Company: Jefe’s Restaurants & Affiliated businesses
Reports To: Owner
Employment Type: Full-time (open to hybrid; on-site presence required weekly for meetings)
Compensation Range: $60,000 base + performance bonus tied to close accuracy and KPI delivery (DOE). This position and pay will grow as the company grows.
About the Group
We are a growing hospitality group based in North Idaho, operating Mexican concepts with active expansion into other cuisines and regions. Each location has distinct revenue patterns, labor models, and compliance requirements — from year-round indoor dining to seasonal mobile service concepts, and retail stores. We are looking for a detail-obsessed, restaurant-fluent bookkeeper who can own daily financial operations across all units and give ownership a clear, real-time view of the business.
Position Summary
The Bookkeeper is the financial backbone of the group. You will own day-to-day accounting across all entities — recording every dollar in and out, reconciling daily sales and deposits, processing multi-location payroll with tipped employees, managing vendor relationships and AP/AR, and producing the weekly and period-end reports ownership uses to run the business. You will work in close partnership with operations leadership and outside CPA/tax counsel, and you will be a key contributor to the systems and controls that allow this group to scale cleanly from three units to five-plus.
Key Responsibilities
Daily Sales Reconciliation (All Three Locations)
· Reconcile daily sales reports from each location's POS (Shift4/Square/Toast / and any POS variants) to bank deposits, merchant settlements, third-party delivery payouts (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub), and cash drops.
· Investigate and resolve over/short variances, voids, comps, discounts, and refunds within 24 hours; flag patterns suggesting theft, training gaps, or POS misconfiguration.
· Post daily sales journal entries (DSSR) into the accounting system with proper revenue, tax, tip, and tender breakdowns by location and revenue center (food, beverage, retail).
· Reconcile gift card liability, house accounts, and loyalty program activity weekly.
Payroll Processing & Tip Reporting
· Process payroll across all three locations using the group's payroll provider, integrating hours from 7shifts and verifying against POS clock-in data.
· Administer tipped-employee compliance under Idaho and federal law: if needed, track the $3.35/hr tipped minimum, the $3.90/hr maximum tip credit, and ensure combined wages meet the $7.25/hr federal/Idaho floor for every shift.
· Calculate, allocate, and report tip pools, tip-outs, service charges, and credit card tip payouts per location policy; produce documentation that withstands a Department of Labor or IRS tip examination.
· Manage new-hire onboarding paperwork (W-4, I-9, state withholding, direct deposit), terminations, garnishments, PTO accruals, and benefit deductions.
· File quarterly 941s, state unemployment (Idaho SUTA), W-2s, 1099-NECs for contractors, and the annual Form 8027 (Tip Income & Allocated Tips) where applicable.
· Implement and maintain separate W-2 tracking for "qualified tips" in accordance with current IRS tip-reporting rules effective with 2026 returns.
Accounts Payable
· Process all vendor invoices across food, beverage, paper/chemical, repair & maintenance, utilities, rent, insurance, and professional services — coded by location, GL account, and category for accurate prime-cost reporting.
· Maintain a weekly check/ACH run; manage cash flow timing across entities and surface any liquidity concerns to ownership at least 7 days in advance.
· Reconcile vendor statements monthly; resolve short-ships, credits, and pricing discrepancies (especially produce and protein) directly with reps.
· Maintain W-9s and certificates of insurance for every active vendor; issue 1099-NECs at year-end.
Accounts Receivable
· Invoice and collect on catering orders, events/private bookings, corporate accounts, and any wholesale or retail B2B activity.
· Maintain AR aging; follow up on balances >30 days and escalate >60 days to ownership.
· Reconcile third-party delivery platform receivables (DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub) including commissions, marketing fees, chargebacks, and adjustments.
Vendor Invoice Management & Inventory Costing
· Enter or import invoices into MarginEdge (or equivalent) daily; match to receiving documents and POs.
· Monitor price changes on top-spend SKUs (protein, produce, tequila/spirits, beer, paper) and alert operations to material increases (>5% week-over-week).
· Partner with kitchen leadership on weekly inventory counts; reconcile theoretical vs. actual usage and investigate variances >2% of food cost.
· Maintain recipe and plate-cost data in MarginEdge so menu engineering decisions are based on current costs.
Month-End Close & Reporting
· Close the books on a monthly basis within 7 business days of period end.
· Reconcile all bank accounts, credit cards, loans, leases, and merchant accounts monthly.
· Maintain fixed asset and depreciation schedules for equipment, build-outs and leasehold improvements.
· Produce a weekly flash report (sales, prime cost, cash position) and a period P&L by location with variance commentary.
· Prepare clean, auditor-ready workpapers for the outside CPA's quarterly review and annual tax filing.
Regulatory & Compliance
· File Idaho state sales & use tax returns monthly for each location and remit on time.
· Maintain compliance with liquor licensing reporting requirements for existing and any future locations.
