Restaurant Payroll Solutions

Beyond keeping day-to-day operations and customer service running smoothly, managing a restaurant involves thoughtfully navigating tip calculations, employee classification, legal compliance, timely payment of employees, and a host of other financial and legal concerns.

Finding the right restaurant payroll solution can help your business ensure efficiency, employee satisfaction, and legal compliance through the ups and downs of employee turnover, managing multiple locations, and shift scheduling.

With qualified payroll software and expert support from CAVU, you can automate payroll, easily integrate with other HR processes like timekeeping, and offer employee self-service tools that let you and your employees focus on high-priority tasks. It’s time to enjoy peace of mind about payroll, tax, and compliance concerns through a comprehensive payroll software solution.

What is Restaurant Payroll Software?

Restaurant payroll software is tailored to accommodate the specific needs of restaurants, hospitality industry businesses, and their employees. Whether it’s adding new employees, integrating payroll with time tracking, processing tipped wages, or managing minimum wage and overtime, a qualified restaurant payroll software can help you address all of these concerns.

In addition to handling day-to-day payroll needs, restaurant payroll software also lets you pay and file taxes accurately for all employee types (across jurisdictions) and seamlessly integrate payroll with other HR processes like timekeeping, scheduling, benefits administration, and much more. All of this is achieved while using a secure, employee-friendly platform that features 24/7 mobile access and eliminates the need for time-consuming manual processes.

Many more hours dealing with payroll and end of year responsibilities.

Shane Fisher, Small business owner, The Spotted Cow and Joe’s Original Italian

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Effortless Payroll for Restaurants | CAVU HCM

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How Does Payroll Software Save Time for Restaurant Owners?

Since restaurant payroll software automates a number of payroll processes that would normally be completed manually or by using disparate digital systems, it can reduce costs and time spent for restaurant owners while helping employees focus on their core job responsibilities.

Restaurant payroll software allows you to automate tip calculations, overtime wages, minimum wage requirements, wage garnishments, workers’ compensation and other payment details while syncing hours with time tracking to ensure accuracy and consolidated data.

Restaurant payroll software allows you to automate tip calculations, overtime wages, minimum wage requirements, wage garnishments, workers’ compensation, Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) compliance, and other payment details while syncing hours with time tracking to ensure accuracy and consolidated data. Payroll software also improves employee onboarding by allowing your new hires to electronically onboard, review company resources online, and submit e-signature for their W-4, state withholding forms, I-9 and other required documents.

While tax filings and payments are automated for legal compliance in your applicable jurisdiction(s), they can also be integrated to simplify QuickBooks accounting and to submit additional tax forms like Form 8846 or Form 8027. Along the way, payroll software provides adaptable permissions so you can delegate payroll responsibilities to different employees and limit or increase access/roles as needed.

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Benefits of Our Restaurant Payroll Software

CAVU’s restaurant payroll software is specifically designed to support our clients in the restaurant and hospitality industries, minimizing manual tasks and alleviating tax, payroll, and compliance concerns. Here are some of the primary benefits of using our payroll software:

Automate Payroll, Taxes, and Compliance

Easily Integrate Payroll with Time & Attendance and Other HR Processes

Employee Self-Service

Automate Payroll, Taxes, and Compliance

Tired of double- or triple-checking payroll or tax data to ensure accuracy or prevent discrepancies? CAVU’s restaurant payroll solution includes automated, cloud-based payroll software that can be tailored to match the exact needs of your workforce and all applicable local, state, and federal regulations.

Our automated payroll software flags any potential errors or inaccuracies so you can resolve them quickly, all while documenting tipped wages, ensuring minimum wage alignment, and handling tip allocation reports to confirm gross receipts vs. tipped wages.

As you process your business’ payroll faster and more accurately, we also help you identify and apply for tax credits ranging from the work opportunity tax credit (WOTC) to the employee retention credit (ERC) and more.

This ensures that employees not only enjoy flexibility when it comes to receiving accurate and on-time payments through direct deposit, tip sharing, or on-demand access to earned wages, but also increases transparency and trust about the payroll process, generating a single “source of truth” that can be consulted to address any concerns regarding payments, tax information, overtime, or other payroll and timekeeping-related information.

Easily Integrate Payroll with Time & Attendance and Other HR Processes

If your payroll process is separate from time and attendance and other HR processes, employee and business data is unconsolidated and likely to accrue inaccuracies as employees onboard, change classification, update employee information, work at a new location, resign, or other alterations occur. When payroll is synced with timekeeping and other HR processes, you can more easily track attendance, rates of pay, and work schedules at one or more locations.

