAWA in your restaurant
A 100% Arabic-first cloud restaurant system — an offline-capable POS, kitchen display, QR menu, inventory & recipes, and accounting with e-invoicing (JoFotara) on every plan.
Start a free 7-day trial — no cardCommon questions
Do I need an accountant if the system posts automatically?
Yes for review and filings, but daily data entry becomes automatic.
What is a trial balance?
A list of every account's balance that lets you confirm debits equal credits.
Where does waste show in the books?
In cost of sales or a dedicated waste account depending on your setup.
Do customer receivables show?
Yes, as an asset if you enable the receivables module.