POS to books, daily
Sales from your POS, card terminals and cash drawer matched to the bank, so a missing settlement shows up in days, not at year end.
Restaurants, cafes & cloud kitchens
Accounting built for the way a restaurant actually runs.
Hundreds of small card payments a day, three delivery apps, suppliers paid in cash, staff on visas, and a VAT return every quarter. We keep all of it reconciled, so the numbers you see are the numbers you have.
What we do for you
Delivery-app reconciliation
Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon Food and others pay you net of commission. We gross it back up, book the commission and claim the VAT on it.
Food cost & wastage
Purchases split by category so you can see food cost as a percentage of sales, month by month, and spot leakage early.
VAT returns
Dine-in, takeaway, delivery, service charges and staff meals treated correctly, input VAT claimed on what you are entitled to claim.
Corporate Tax
Registration, Small Business Relief where it applies, and an annual return built from books that already reconcile.
Licences, visas & PRO
Trade licence renewals and staff visas from entry permit to Emirates ID, kept on one calendar with your tax deadlines.
Why restaurant books go wrong
A restaurant generates more transactions in a week than many trading companies do in a year. When the bookkeeping is done once a quarter, just before the VAT return, three things usually happen: delivery-app payouts are booked net, so revenue and VAT are understated; cash purchases have no proper tax invoice, so input VAT is lost; and nobody can say what food cost actually was last month.
- Delivery-app settlements booked net of commission
- Service charge and tips mixed together
- Cash purchases without a valid tax invoice
- Staff meals and wastage never recorded
- Card-terminal settlements that never reached the bank, unnoticed
VAT points specific to food and beverage
Food and drink supplied in the UAE is standard-rated at 5%. The detail is in how each revenue stream is recorded: what the guest pays at the table, what the delivery platform collects on your behalf, what it charges you as commission, and any service charge added to the bill.
A service charge added to the bill is part of the price and carries VAT. A tip the guest chooses to leave, and which is passed in full to staff, is treated differently. Getting this split right on the POS saves a correction later.
- Commission charged by delivery platforms carries VAT you can usually recover if you hold a valid tax invoice
- Mandatory VAT registration applies once taxable supplies pass AED 375,000 in 12 months; voluntary registration from AED 187,500
- Returns are due within 28 days after each tax period ends
Corporate Tax for restaurants
Every UAE company must register for Corporate Tax, file a return and keep records, even if no tax is payable. The first AED 375,000 of taxable profit is taxed at 0% and the rest at 9%.
If revenue is AED 3 million or less in a tax period ending on or before 31 December 2026, you may be able to elect Small Business Relief and be treated as having no taxable income for that period. The election still has to be made in the return, and records still have to be kept.
Multi-outlet and cloud kitchens
When you run more than one outlet or brand, we set up the chart of accounts by location and by brand, so each one has its own profit and loss. For cloud kitchens selling several virtual brands through the same apps, that is the only way to see which brand is actually making money.
FAQ
Questions,
answered.
Yes. Food delivered to a customer in the UAE is standard-rated at 5%, whether the order comes through your own channel or a delivery app. How the platform's role is recorded depends on the agreement you have with it, which is why we read the platform contract before setting up the entries.
A service charge added to the bill forms part of the consideration for the meal and is subject to VAT. A voluntary tip given by the guest and passed in full to staff is treated differently. The two should be separated on your POS.
Yes. Registering and filing are obligations of every taxable person, regardless of profit. A loss can usually be carried forward against future profits, which is another reason to file correctly.
We work from the reports your POS and payment providers already produce, so you do not need to change systems. We then match them to the bank and the delivery-app settlement statements.
Yes. We set up the books by location and, for cloud kitchens, by brand, so each has its own monthly profit and loss.
Recent result
AED 36,000
of AED 40,000 in penalties waived for an IFZA free-zone company. We prepared the waiver request; the investor paid AED 4,000.
Not sure where you stand?
Send us your last VAT return or your trade licence. A chartered accountant will tell you what is in order and what needs attention. No obligation.