Charleston is one of America's most celebrated food cities — and one of the toughest places to run a tight kitchen. From King Street independents to Lowcountry seafood spots, you're juggling seasonal tourism swings, tipped-staff payroll, ingredient cost volatility, and thin F&B margins. We keep your books clean, your COGS visible, and your daily sales reconciled so you can focus on the line.
No setup fees · Cancel anytime · Dedicated bookkeeper
From peninsula fine dining to neighborhood gastropubs, we work with F&B operators across Charleston County — building books that actually reflect the realities of running a restaurant in one of America's most demanding food scenes.
Downtown Charleston is one of the densest restaurant corridors in the Southeast. King Street, Upper King, and the historic district pull a relentless mix of year-round tourism, convention traffic, and wedding-season demand — and the kitchens that feed it run on tipped-staff payroll, daily POS reconciliation, and ingredient costs that move every week. We track your tip income and tip-out the way the IRS expects, reconcile your daily sales against deposits, and surface your food cost percentage every month so you can adjust the menu before the margin disappears.
Beyond the peninsula, the Mount Pleasant, West Ashley, Daniel Island, and Johns Island neighborhood scenes are where a lot of Charleston's most interesting concepts live — chef-driven spots, family-run kitchens, craft breweries, and taprooms with their own production COGS to manage. We categorize ingredient purchases versus alcohol versus packaging, separate brewery production from taproom sales, and keep multi-account, multi-merchant-processor books clean so you can see exactly which side of the business is paying for itself.
And the wider Lowcountry F&B economy — food trucks, catering operators, specialty food retailers, and bars and lounges across the metro — runs on event income, seasonal swings, and a lot of small-batch margins. We build a bookkeeping structure that handles event-based revenue, commissary expenses, and the slow-month/peak-month cash flow reality of a tourism-driven food city. See more about how we work across Charleston, SC.
From a single-location café to a multi-concept bar group — we understand how food service financials actually work.
High volume, tight margins, and a dozen moving parts. Food costs, labor, POS reconciliation, and vendor bills all demand a bookkeeper who understands the restaurant business.
Cash-heavy operations with complex tip reporting, comp tracking, and liquor inventory. We build a system that keeps your bar books audit-ready.
Mobile operations and event-based revenue require a flexible bookkeeping structure. We track income and expenses across locations and events so your numbers are always accurate.
Restaurant and bar finances have challenges that general bookkeepers routinely miss. Here's what we hear from nearly every new client.
You're busy every weekend, but are you actually profitable? Without tracking food cost percentages and labor ratios, you're running blind.
Tip income, tip pools, tip-out to support staff — the IRS has specific rules and the penalties for mishandling are real. We track it correctly from day one.
Sysco, US Foods, local suppliers, alcohol distributors — vendor invoices pile up fast. We track every bill and payment so nothing gets missed or paid twice.
Your sales are in Toast, your money is in three bank accounts, and your cards settle on a two-day delay. Reconciling it all manually is a nightmare. We handle it.
Every Tides plan includes all seven core services. Restaurant and bar clients get specific treatment for COGS tracking, POS reconciliation, and tip income reporting.
Every account reconciled, every transaction categorized, every month — without exception. You receive a clean P&L and balance sheet you can actually understand and use to make decisions about your business.
Monthly reports that show your income, food costs, labor, and overhead — so you can see exactly where your margins are going.
Every business account and credit card matched and verified each month. No mystery charges. No unresolved transactions. No surprises.
We track vendor bills, supplier payments, and outstanding invoices so your cash flow stays healthy and nothing gets missed or paid twice.
Months or years behind? We clean it all up before we start your regular monthly service — no matter how far back the backlog goes.
If you have front-of-house or back-of-house staff, we coordinate payroll processing and keep your tax filings clean and on schedule.
"Finally understanding our food cost percentages changed how we order and price our menu. Tides made our numbers make sense for the first time."
Questions we hear from food service business owners before they sign on with Tides.
Based in South Carolina. Serving food service businesses coast to coast, 100% remotely — because your books don't need to be in the same city as your kitchen.
Tides Bookkeeping specializes in bookkeeping across 12 distinct industries. Industry-specific expertise means fewer errors, better categorization, and a bookkeeper who already understands how your business makes money.
Schedule a free 15-minute call. We'll review your current setup, answer your questions, and give you a flat monthly quote — no pressure.
No credit card required · No long-term contracts · Cancel anytime