Owning a restaurant or being a manager responsible for payments can be quite challenging. Therefore, it is crucial to learn more about all the details, official rules, and strategies that might help you run your restaurant with much higher efficiency.
The part related to managing payrolls can be especially difficult if you are running a bigger place. This is especially a reason because you will have to fill special forms and report all those paychecks for taxation. That is the main reason to consider using TheBestPaystubs, which is a software where you can easily deal with various financial reports related to the payments of your personnel.
There are two main reasons why you should pay more attention to this part. The first part is that you might miss some important regulation, and face penalties, while another one might lead to unnecessary expenses where you might be overpaying some people, or making some of them unsatisfied by missing to pay them in the right way. We are going to introduce you to tips and common mistakes to avoid when dealing with restaurant payrolls.
1. Use Software for Scheduling
This is a common practice for many businesses today, and there is no reason for you to avoid it as well. There are some simple and quite affordable solutions that you can find online that will make it much easier to collaborate with the workers and create a schedule that will make both sides satisfied. It will help you to create a schedule in advance, and your stuff will prefer this as well since they will be able to choose free days and vacation date.
Another reason why you should consider implementing this option into your management practice is that you can have a clear insight about working hours and be sure that each person got the right paycheck.
2. Focus on Keeping a Good Record
While using software is a great solution to monitor the activities and working hours, keep in mind that it is not a rare case that workers might decide to switch some shifts and make an agreement where someone might skip a day while another person will work overtime or more days than there is in the report.
Moreover, be sure to calculate the right wages for your workers. It can be quite complicated, especially in case that they have lower tips and working for less than minimum hour wage. For example, if the working hour in your state is set to be a minimum $8, and your workers didn’t get enough tips to cover for it, you will have to fill the gap by paying them more.
However, keep in mind that there is a way for employers to use that in their favor, which is also a reason to have a manager or a checker who is honest and will inform you if workers try to hide certain amount of tips from reporting.
3. Learn The Rules Related to Tips
We already mentioned that you can offer a lower wage than minimum in case that you have a restaurant since they will get tips as well. However, be sure to comply to the rules where you will compensate if they cannot earn at least the minimum determined value.
Also, tips also must be reported and tax has to be calculated for this type of income. Be sure to check your workers so they will always report their tips. There are various types of tips as well, like the personal ones, that can be provided in cash or on a credit card, mutual tips that someone will give to the whole group, and predetermined ones. It is common that many restaurants in the US are using the predetermined tipping option so they can secure more money for their works, along with their ability to pay wages lower than minimal.
4. Educate the Workers
It is crucial to let your staff know about the importance of reporting all types of profit that is made at your place, and that it includes the tips as well. Hiding some tips can lead both sides to problems if the officials finds that. Also, if you can prove that you run your business with accurate reports and following the rules related to payrolls and taxes, you can get many benefits, while workers will meet improved conditions for credit rating and medical care as well.
5. Determine the Right Wages
It should be the part of your business plan when you are opening the restaurant when it comes to determining the number of people you need, and how much you can pay them. The great thing about places where tips are included is that you can offer a lower value of hour, which is limited to around $5 in the US.
However, keep in mind that you can offer it only to servers and other people in the restaurant who are dealing with tips directly, while it is not recommended to the same with the people working in the kitchen. It is important to offer them a bigger salary since they often don’t get the same percentage of the mutual tips.
Summary
If you are facing issues with your current processes and payrolls, the best solution would be to ask an expert to help you with that. Also, consider implementing advanced digital platforms where you can establish a more transparent tracking process and get more details about the tips, working hours, overtime, free days, and other important things that will help you to create an accurate system where both sides will be satisfied.
This will help you to avoid additional expenses and pay more to some people, while it will also prevent issues in communication with some employees where they are expecting a higher payment that they should get. Besides that, keep in mind that some people who are working in your restaurant, especially the chef and his companions must have a higher salary since tips are often not equally distributed.