Running a restaurant near The Battery means running two businesses at once. On the 81 regular-season home dates of a standard baseball season, plus concerts, events and holiday crowds, the district around Truist Park fills up and sales can double or triple. On the other days, the same kitchen serves office workers from the Cumberland towers, hotel guests and neighbors from Vinings and Smyrna. Staffing, purchasing and cash flow all swing with the calendar.
That volatility is exactly why restaurant accounting in this corridor has to be tighter than average. Annual profit tells an owner very little. Weekly numbers, split between event and non-event days, tell them almost everything. This guide covers what restaurant and hospitality businesses near The Battery should expect from their books.
Prime cost is the number to run the restaurant on
Prime cost is the combined cost of food, beverages and labor, including payroll taxes and benefits, measured against sales. It is the largest controllable cost in almost every restaurant, and the one that moves fastest when something goes wrong: a supplier price increase, overstaffing on a slow night, or portioning that drifts over a busy month.
Prime cost is only useful if it is timely. A monthly P&L delivered three weeks after month end describes a restaurant that no longer exists. The operators who control it best look at it weekly, which requires purchases to be entered as they arrive, labor to be pulled from payroll by pay period, and a regular inventory count.
Game days, concert nights and demand swings
A single monthly P&L blends event days and ordinary days into an average that describes neither. Owners in the district get far better information by tracking a few measures separately:
- Sales and labor by day type. Event days, weekends and weekdays, so that scheduling decisions are based on the right comparison.
- Beverage mix. Event crowds shift sales toward beverages, which carry different margins and different tax treatment from food.
- Par levels and waste. Purchasing for a sold-out game that ends up rained out is a real cost. Recording waste and comps separately shows how much.
- Cash position ahead of big weeks. A stretch of home games means larger purchases and overtime before the sales arrive.
Reconciling the POS, delivery apps and deposits
A restaurant’s sales data comes from several places, and they rarely agree without work:
- Point-of-sale reports show gross sales, discounts, comps, voids and payment types.
- Card processor deposits arrive net of fees and on a delay.
- Third-party delivery platforms pay out after deducting commissions, marketing fees, adjustments and refunds. Recording only the net deposit understates both sales and costs, and it hides how much each platform actually charges.
- Cash needs a daily count against the POS, with over and short amounts recorded rather than absorbed.
Gift cards deserve their own attention. A gift card sale is not revenue when the card is sold. It is a liability until the card is redeemed, and revenue from cards that are never used is recognized under specific rules. Recording gift card sales as revenue on the day of purchase overstates sales in November and December and understates them the rest of the year.
Sales tax on restaurant sales
Prepared food and beverages sold by a restaurant are generally subject to Georgia sales tax at the combined state and local rate for the location. The practical issues are less about the rate and more about what goes into taxable sales: discounts, comps, delivery orders, catering and event packages, and charges added to the check. Delivery and ordering platforms that qualify as marketplace facilitators generally must collect and remit Georgia sales tax on the orders they facilitate, so those sales need to be reconciled to make sure the restaurant does not also report tax the platform already collected.
Restaurants that sell alcohol also need the applicable state and local alcohol licenses, and depending on the beverage type, license and jurisdiction, alcohol sales can bring separate excise tax, reporting and renewal requirements. Keeping food, beer, wine and liquor sales in separate categories in the POS makes every one of those filings easier. Our sales and use tax team handles the filings for hospitality clients.
Inventory and the month-end count
Many small restaurants expense food and beverage purchases as they are bought and never record inventory on hand. That works poorly in a business with large swings, because a big purchase before a home stand makes one month look terrible and the next look unusually profitable. A consistent month-end count of food, liquor, beer and wine, valued at cost, keeps cost of goods sold honest from month to month, and it is the only reliable way to spot theft or waste.
Leases and build-outs in a mixed-use development
Restaurant leases in mixed-use districts often include terms that change the accounting:
- Percentage rent. Rent based on a share of sales above a breakpoint is generally a variable lease payment. It is not included in the lease liability at commencement and is recognized as it is incurred.
- Common area maintenance and marketing fund charges, which need to be separated from base rent.
- Tenant improvement allowances and free rent periods, which affect how lease cost is recognized over the full term. We cover both in our guide to small business accounting in Cumberland and the Galleria.
Kitchen equipment and interior build-out costs are capital assets. Following the 2025 federal tax law, qualifying property acquired and placed in service after January 19, 2025 is generally eligible for 100% bonus depreciation, including many interior improvements that meet the definition of qualified improvement property. Georgia does not follow federal bonus depreciation, so the state return treats the same costs differently.
Restaurant accounting from our Atlanta office
Manay CPA’s Atlanta office is in the Cumberland corridor, a few minutes from The Battery. We provide monthly accounting built for weekly prime cost reporting, payroll for hourly and tipped staff, and year-round tax support. Read more about our work in hospitality, or see our list of tax write-offs for restaurant owners.
Frequently asked questions
What is prime cost in a restaurant?
Prime cost is the total of food cost, beverage cost and labor cost, including payroll taxes and benefits, usually expressed as a percentage of sales. Because it is the largest controllable cost, most operators track it weekly.
How should delivery app sales be recorded?
Record the gross sale and the platform’s commissions and fees separately, rather than only the net payout. That keeps sales accurate for tax and reporting purposes and shows the true cost of each platform.
Are gift card sales revenue when they are sold?
No. A gift card sale is a liability until the card is redeemed. Revenue is recognized when the card is used, and amounts expected never to be redeemed are recognized under specific accounting rules rather than at the time of sale.
Is percentage rent included in the lease liability?
Generally no. Rent that varies based on a tenant’s sales is a variable lease payment. It is excluded from the lease liability measured at commencement and recognized as expense in the period it is incurred.
Talk to us
If you run a restaurant, bar or hospitality business near The Battery and your books cannot show you how an event week really performed, we can help. Book a consultation with our Atlanta team.
