Hotels, cafés and restaurants

Houdart A&C’s Technical Expertise as Accountants and Auditors for Hotels, Cafés, and Restaurants

Whether your company operates a hotel, café, tobacco bar, or restaurant, our know-how, the personal involvement of Houdart A&C’s partners, the technical expertise of our staff, and our knowledge of the issues related to your activity guarantee responsiveness and quality of service.

We analyze together your sales recording procedures, the cash register software used in your establishments, and we will adapt to your operations without constraining you, in order to make our relationship as serene and fluid as possible.

Our social department is fully conversant with the specificities of the HCR agreement and is accustomed to meeting the flexibility needs demanded by executives in this sector.

We have numerous clients in or close to this sector, operating hotels, cafés, tobacco bars, and nightclubs, in accounting expertise or auditing services, both in Paris or in the provinces, our multidisciplinary and agile approach enables us to offer you a comprehensive service that addresses your concerns and your need for responsiveness.

Characteristics of hotels, cafés and restaurants

Specificities of hotels, cafes, and restaurants in terms of management

Revenue management

If the restaurant owner has a cash register or a point of sale software, he must comply with the current regulations, which means having a certificate of compliance from his provider or an accredited organization. However, he can also choose not to have a cash register and track his revenue through a cash summary.

In order to be able to verify the accounting consistency of the receipts compared to the recorded revenue, the revenue must be tracked in a matrix format. On one hand, it should be categorized by type of sale, with the VAT rate applied to the revenue potentially depending on its nature. On the other hand, it should be categorized by type of payment (cash, card, restaurant vouchers).

The daily establishment of the cash reconciliation and the regular cash control are essential.

Hotels have hotel management tools that can integrate reservations from the hotel’s website, other booking channels, or manual inputs. Reservation tracking and occupancy rates can be viewed in dedicated dashboards. Hotel management systems often offer integrations with complementary systems such as payment processors and customer relationship management (CRM) systems to transparently exploit booking data.

Faced with these constraints, a cafe, hotel, or restaurant operator can rely on the advice of an accountant like Houdart A&C to assist them in creating revenue tables in Excel or digitized and API-connected formats for accounting software.

Inventory Management

In a café or restaurant, it’s essential to keep a close eye on stocks of perishable products, in order to limit waste and preserve the company’s margins Hygiene rules regulate storage requirements. Working capital requirements are monopolized by inventories, and the consistency of product purchase costs compared to selling prices needs to be monitored.

The prices of raw materials can be volatile, and they represent a significant expense item on which the margin on variable costs depends, and it is not always possible to fully pass on these increases in menu and dish prices.

An annual inventory must be conducted, as well as periodic inventories throughout the year to establish the financial status. As chartered accountants specialized in cafes and restaurants, we typically conduct a mid-year review to ensure the margins and applied coefficients are maintained properly. Depending on the type of catering offered by your establishment, we’ll be able to indicate to you the consistency of the margins achieved in relation to the competition.

Personnel management

Recruitment and personnel management are key issues in this sector.

With the support of a chartered accountant who understands the particularities of employment law and can provide prompt responses to your requests, you can make management and staffing decisions with confidence, and limit unforeseen issues

The monotoring of employees’ fringe benefit based on their working hours, the possible issuance of tip-based pay slips, all the specificities of the HCR collective agreement are mastered by the chartered accounting and stautory auditing firm Houdart A&C. We assist our clients in all their audits conducted by social security organizations such as URSSAF.

Margin monitoring

Regular monitoring of profit margins and applied coefficients through real-time accounting is necessary for the management of your establishment. We adapt our process of retrieving accounting documents to your procedures and assist you in improving them if necessary.

Time management

Effective time management and planning are crucial for the economic success of a hotel project. It is not easy to be open constantly and constantly manage customer flow, check-ins and check-outs, while overseeing logistics and meeting customer responsiveness requirements.

A business-specific software tailored to the activity and good organization are necessary to optimize the working hours of the staff, which directly affects the economic viability of the project.

