A delivery night that paid short is three lines, not one deposit. Gross food, the platform fee, and tax the platform already sent are written on the delivery payout page.
A card that is not food yet
A Saturday of tickets still has to say which dollars were food and which were a card a guest has not spent. The room can be proud of a full book of gift cards. The books are not proud until the kitchen cooks the meal. Money in the drawer that the kitchen has not cooked is the worry this page sits with.
In the books, a restaurant gift card waits as a liability until redemption. The item points at that liability on the day of sale. Redemption moves the liability toward food. Pointing the item at income tonight recognizes a meal the kitchen has not cooked. If the card and the plate share one item, the sales tax return cannot see the timing. Where a state taxes the card on the sale day instead, that day still needs its own item. The state's timing is on the state's form.
Comps, coupons, and the meal nobody paid for
A coupon is a discount for sales tax in many states when the restaurant is not reimbursed for it. A five dollar coupon against a fifteen dollar meal means tax is often due on ten dollars, on what the guest actually paid. A complimentary meal or drink is not a sale in the ordinary sense. Tax can still be due on taxable ingredients, such as soft drinks given away. Raw meat and vegetables used in that complimentary meal are often not taxable items. The row in Ask My Accountant is often one of these, sitting there because the receipt had no item for it. Confirm the line on your state's form before you treat the example as your return.
Emptying that account into meals hides the line the close needs. Each row gets a destination first. A comp is not a fee, and a fee is not a comp. Delivery commissions are fees. House comps are discounts. They do not share a bucket just because both made the drawer smaller.
What to send from this side of the metro
Send the gift card item if it exists, with the account visible and the card name covered. If the item was combined with food, say so. If alcohol is included in the price, say that too, because the method has to stay consistent from week to week. The rate the guest sees and the rate the house remits are not always the same rate, and neither one should be invented on this page.
A drink consumed at the table often wants its own monthly filing, due even when the bar sold nothing. Alcohol sold to go, and not consumed on the premises, often leaves that filing. We will not edit a filed month to force a card redemption to match an old deposit. The closing date stays shut.
A figure waits until the objects are counted. Open batches, gift-card items on income, alcohol in the sales tax center, and months past the lock. The number under the signoff reaches the people who read the gift card item. The item itself is enough for a first look, and the rest of the year can stay in the file.
Point at the gift card
Send the gift card item. We will say which account it should point at.
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.