Best accounting software for restaurants: what to look for in 2026
How a restaurant should split the POS from the books, what matters for daily sales, tips and food cost, and how Restaurant365, MarginEdge, QuickBooks and AcboBooks compare.
7 min read · October 24, 2026
We make AcboBooks, one of the products discussed here.
Why restaurant books are different
A restaurant makes hundreds of small sales a day, takes most of them by card, collects tips that belong to staff, and buys perishable stock several times a week. Margins are thin, so a few points of food cost or labour going the wrong way can wipe out the month. The books have to answer three questions every week: what did we sell, what did it cost to make, and what did we pay the people who made it.
Like a shop, a restaurant needs two kinds of software. The point of sale takes orders, sends tickets to the kitchen, splits cheques and takes the card. The accounting program turns the day's totals into sales, sales tax owed, tips owed, bank deposits, supplier bills and payroll. Very few products do both well.
What to look for
| Need | What good looks like |
|---|---|
| Daily sales | The POS end-of-day (Z-report) lands as one entry: food and beverage sales split, sales tax, tips, and how it was paid. |
| Tips | Card tips held as money owed to staff until paid out, and tips run through payroll as wages. |
| Card deposits | Processor payouts, net of fees, matched to the day's card sales when you reconcile. |
| Food and beverage cost | Supplier bills coded to separate cost accounts, so the P&L shows food cost against food sales. |
| Labour | Hourly payroll with overtime, tips and, in Canada, CPP and EI; labour cost visible next to sales. |
| Prime cost | Food, beverage and labour together as a share of sales, weekly or by period. |
| Recipe costing | If you need plate cost from ingredient prices, that is a specialist tool, not a general ledger. |
On tips, the rules are worth knowing whatever software you pick. In the US, employees report each month's tips to you by the 10th of the next month (not required if under $20 in a month), and you withhold tax on them like other wages. Certain food and beverage businesses can claim a credit for the employer Social Security and Medicare tax paid on tips, on IRS Form 8846. Your accountant claims it on the return; it is not something the bookkeeping program works out.
The main options
Prices are list prices as of October 2026.
- Restaurant365 is accounting built for restaurants: a restaurant chart of accounts, daily sales imports from the POS, accounts payable and inventory. It is the deepest fit for multi-unit groups, priced by custom quote.
- MarginEdge ($350 per location a month) is a cost-control tool: invoice capture, food cost and recipe costing. It is not a general ledger; it sends its figures to your accounting program.
- QuickBooks Online is what many POS systems sync to. Simple Start is $38 a month and Plus, where inventory and projects start, is $140; payroll is extra on every plan.
- Xero (Growing $59, Established $97 a month) has a large app marketplace with POS and inventory connectors; US payroll is an add-on.
- POS systems such as Toast and Square for Restaurants (which has a free tier) handle the floor and the kitchen and produce the daily report your books need. Check their own pricing pages; processing fees usually matter more than the software fee.
Where AcboBooks fits
AcboBooks is a Windows desktop program for independent restaurants, cafes, bars and food trucks in the US and Canada, bought once for $399.99.
- Restaurant Daily Sales: type the Z-report totals (food sales, beverage sales, sales tax and tips) and the cash and card collected. It will not post unless the two sides agree.
- Tips post to a Tips Payable liability. Pay them out in cash, or add tips to the paycheck, where they are taxed as wages. You cannot pay out more than has been collected.
- Supplier bills to food and beverage cost accounts, purchase orders, credit card charges and petty cash.
- Hourly payroll with overtime for the US and Canada, sales tax by agency (including GST/HST and PST), bank reconciliation and a P&L for any week or period.
What it does not do: it is not a POS and has no sync with Toast, Square or any other system, so you enter the day's totals by hand. There is no recipe or ingredient-level costing, no FICA tip credit calculation, and the W-2 does not yet show tips separately in box 12 (code TP), so check that with your accountant. It runs on Windows only and imports your bank's statement file rather than connecting live. The restaurant page lists the details.
How to decide
- Choose the POS for the floor and the kitchen first. Then ask how its daily totals reach the books: a sync, an export, or a one-minute summary you type in.
- Decide how deep the cost side goes. Account-level food cost suits most independents; recipe costing points you to MarginEdge or Restaurant365.
- Price five years. A monthly accounting plan, payroll per employee and a cost tool add up. Our comparison pages have dated prices for QuickBooks Online and Xero.
- Post a real week. Enter seven Z-reports, the card deposits and the supplier bills in the 15-day trial and see whether the P&L matches what you know about that week. See pricing.
QuickBooks® is a registered trademark of Intuit Inc. Other product names are trademarks of their respective owners. AcboBooks is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of the companies named.
Daily sales, tips and food cost, bought once
Post the day's Z-report in one entry, hold card tips as a liability until you pay them out, and see food cost against food sales, for $399.99 once.
This article is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Rules and dates change; check the official source or ask your accountant before acting.
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