Know your numbers before Friday’s rush.
Restaurant bookkeeping that shows you your prime cost every week, for less than the cost of hiring a bookkeeper.
Your books, payroll, tips, and taxes handled for a flat monthly fee, with one page in your inbox every Tuesday showing how last week really went. You never send us a thing.
Book a 30-minute call
| The old way | With Ledgekeep |
|---|---|
| Your P&L arrives weeks late | Books closed by the 10th business day, guaranteed |
| You find out food cost was off a month later | Prime cost on one page every Tuesday |
| You dig up statements for the bookkeeper | We log in and gather everything ourselves |
| Deposits never quite match the POS | POS, deposits, and delivery payouts tied out |
The problem
Hiring a bookkeeper is slow, expensive, and fragile.
Finding someone who understands restaurant books takes months. Once they’re trained, one vacation, one sick week, or one resignation puts you right back where you started. Meanwhile, you’re learning your food cost a month too late to do anything about it.
Restaurants run on thin margins. When a two-point swing in food or labor can erase a year’s profit, you need to see the week while you can still fix it.
- 2.8%median profit margin for full-service restaurants in 2024Source: National Restaurant Association, 2026 State of the Restaurant Industry
- 42%of operators said they were not profitable the prior yearSource: National Restaurant Association, 2026 State of the Restaurant Industry
- 71%of operators who reconcile delivery payouts find at least one discrepancy a monthSource: Restaurant365, 2024, via US Tech Automations
What you get
Everything in your bookkeeper job description, on a process you own.
- Daily sales, tied out. Sales posted from your POS, with card deposits and delivery payouts reconciled and every fee accounted for.
- Payroll and tips, done right. Tips imported and reconciled every pay period, with the new 2026 W-2 tip reporting handled.
- Taxes filed on time. Sales tax, local food and beverage tax, and liquor gross receipts tax prepared and filed.
- Bills paid on schedule. Vendor invoices entered and paid on the schedule you approve.
- A clean monthly close. A restaurant-style P&L with prime cost, so you can compare your numbers with industry benchmarks.
- Year-end, handled. 1099s prepared, plus a package for your CPA with the tip records they need to claim the FICA tip credit.
You never send us anything
During setup, you give us access to the systems your books depend on: your POS, bank and card accounts, payroll, delivery platforms, and vendor portals. From then on, we gather everything ourselves. No shoebox of receipts, no emailing statements, no chasing reports after a double shift.
We use each platform’s own accountant or view-only access, never your password, and you can revoke it anytime.
Works with Toast, Square, Clover, and other cloud POS systems.
The Close Guarantee
Closed by the 10th business day, or that month costs 25% less.
Your books are closed and your financial statements are delivered by the 10th business day of every month. If we miss that date, your fee for that month is reduced by 25%.
We can make that promise because we never wait on you for paperwork. Questions about individual transactions never hold up the close; we flag them and resolve them with you afterward.
If we lose access to a required system (a changed password, an expired bank connection, or a new account) and need you to restore it, the guarantee pauses until access is back. We’ll tell you the same day we find the problem. The guarantee applies to accounts in good standing and begins with the first full month after setup and any cleanup are complete.
Your week on one page
One page in your inbox every Tuesday.
Every Tuesday, a one-page PDF report on last week lands in your email, ready to read on your phone or print for the office:
- Sales by category, compared with last week and last year
- Labor cost, split between front and back of house
- Estimated food and beverage cost
- Prime cost, with a clear signal against your target
- Comps, voids, and discounts
- Delivery fees as a share of delivery sales
- Cash on hand and bills due in the next two weeks
- Three plain-language notes on what to watch
Birch & Ember Grill: weekly flash report
Week of Oct 19 to 25
- Prime cost
- 61.6%
- Target 62%
- On target
- Net sales
- $28,450
- Up 4% vs. last year, up 2% vs. last week
- Labor
- 31.2%
- Food and beverage cost
- 30.4%
- Estimate
- Comps, voids, and discounts
- 2.1%
- Delivery fees
- 24%
- Of delivery sales
- Watch
- Cash on hand
- $41,200
- Bills due in 14 days
- $18,900
| Category | Share of sales |
|---|---|
| Food | 68% |
| Liquor | 12% |
| Beer | 9% |
| Wine | 6% |
| Non-alcoholic | 2% |
| Delivery | 3% |
| Team | Share of sales |
|---|---|
| Front of house | 12.4% |
| Back of house | 14.1% |
| Management | 4.7% |
Three notes
- Went well: Prime cost came in under target, with sales up on both last week and last year.
