10+ hrs
of the owner's time handed back every month
Case Study · Restaurant & Hospitality
How a Family-Owned Restaurant Got Its Evenings Back
A busy family-owned restaurant was months behind on its books and flying blind on cash flow. Invisor cleared the backlog, kept every HST filing on time, and turned messy numbers into decisions the owner could actually act on.
$4,180
in missed input tax credits and duplicate charges recovered in Q1
0
missed HST deadlines since onboarding
The Challenge
The books were four months behind, and profit was a guess
Like many restaurant owners, this owner did not get into hospitality to wrangle spreadsheets. Between lunch rushes, dinner service, suppliers and staffing, the books kept slipping until tax season was close.
- Four months of backlog, with receipts and supplier invoices stuffed in a drawer.
- Sales were split across dine-in, TouchBistro, Uber Eats, DoorDash and SkipTheDishes, with no reliable reconciliation across channels.
- Tips, hourly wages and week-to-week schedule changes turned payroll into a monthly scramble.
- Two late HST filings the year before had already cost the restaurant penalties and interest.
- No monthly profit-and-loss statement meant the owner could not tell whether a busy month was actually profitable.
- Reconciliations were happening after midnight, once the doors were locked.
The Solution
A catch-up project first, then a monthly rhythm
Invisor started by bringing the books current, then built a restaurant-specific bookkeeping system so the same problem would not return.
- Reconciled four months of backlog and rebuilt a restaurant-specific chart of accounts covering food, beverage, labour and delivery-app commissions.
- Connected TouchBistro and the delivery platforms to QuickBooks Online so each channel could flow into the books cleanly.
- Took over monthly bookkeeping and bank reconciliation, reducing month-end close from roughly two weeks of guesswork to four business days.
- Set up HST tracking and handled filings so deadlines stopped becoming a fire drill.
- Streamlined payroll for hourly staff and tips, with T4 filings prepared and submitted on time.
- Delivered a monthly report pack with a plain-English profit-and-loss statement, balance sheet and cash-flow snapshot.
- Kept the business compliant with accurate, on-time corporate tax filing support.
The Results
Current books, clearer decisions and evenings back
Within weeks, the owner had numbers they could use to run the business instead of a backlog they had to work around.
- Books were brought fully current in about three weeks after being four months behind.
- Roughly 10 hours a month went back to the owner once the midnight bookkeeping stopped.
- $4,180 was recovered in the first quarter from missed input tax credits and duplicate supplier charges surfaced during cleanup.
- Monthly reporting exposed food costs running near 36% of sales. Renegotiating with two suppliers and adjusting select menu prices brought food costs closer to 31%, adding roughly $1,700 a month back to the restaurant's pocket.
- HST deadlines have not been missed since onboarding, removing penalties and interest from the routine.
- The owner now reviews a monthly P&L and makes pricing, staffing and menu decisions with confidence instead of gut feel.
“Honestly, I used to dread month-end. Now I get a report I actually understand, and I've stopped doing the books at midnight. I only wish I'd made the call a year sooner.”
From Messy Books to Monthly Clarity
The owner finally knew whether a busy month was a profitable one.
Clean monthly reporting made food costs, supplier charges, payroll and delivery-app commissions visible. That gave the owner room to renegotiate, price with confidence and stop treating month-end like an after-hours emergency.
Restaurant-specific chart of accounts
QuickBooks Online and POS integrations
Monthly P&L, balance sheet and cash-flow snapshot
HST, payroll, T4 and corporate tax compliance