From a managerial and employee perspective, payroll and timekeeping alignment also makes it easier to navigate shift swapping and fulfill staffing needs. When payroll and timekeeping software is integrated, tip processing and employee hours are more streamlined and can be connected to your business’ point-of-sale (POS) system at multiple locations.

CAVU can even expand payroll integrations to sync with PTO management, employee onboarding, and much more.

Employee Self-Service

An investment in payroll software for your business is simultaneously an investment in improving employee satisfaction, engagement, and retention. Restaurant payroll software grants your employees mobile 24/7 access to a digital payroll platform from any device with an internet connection. Whether they need to log hours, check their pay stubs/W-2, update personal information or view clock and timesheet information, these and many other processes are simplified with the use of a single payroll portal.

An employee self-service (ESS) portal also lets employers choose from a range of electronic payment options, including direct deposit, and allows employees to update their direct deposit information at any time. When the ESS portal is integrated with timekeeping, onboarding, and benefits administration processes, employees can even view benefits statements, review company documents, update withholding information, and much more.

FAQs: Restaurant Payroll Solutions

Do I need payroll software for a small restaurant?

Although any small business can attempt to process payroll manually or by using disparate software systems, this usually leads to errors and inefficiencies, especially if the business has aspirations of expanding. Even with a small workforce, employee turnover is a perennial concern in the restaurant industry, with the average employee tenure lasting under two months.

Payroll software can not only help improve employee retention and satisfaction by offering employee-friendly tools like a mobile ESS system, but also flexible electronic payment options like direct deposit, which are increasingly sought by job-seekers.

CAVU is able to scale payroll operations to support the growth of small restaurants should they opt to open a second location, expand an existing one, or otherwise.

How do restaurants do payroll?

For restaurants, payroll can be a more complex process than in other industries, given the need to negotiate a range of employee classifications, frequent new hire onboarding, tip calculations, scheduling, and other factors.

Handling these processes manually or with a range of disconnected systems can create greater stress than necessary while opening the door to legal issues, fines for noncompliance, and employee dissatisfaction due to late payments or other payroll errors.

That’s why using dedicated restaurant payroll software paired with expert support to guide the process can not only improve the accuracy and timeliness of employee payments, but also simplify business taxes and ensure long-term legal compliance.

How do you onboard new employees at restaurants?

Especially in the restaurant and hospitality industries, more employers are shifting to allow their new hires to complete onboarding primarily online through electronic onboarding.

This not only saves employers and employees time spent on redundant data entry, but it increases accuracy, improves recordkeeping, and grants employees more transparent and regular access to their employee information so they can make changes and requests more efficiently.

How does payroll measure tips at restaurants?

Employees must keep a record of the tips they earn (cash and non-cash) and report it to their employer monthly, or even more frequently. Restaurant payroll software makes it much easier to manage hourly pay, controlled tips, cash tips, or tip credits (when employers apply tips to fulfill part of their minimum wage requirement).

In general, if an employee’s tips don’t help them reach the required minimum wage rate within their jurisdiction during any given pay period, the employer is required to pay the difference.

How do you keep restaurant payroll records properly?

Restaurants must track employees’ daily tips, provide tip reports, keep pay statements, timekeeping data, and required tax forms, including Forms W-4. Restaurants must pay and withhold taxes to fulfill FICA (Social Security and Medicare) taxes and other required payroll taxes based on wages disbursed to employees.

CAVU simplifies this entire process by utilizing an automated, mobile, digital system that collects and consolidates this information in real time and provides advanced reporting options to optimize calculations, streamline requests/changes, and support workforce management.

How are tips distributed in a restaurant?

CAVU HCM offers comprehensive and tailored solutions to meet the unique payroll and HR needs of restaurants. With our payroll software, restaurants can automate payroll processes, ensure compliance with tax and labor regulations, and save valuable time and resources.

Our expertise and support ensure that restaurants can effectively manage their payroll, increase efficiency, and focus on their core operations, ultimately contributing to their success in the ever-evolving restaurant industry.

Optimize Payroll, Business Taxes, and Timekeeping with CAVU HCM

Eliminating manual tasks and addressing your employees’ pay preferences while ensuring compliance and streamlined payroll is challenging without the support of a qualified payroll provider. CAVU HCM offers a comprehensive payroll solution that includes leading-edge software, integrated HR tools, and access to HR and HCM experts with extensive experience.

We’re dedicated to helping your small business improve payroll processing, employee satisfaction, and workforce management through a payroll strategy that addresses the distinct needs of your business and employees.