- Watch: Delivery fees took 24% of delivery sales this week.
- Question for the owner: Should we review the delivery menu pricing at the next monthly call?
Your Playbook
Every step of your bookkeeping is written down: your chart of accounts, how your POS maps to the books, how tips are handled, your delivery reconciliation, your tax calendar, and your close checklist. We keep it current as the process improves.
It belongs to you. Your process never lives in one person’s head, and it never walks out the door.
How it works
- Talk. A 30-minute call to understand your restaurant and your systems.
- Review. With read-only access, we review your books and show you exactly what we find.
- Set up. We set up access, clean up what needs cleaning, connect your POS and payroll, move you to the cloud if you’re on desktop software, and build your Playbook.
- Run. Your books stay current every week, your flash report arrives every Tuesday, and your close is done by the 10th business day.
Pricing
Fixed monthly pricing. No surprises.
Plans start at $1,200 per month.
One flat fee based on your locations, payroll size, and complexity. Sales and liquor tax filings, 1099s, and your CPA’s year-end package are included. No hourly billing and no surprises. Software subscriptions are billed at cost. One-time setup, cleanup, and any move off desktop software are quoted after the books review.
Book a 30-minute callHiring versus Ledgekeep
| What is compared | In-house bookkeeper | Ledgekeep |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | About $72,000 fully loaded (full-time, Duluth area) | Starting at $14,400 |
| Time to start | Months of recruiting and training | Weeks |
| Paperwork you hand over | Statements, receipts, and reports | None; we gather it ourselves |
| Monthly close | Whenever it gets done | By the 10th business day, guaranteed |
| Vacation and sick days | Work stops | Work continues |
| If they leave | Start over | Nothing changes |
| Documented process | Depends on the person | Your Playbook, owned by you |
| Weekly prime cost report | Rarely | Every Tuesday |
| Outside check on cash | No | Yes |
Full-time estimate based on the BLS median salary for bookkeeping clerks in the Duluth MN-WI metro area, adjusted for employer benefit and payroll tax costs.
About
Ledgekeep was founded by Max Ducharme, who ran an accounting firm outside Philadelphia for over five years. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt who has spent his career building processes that work without heroics, and he now lives in International Falls.
We built Ledgekeep for restaurant owners who want their numbers handled as a system, not a pile of receipts: documented, on schedule, and owned by the restaurant.
Frequently asked questions
Which systems do you work with?
Toast, Square, Clover, and other cloud POS systems; Gusto, Toast Payroll, and other payroll providers; and QuickBooks Online, Xero, and any other cloud ledger we can reach with our own user login.
We use QuickBooks Desktop. Can you work with that?
We work only in cloud ledgers, and that includes Desktop running on a hosting provider. Moving you to the cloud is part of setup, quoted up front. You end up with no server to maintain, access from anywhere, and daily sales syncing from your POS.
Do you come on site?
No. The service is fully remote, built on direct access to your systems. Deposits, drawer counts, and inventory counts stay with your team; we record, reconcile, and review them.
Do you prepare tax returns?
No. We file your sales and liquor taxes and prepare your 1099s, and we work alongside your CPA, giving them clean books and the records they need at year-end.
How is my data protected?
You own every account. We use each platform’s own accountant or view-only access, never your password, along with a password manager and two-factor authentication. You can revoke our access at any time.
What do you need from me?
Access to the systems your books depend on, granted once during setup. After that, we gather everything ourselves. The only thing your team still provides is inventory counts on an agreed schedule, plus a 30-minute review call each month.
How does the weekly report arrive?
As a one-page PDF in your email every Tuesday, covering the prior Monday through Sunday.
How do we communicate?
By email and scheduled calls. Every question and answer is in writing, so nothing gets lost.
How does billing work?
One flat monthly fee, billed in advance. We prefer ACH autopay, and cards are accepted.
What if I want to leave?
Service is month to month with 30 days notice. Your books, your accounts, and your Playbook stay with you.
Stop learning your food cost a month too late.
Book a 30-minute call, and we’ll show you what your week could look like on one page.