When it comes to BAS and Tax for café owners, getting it right is just as important as perfecting your espresso. Running a café is a labour of love that involves managing early starts, busy rosters, and constant supplier orders. However, your financial reporting can’t take a back seat. Staying on top of bookkeeping, BAS, and tax obligations ensures your café runs smoothly, avoids ATO penalties, and stays profitable throughout the year.
Getting your bookkeeping right and effectively managing BAS and tax for café owners like yourself allows you to focus on what matters most: great coffee, loyal customers, and growing your business.
1. Daily Sales Reconciliation Is a Must
Your POS system (e.g. Lightspeed, Square, Kounta) tracks all sales, but is it reconciled against bank deposits and merchant fees daily?
Daily reconciliation allows you to:
- Identify payment discrepancies
- Spot underperforming menu items
- Track sales trends and peak periods
It also reduces the risk of missing transactions when it comes time to prepare BAS and tax for café owners.
2. Keep Supplier Payments Organised
Cafés deal with frequent orders: coffee beans, milk, bakery goods, produce, and more. It’s easy to lose track. Keeping your supplier invoices clearly categorised by type (food, beverages, packaging) helps:
- Maintain accurate cost of goods sold (COGS) reports
- Improve cash flow planning
- Minimise duplicate payments
Using Xero or Quickbooks software to auto-sync emailed invoices saves time and reduces manual entry.
3. Know Your Payroll Obligations
With casual, part-time, and full-time employees on rotating rosters, café payroll can be complex. Award interpretation, penalty rates, and super must be correct to stay compliant and retain staff.
Consider using rostering software (e.g. Deputy) integrated with your accounting system to:
- Track staff hours
- Monitor leave balances
- Prepare compliant payslips
4. Monthly Reporting Is Your Espresso Shot of Insight
Running your P&L monthly helps you:
- Understand profitability trends
- Make informed pricing decisions
- Track wage-to-revenue ratio (a key metric for hospitality businesses)
Even a small café should review reports regularly with a bookkeeper or advisor to stay on top of changes in costs, margins, and tax obligations.
5. Know Your GST and BAS and Tax Obligations
Most cafés are registered for GST, which means you need to collect and report it to the ATO regularly. BAS lodgements are usually quarterly, but for higher turnover, they might be monthly. Missing lodgements or errors can lead to penalties, so having accurate records is key.
With Cotchy, we manage both the monthly bookkeeping and the BAS and Tax for café owners in one place, there’s no more acting as the go-between for a separate accountant and bookkeeper. Cotchy handles it all so you can focus on your customers.
6. Benchmark Your Café Against ATO Averages
To help you understand how your café is performing financially, the ATO provides Small Business Benchmarks specifically for coffee shops. These benchmarks compare key figures like cost of goods sold, wages, and turnover against industry averages based on your business size and structure. If your café falls significantly outside these averages, it might raise red flags with the ATO. Reviewing these benchmarks annually is a smart way to assess performance, spot discrepancies, and ensure your records are aligned with what the tax office expects. You can view the full coffee shop benchmark data on the ATO’s website.
Bringing Your Café’s Finances Together
At Cotchy, we help café owners simplify their accounting and bookkeeping and connect the dots between their POS, payroll, and financial reports. Whether you’re using Lightspeed, Square, or Deputy, we’ll help align everything in Xero – making BAS and Tax for café owners streamlined, stress-free, and in expert hands. Submit your details here for a complimentary chat: Contact Us.