Restaurant accountant in Calgary

Thin margins leave no room for late numbers

Restaurants Canada reported in 2026 that 71 percent of operators had seen profitability decline, with food costs cited by 91 percent and labour by 87 percent. On a sector generating around 125 billion dollars and employing roughly 1.2 million people, that pressure is widespread rather than unlucky. When margins are that thin, numbers that arrive three months late are not accounting, they are history.

The two figures that decide whether a restaurant works are food cost and labour cost as a percentage of sales, and both need to be visible monthly at the latest. HBT sets the books up so those come out of the month end rather than being calculated by hand afterwards, keeps payroll and source deductions on time, and handles the GST treatment that comes with food service.

What a restaurant engagement usually covers

How the work begins

1. 1

   Step 1: Start with the current numbers

   Sales, cost of sales, labour and what the point of sale system already produces.

2. 2

   Step 2: Set the reporting rhythm

   A period close that produces the percentages you need, with scope and fee agreed first.

3. 3

   Step 3: Watch the two numbers that matter

   Food and labour tracked period to period, with the year end built on books already reconciled.

How are tips and gratuities treated for a Calgary restaurant?

It depends on how they flow. Tips controlled and distributed by the employer are generally treated differently from tips paid directly between a customer and a server, and the distinction affects payroll source deductions and what has to be reported. Getting it wrong can leave source deductions unwithheld that should have been withheld. We look at how tips actually move in your restaurant and set the payroll treatment to match.