General Ledger + Converter in one subscription.
See pricingINDUSTRIES · RESTAURANTS
Restaurant accounting software has to book each day’s sales report with tips and sales tax as liabilities, then match the card deposit that arrives days later, short by the processor’s fees. ZeraBooks is a general ledger with AI bookkeeping that proves every deposit against your uploaded bank statement, so a missing batch shows up the same month.
7-day trial · card required, nothing charged for 7 days · then $79/month billed annually or $149 monthly
DEFINITION
A short-term asset category that holds card sales between the night they are rung up and the day the processor deposits them. It goes up by the card total on the sales report and back to zero when the deposit and fees are recorded. Anything left in it is a deposit that never arrived.
THE REQUIREMENTS
A restaurant takes hundreds of small payments a day and the bank sees a handful of lumps. The software has to connect the two.
The POS sales summary, split into food, bar and other sales, booked once per day. One entry per day is enough detail for the books; individual checks stay in the POS.
Sales tax belongs to the state and card tips belong to staff. Both land in your bank account, so both need liability categories, not revenue.
Processors usually deposit a day or more later and many keep their fee first. The software has to tie a 6,342.64 deposit to a 6,522.00 sales night.
Cash from the drawer sits in Undeposited Funds until it reaches the bank, so a short deposit is visible.
Food and liquor purchases next to food and bar sales, which is how you see food cost and prime cost each month.
We set you up and catch up your past months for free. Then ZeraBooks keeps your books done.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Saffron Table is a fictional bistro. Its POS sales summary for Friday, October 9: food 4,180.00, bar 1,620.00, sales tax 464.00 (a fictional 8%), card tips 870.00. Guests paid 612.00 in cash and 6,522.00 by card. That becomes one journal entry.
| Line | Category | Debit | Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card payments taken | Card clearing (asset) | 6,522.00 | |
| Cash in the drawer | Undeposited Funds | 612.00 | |
| Food sales | Food sales (revenue) | 4,180.00 | |
| Bar sales | Bar sales (revenue) | 1,620.00 | |
| Sales tax collected | Sales tax payable (liability) | 464.00 | |
| Card tips owed to staff | Tips payable (liability) | 870.00 | |
| Totals | Difference 0.00 | 7,134.00 | 7,134.00 |
Revenue for the day is 5,800.00, not the 7,134.00 that guests paid. The other 1,334.00 (464.00 tax plus 870.00 tips) is money the restaurant is holding for someone else.
THE DEPOSIT
On Monday, October 12, the processor deposits Friday’s cards after keeping a fictional 2.75% fee. Here is what the bank statement shows and how the clearing account empties.
| Date | Entry | Card clearing | Bank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 9 | Card payments on the sales summary | 6,522.00 | |
| Oct 10 | Cash deposit 612.00 (clears Undeposited Funds, not card clearing) | 612.00 | |
| Oct 12 | Processor deposit on the statement | (6,342.64) | 6,342.64 |
| Oct 12 | Processor fee: 2.75% × 6,522.00 = 179.355, rounded | (179.36) | |
| Card clearing left over | 0.00 |
The fee line is a small journal entry: debit Card processing fees 179.36, credit Card clearing. If your processor charges fees once a month instead, book one fee entry from its monthly statement and the clearing account still lands at zero. The 870.00 in Tips payable clears when payroll pays the tips out.
READING THE CLEARING ACCOUNT
At month end, Card clearing should be zero or equal to the last night or two not yet deposited. Anything else points to one of these.
A batch that never settled or a deposit you haven’t uploaded yet. Check the processor’s deposit report for that date.
Fees you haven’t booked. Book them from the processor’s monthly statement.
A deposit recorded twice, or a chargeback or refund taken out of a later batch. Find the deposit line that doesn’t match a sales day.
A tip adjusted after the sales report was printed. Use the final settled figure from the POS, not the first printout.
SETUP
One sitting for a single location with a checking account, a card and a processor.
In Banks & Cards, add the operating checking account, any payroll or tax account and the business credit card, each by name.
In Accounting › Category Manager, click Generate with AI and describe the restaurant, for example “full-service bistro with a bar, card and cash sales”. Check the draft has Card clearing under Assets and Sales tax payable and Tips payable under Liabilities.
In Accounting › Ledger, add a journal entry per day from the POS report, as in the example. The Difference must read 0.00 before it saves.
For example, “deposits from our card processor go to Card clearing”. Ask Zera saves the rule and uses it when it categorizes the statement.
Upload each month’s PDF or CSV statements. Every statement is checked against its printed opening and closing balances.
Before closing the month in Reconciliations, open Card clearing and Undeposited Funds. Both should be zero or equal to sales still in transit.
WHERE ZERABOOKS FITS
ZeraBooks keeps the restaurant’s books from the statements you upload. POS, payroll and delivery apps stay where they are; their reports and withdrawals feed the books.
THE GENERAL LEDGER
Each month ties only when the statement and the ledger agree to the cent. Turn on Percentages of Income on the Profit & Loss to read food cost and labor as a share of sales. For a restaurant with several accounts, see restaurant bank accounts and daily deposits; for several locations, multi-location restaurant bookkeeping.
Record a journal entryOR HAND IT OVER
After a double shift, nobody wants to book sales summaries. The ZeraBooks team can do the daily entries and the month-end for you while you upload the reports. From $150 a month (USD), quoted after a free call.
How ZeraBooks proves a statementMORE INDUSTRIES
One that books daily sales with tips and sales tax kept out of revenue, matches card deposits net of fees, and reconciles every account monthly. ZeraBooks does this as an AI-native general ledger from your uploaded statements, with every month proven to the cent. Businesses that make and stock their own goods face similar cost questions; see manufacturing accounting software.
Daily. A monthly total hides which night a deposit belongs to, so a missing batch can’t be traced. One journal entry per day from the POS sales summary is enough.
Deposits are net of fees and include tips and tax, so booking them as sales overstates revenue and hides fees. The clearing account keeps sales at their true figure and shows any deposit that didn’t arrive.
No. They pass through your bank account on the way to staff. They go to Tips payable when the sales are booked and come out of it when payroll pays them.
No. ZeraBooks has no POS, delivery app, payroll or bank feed connection. You enter the daily sales summary from your POS report and upload bank and card statements as PDF or CSV.
$79 a month billed annually or $149 monthly, after a 7-day trial. See ZeraBooks pricing.
FREE SETUP + CATCH-UP
Set up the accounts, upload last month’s statements and book a week of daily sales. 7 days, then $79 a month billed annually. Or hand the books to our bookkeeping services team.