Review Your Chart of Accounts

Your chart of accounts is the list of buckets every dollar lands in: cash, food cost, liquor sales, rent, payroll and so on. Each bucket is a GL accountGL accountGeneral ledger account. One of the named buckets on your books, like Food Sales or Sales Tax Payable, that every dollar is sorted into. (GL stands for general ledger). Your P&LP&LProfit and loss statement. Shows your sales, costs and profit for a period. and balance sheet are built straight from them.

Good news: you don’t have to build one. Every new DishBooks organization starts with a chart of accounts made for restaurants, with prime costPrime costCOGS plus total labor cost. Usually a restaurant's biggest controllable expense., food and beverage cost broken out and the sales categories you’d expect. Most restaurants use it as is and add an account here and there as they grow.

Coming from QuickBooks or Restaurant365 and want to keep your own chart of accounts? You can upload it instead, or have our team help you bring it over.

Before you start

• You’ll need GL Accounts set to Manage in your role to add, edit, delete or upload accounts. By default that’s the Owner, Admin and Accountant roles. View lets you look but not change.
• Changing account types affects how your financial reports add up. If you’re not sure, check with your accountant first.

Step 1 Open GL Accounts

Go to Settings → GL Accounts. Each account shows its name and number, its type, its parent account and its default location. While your Setup checklist still has Review chart of accounts open, a banner at the top has a Mark as reviewed button. Click it once you’ve checked your accounts, and the step is done for everyone in your organization.

• Search finds an account by name or number. Type produce and you’ll see every produce account.
• Filter narrows the list by type, parent account or default location.
• Actions has three tools: Export CSV (download your chart of accounts), Upload (bring in accounts from a file) and Manage types.

Step 2 Add a GL account

Added catering? Started tracking coffee separately from beverages? Add an account for it.

Click + Create new (top right). The New account panel opens.

Account details

• Name: what it’s called on your reports, like Food Cost - Produce.
• Number: optional, but numbering keeps your reports in a sensible order (for example, 5125 sits next to the other food cost accounts).
• Description: optional notes on what belongs here.
• Enable Reconciliation: for bank and credit card accounts you reconcile. DishBooks turns this on for you when you connect a bank or import a bank file, so you’ll rarely touch it.
• Enable Print Check: only for bank accounts. Turn it on to print checks from this account. See Record payments and print checks.
• Disable Entry: stops anything new from being posted to the account. Handy for an account you’ve stopped using but can’t delete because it has history.

Parent account

Groups accounts together on your reports. Put Produce, Dairy and Bread under Food Cost, and your P&L shows each one plus a Food Cost total.

Percent of account

Choose the sales account this one should be compared to on your reports. Set your food cost accounts to Food Sales so you see food cost as a percent of food sales, not total sales. That’s the number that tells you how your kitchen is really doing.

Type

The accounting category the account belongs to, like Bank/Cash, Accounts Receivable, Inventory, Credit Card or Accounts Payable. Type decides whether the account shows up on your P&L or your balance sheet. When in doubt, match the type of similar accounts. An account with a parent takes its parent’s type, and some types ask for a Subtype too.

Default location

Tie the account to one location or entity, like a bank account that only one restaurant uses. Leave it blank if it’s shared. An account that’s set as a default in Settings → Accounting can’t have one.

Click Save.

Step 3 Look inside an account

Click an account (or three dots → View) to open it. At the top are its account details. Below is every transaction posted to it.

• Show unapproved includes transactions that haven’t been approved yet.
• Filter and the date range (like Last 12 months) narrow the list.
• Search finds a specific transaction.

Great for answering “why is this number so high?” Open the account and see exactly what’s in it.

Need to make a change?

Click the three dots next to any account:

• View: open the account and its transactions.
• Edit: the same panel you used to create it. Change the name, number, switches, parent, type or location, then click Save. DishBooks asks you to confirm, because edits can change your financial statements. You can also click the pencil on the account’s page.
• Delete: only works for accounts that nothing uses. If an account has transactions, DishBooks offers Disable instead, which turns on Disable Entry. Its past stays on your reports, and nothing new can be posted to it.

Merge accounts

Two accounts that should be one? Check them in the list and click Merge in the bar that appears. Choose the details the merged account keeps. Its transactions and everything else pointing at the merged-away accounts move to it.

Bring in your own chart of accounts

1. Click Actions → Upload.
2. Click Download template and fill it in with your accounts. Upload takes CSV files only.
3. Choose your file. DishBooks opens a review screen where each row either creates an account or updates one it matched, by account number first and then by name. Fix anything flagged in the Issue column.
4. Click Import. Nothing is saved until you do.

Haven’t started entering transactions yet and want a clean slate? Check the box at the top of the list to select every account, click Delete and confirm. DishBooks leaves in place any account that has transactions or is in use, such as one set as a default in Settings → Accounting, and lists them for you. See Accounting settings and closing dates.

Prefer a hand? Our team can bring your chart of accounts over for you.

Manage types

Account types decide where each account lands on your financial reports. Click Actions → Manage types to open the GL types page. It lists every type and the class it rolls up to, like Food Cost, Food Sales or Bank/Cash.

• Add a type: click + Create new, then choose its class.
• Edit or delete a type: click the three dots next to it. A type that has accounts can’t be deleted, and DishBooks’ built-in types can only be renamed.
• Merge types: check two or more types and click Merge. Pick the name and class to keep, and every account moves to the merged type. You can’t merge two built-in types.

You’ll see an Edit with caution banner at the top of this page. Changing types changes how your reports add up, so this one’s best left to someone with accounting experience. The DishBooks types are built for restaurants, and most groups never need to touch them.

Tips and common questions

Should I change the DishBooks chart of accounts?

You don’t have to. It’s built for restaurants. Add accounts as you need them, like a separate account for a new revenue stream.

Why can’t I delete this account?

It has transactions on it, or it’s set as a default in Settings → Accounting. Turn on Disable entry instead, or change the default first.

How do I get food cost as a percent of food sales on my P&L?

Set Percent of account on each food cost account to your food sales account. Do the same for beverage cost and beverage sales.

My bank account isn’t showing up for check printing.

Make sure its type is a bank account, then edit it and turn on Enable print check.

What’s the difference between parent account and type?

Type is the accounting category and decides which report an account lands on. Parent account just groups accounts under a subtotal so your reports are easier to read.

What’s next

Your chart of accounts is ready. Make sure the accounts DishBooks uses behind the scenes point to the right places.