The specificities of hotels, cafes, and restaurants regarding taxation

VAT Rates Applicable to Accommodation Services

The reduced VAT rate is applicable to the provision of accommodation, subject to the following details:

The intermediate rate of 10% applies exclusively to the provision of accommodation, regardless of the category of the hotel, campground, or furnished rental in question. All additional services that are billed separately, all sales, and all related revenues must be taxed at their respective rates.

VAT Rates Applicable to Meal Services

Determining the applicable VAT rate requires assessing whether the sale of products is associated with a service and distinguishing between food products intended for immediate consumption and those intended for preservation.

If products are sold in conjunction with a service (provision of a room, equipment, personnel related to the sale of food), the entire package is taxed at 10%, whether the establishment specializes in traditional dining, fast food, bars, cafes, etc. However, the 20% VAT rate applies to alcoholic beverages.

In the case of takeaway sales, the applicable VAT rates are as follows:

• The 5.5% VAT rate applies to food products not intended for immediate consumption, packaged in containers allowing for their preservation and deferred consumption.
• The 10% VAT rate applies to dishes and non-alcoholic beverages for immediate consumption, whether on-site, takeaway, or delivered.
• The 20% VAT rate applies to alcoholic beverages.

In accordance with the provisions of Article 268 bis du CGI, when operations subject to different rates are invoiced as a lump sum, it is the responsibility of the entrepreneur to be able to allocate the revenue according to each rate, in an economically realistic manner, under their own responsibility, and subject to the administration’s right to audit..

Tourist Tax

The tourist tax is a property tax that must be paid by vacationers staying in one of the following accommodations : Palace, Tourist Hotel, Tourist Residence, Tourist Furnished Rental, Bed and Breakfast, Outdoor Accommodation, or Marina. The tourist tax is paid by the vacationer in addition to the accommodation fee to the landlord, hotelier, or owner, who then remits it to the municipality.

The rates for the tourist tax are set by the municipal council of the town. They also decide on the collection period for the tax (dates of the tourist season) and the applicable rates for each category of accommodation..

Useful Links

• Groupement National des Indépendants Hôtellerie et Restauration (National Association of Independent Hotel and Restaurant Owners) : https://www.ghr.fr/

Frequently Asked Questions about Hotels, Cafés, and Restaurants

Is a cash register mandatory for a café or restaurant ?

The Finance Law for the year 2018 requires merchants and restaurateurs equipped with a cash register, cash register software, or cash system to obtain a compliance certificate from their editor or an accredited organization, ensuring that the data recorded by this system is unalterable and retained over a specified period. This regulation does not mandate the use of a cash register, but all professionals equipped with a cash system must comply with the obligation of conformity.

How to evaluate the goodwill of a hotel or restaurant ?

The evaluation of the goodwill of a hotel or restaurant is based on the application of multiples of turnover, profit, and EBITDA, derived from common practices in the industry. However, before applying these multiples, it is essential to ensure the adjustment of non-standard elements that could bias this evaluation.

Which collective agreement applies to the activity of hotels, cafes, restaurants, and bars ?

The National Collective Agreement for Hotels, Cafés, and Restaurants of April 30, 1997 (IDCC 1979) applies to all businesses in metropolitan France and the overseas territories whose primary activity is accommodation and/or the provision of meals and/or beverages and, if applicable, associated services.

Why enlist the services of an accounting firm specializing in the specificities of hotels, cafes, and restaurants ?

Whether you are a restaurateur, tobacco shop owner, hotel manager, operating as a sole proprietorship, a company, or a group of multiple entities, seeking the guidance of an accounting firm specializing in the hospitality and restaurant sector is crucial for the establishment, daily management, or growth of your business. Their support ensures you benefit from technical expertise in legal, accounting, social, and tax matters, addressing the unique challenges inherent in the Hospitality, Catering, and Restaurant (HCR) industry.

Beyond the preparation of annual accounts, your advisor will proactively anticipate risks related to taxation and social regulations. They will also assist you in the qualitative drafting of annual legal elements. Opting for an auditor specialized in HCR activities guarantees a risk-based and value-added approach for your teams. This goes beyond substantive tests conducted, including recommendations for implementing processes aimed at enhancing your internal control and the reliability of financial statement production.