Restaurant Bookkeeping in NJ:Tips, Prime Cost & Sales Tax
A restaurant takes money in daily through cash, cards, tips, and delivery apps, and collects sales tax on prepared food. Wasserman Accounting CPAs keeps restaurant books for New Jersey operators: daily POS reconciliation, tip reporting, weekly prime cost, and the FICA tip credit claimed every year. Call 609-281-8096.
A CPA or EA answers — not a call center.
What we cover in NJ restaurant bookkeeping
We reconcile daily sales to your POS across cash, cards, and delivery apps, track tips, and report food cost, labor cost, and prime cost weekly.
We calculate and claim the FICA tip credit each year: 7.65% of your reported tips, worth $22,950 on $300,000 of tips.
We keep New Jersey sales tax on prepared food, payroll reporting, and delivery-app payouts correct, as part of our full bookkeeping service.
What we track in restaurant bookkeeping
Daily sales reconciled to your POS, across cash, cards, and delivery apps
Cash and card tips, reported through payroll, with automatic service charges kept out of tips
Food cost and beverage cost, tracked separately
Labor cost, including tipped and non-tipped staff
Prime cost
Third-party delivery payouts, with app fees categorized separately
Vendor accounts payable and inventory purchases
Form 8027 and the 8% allocated-tips test, for a full-service restaurant whose staff work more than 80 hours in a typical day
What is prime cost in a restaurant?
Prime cost is food and beverage cost plus labor cost, as a share of sales. Food and labor are the two costs you can change week to week.
Get your prime cost weeklyHow much is the FICA tip credit for an NJ restaurant?
$22,950on $300,000 of reported tips. Under IRC Section 45B, the IRS credits back the employer’s 7.65% Social Security and Medicare tax on reported tips above a $5.15 an hour wage floor, claimed on Form 8846. New Jersey’s tipped cash wage is $6.05 an hour in 2026, above the floor, so every reported tip dollar is creditable.
| Line | Figure |
|---|---|
| Reported tips in 2026 | $300,000 |
| Employer FICA rate | 7.65% |
| FICA tip credit | $22,950 |
The IRS counts only the tips your staff report, and does not count automatic service charges as tips. We calculate the credit from payroll each year and claim it on your return. If you have not claimed it before, we amend up to the last three years. The refund is smaller than the credit, because you give up the payroll tax deduction on the same tips.
Which restaurant food is taxable in NJ?
Prepared food is taxable at 6.625%;unprepared grocery food is exempt.
Taxable: food sold heated, food the seller combined from two or more ingredients, food sold with eating utensils, and catering
The Division taxes a bakery item sold with a fork or a cup and exempts the same item sold without
Delivery apps remit sales tax on their own orders as marketplace facilitators; if you also book those orders as taxable sales in your POS, you overstate the ST-50
We set the POS tax rules, reconcile the app payouts, and check the return before it is filed. For grocery and retail rules, see our tax-free items in NJ page.
Check your tip creditIs the federal tips deduction allowed in NJ?
No.
For tax years 2025 through 2028, your staff can deduct up to $25,000 of qualified tips on their federal returns. The Division of Taxation has stated that it does not apply the federal deduction on the NJ-1040, so New Jersey taxes tips as before. We keep tip reporting on payroll and W-2s accurate so your staff can claim the federal deduction, and we leave your New Jersey withholding as it is.
How do you deduct kitchen equipment purchases?
Under Section 179 or bonus depreciation, you can deduct kitchen equipment, refrigeration, and leasehold improvements in the year you buy them, or you can spread the deduction over several years. We run the numbers before you sign, so you know the tax result of buying in December or in January.
How often should you look at your restaurant’s numbers?
Weekly.We report sales, food and beverage cost, labor cost, and prime cost every week, and close the books in full each month. With a weekly report you can change a menu price or a schedule before the month ends.
Cash handling controls for a restaurant
You lose cash to skimming, voids, comps, and inventory shrinkage. We reconcile the drawer and the POS daily and compare inventory purchases with sales, so you see a shortfall in the week it happens.
Who we keep books for in NJ
Independent restaurants, bars, and cafés
Quick-service restaurants and franchises
Caterers and event venues
Food trucks, pop-ups, and seasonal food vendors
Full bookkeeping for NJ small businesses
For the monthly close, payroll, sales tax data, and catch-up work behind every restaurant engagement, see our bookkeeping services page.
How we price restaurant bookkeeping
- The number of locations and POS systems
- Your sales channels: cash, cards, and how many delivery apps
- Headcount, and whether payroll is included
- Whether sales tax work is included
- How far behind the books are
We quote the fee in writing after seeing one month of POS and bank data.
Reviewed by April Moore, EA, Practice Manager at Wasserman Accounting CPAs. Enrolled Agent with 20 years in business tax, payroll, and IRS and state resolutions.
Talk to a New Jersey restaurant bookkeeper
If you do not know your prime cost, your tip reporting is behind, or you have not claimed the FICA tip credit, we can fix all three. A CPA or EA answers — not a call center.