Article By David Joseph, co-founder, DAVO by Avalara
The beginning of the year can spark inspiration to set and achieve fresh goals, expand your business and come up with new ideas to attract customers.
For as much inspiration that may be kindled, the beginning of the new year can also spark procrastination. Some of those pesky issues that may have been giving you headaches in the past don’t seem as important – or fun – as creating something new. But in order to make time for new priorities, it’s important to figure out how to spend less time and energy on activities that aren’t actively growing your business.
For many restaurant owners and managers, back office tasks like managing sales tax and delivery apps can be stress-inducing time sucks. Follow these three productivity tips to make your back office tasks quicker and hassle-free. Gain back time and energy to focus on your 2023 goals and plans.
Back Office Productivity Tips
1. Update your bookkeeping now.
Disorganized and messy bookkeeping causes stress and anxiety come tax season. For many restaurateurs, that stress comes not only from the income tax season, but also ongoing sales tax deadlines. Make sure all of your expenses are categorized and that you’ve accounted for all expenses including those made on credit cards.
You can reduce the amount of time spent on organizing your records by syncing your POS system with your accounting system. Many popular POS systems can integrate directly with accounting software, ensuring that your calculations are accurate.
2. Automate your sales tax.
Sales tax is a common headache for restaurant owners and managers. You must make sure you understand your state and locality’s deadlines for sales tax payments throughout the year. Once the deadline approaches, you must have the cash on hand to pay the tax liability. Both of these requirements require accurate sales data, a cash flow plan and attention to detail. The good news is that you can meet your sales tax liability on time and in full by automating the entire process.
Sales tax automation apps, like DAVO Sales Tax, can eliminate the entire complicated, manual process and tasks associated with reporting, filing and paying sales tax. With an automated process, you’re guaranteed to pay sales tax on time and in full. No more headaches and stress about deadlines and paperwork. The app seamlessly integrates directly with the most popular POS systems with just a 5-minute set up.
3. Set up your 3rd party delivery apps (Grubhub, DoorDash, Uber Eats) to run through your POS.
It may be time to check or improve the way 3rd party food delivery apps are integrated with your POS and operations. We recommend making your POS the official record of all sales. Doing so ensures that you have an accurate sales number for your own reporting and tax reporting. In the last year, many states have changed the way the laws work around who is responsible for collecting and paying sales tax on these orders. Avoid double-paying or underpaying sales tax by reviewing your contract with the food delivery partner and your POS set-up.
Sales Tax on Autopilot
DAVO Sales Tax can help you gain back valuable time to focus on the priorities that will help the business grow. With just a few minutes of set up, your sales tax process, filing and payments are on autopilot. Give it a try and see how much time and hassle you can save. The app offers a free trial for the first month.
As a former restaurant owner, David Joseph is no stranger to the struggles of restaurant sales tax. A self-proclaimed sales tax evangelist, David co-founded DAVO by Avalara, a sales tax automation platform that integrates directly with the point of sale.