· Track and renew business licenses, health permits, mobile food unit licensing for the trailer, lease compliance, and workers' comp policies.
· Maintain documentation supporting FLSA overtime calculations — all hours over 40/week.
· Coordinate annual workers' comp audits, general liability audits, and any sales tax or DOL inquiries.
Systems & Controls
· Maintain a documented chart of accounts consistent across all three entities so reporting rolls up cleanly.
· Document standard operating procedures for every recurring task; train backup personnel.
· Recommend and implement process improvements as the group adds locations; help evaluate upgrades (e.g., migration from QuickBooks Online to Restaurant365 when unit count justifies it).
Required Qualifications
· 3+ years of full-cycle bookkeeping experience in restaurants or hospitality (multi-unit strongly preferred).
· Hands-on expertise with QuickBooks Online or Xero, including class/location tracking for multi-entity reporting. Restaurant365 experience is a strong plus.
· Direct experience with restaurant POS systems — Shift4/Skytab, Toast, Square for Restaurants, Clover, or comparable — and the ability to pull, interpret, and reconcile DSSR reports independently.
· Working knowledge of restaurant-specific back-office platforms: MarginEdge, Restaurant365, Plate IQ, xtraCHEF, or similar invoice/inventory tools.
· Payroll experience for tipped employees, including tip credit, tip pooling, service charge treatment, and multi-location/multi-state allocations (Idaho experience preferred).
· Solid grasp of US GAAP basics, cash vs. accrual, and restaurant-specific cost accounting (food cost, labor cost, prime cost, contribution margin).
· Sales tax and payroll tax compliance experience — Idaho returns preferred; experience with Washington (cross-border vendors and possible expansion) a plus.
· Strong Excel/Google Sheets skills — pivot tables, lookups, basic financial modeling.
· High attention to detail, low ego, and an operator mindset — comfortable in a fast-moving small-business environment where you wear multiple hats and own outcomes.
· High school diploma required; Associate's or Bachelor's in Accounting/Finance preferred.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Performance will be measured against the following metrics, reviewed weekly with ownership. These KPIs are calibrated to a multi-unit, growth-stage operator — they are intentionally tighter than industry minimums because clean books are how we underwrite the next location.
Close & Accuracy
KPI
Target
Cadence
Daily sales reconciliation completed by 10 AM next business day
100% of operating days
Daily
Cash over/short variance per location
< 0.25% of sales
Daily / weekly roll-up
Period close completed within 7 business days of period end
100%
Every month
Bank reconciliation accuracy (zero unreconciled items >30 days)
100%
Monthly
Vendor invoices entered within 48 hours of receipt
≥ 98%
Weekly
Payroll error rate (corrections / total checks)
< 0.5%
Per pay period
Daily Financial Health
KPI
Target
Notes
Cash position by entity reported daily
Delivered by following day
Rolling 14-day cash forecast updated weekly
AP aging — invoices >30 days past due
< 2% of total AP
Weekly
AR aging — balances >30 days
< 5% of total AR
Weekly
Sales tax & payroll tax filings
100% on time, zero penalties
Monthly / quarterly
Prime Cost Monitoring
Prime cost = Cost of Goods Sold + Total Labor Cost, expressed as a percent of net sales. This is the single most important operating metricwe track and the bookkeeper owns the weekly reporting.
· Food cost % by location, weekly — target within ±1 point of plan.
· Labor cost % by location, weekly — target within ±1.5 points of plan; if either FOH or BOH moves >1.5 points, pull the schedule and compare actual vs. scheduled hours.
· 13-week rolling prime cost chart maintained and shared every Monday.
· Beverage cost %
Inventory Accuracy
KPI
Target
Monthly inventory count completion (all three locations)
100%
Theoretical vs. actual usage variance (food)
< 2%
Theoretical vs. actual usage variance (liquor)
< 3%
Recipe / plate cost data freshness in MarginEdge
All active menu items updated within 7 days of any vendor price change > 5%
Waste, comp, and void tracking
Logged daily, reviewed weekly with operations
Growth-Stage KPIs (Owner Strategic View)
These are reported monthly and used to inform expansion decisions:
· Same-store sales growth (Coeur d'Alene location, year-over-year).
· Traffic vs. price split on revenue growth — traffic-led growth is healthier than price-led.
· Off-premise mix % (delivery, takeout, catering).
· EBITDA by location and consolidated.
· Cash conversion cycle — how fast vendor terms, inventory turns, and AR collect into deployable cash.
· Unit-level EBITDA — payback period tracking for the food trailer and marina build-out vs. underwriting.
What Success Looks Like in Year One
· Days 1–30: Audit current books, reconcile all previous books to maintain accuracy, document the existing close process, identify control gaps, and stabilize daily sales reconciliation across all three locations.
· Days 31–90: Take full ownership of payroll, AP, and period close. Stand up the weekly prime cost flash report. Clean up vendor master and 1099 readiness.
· Days 91–180: Implement at least two process improvements (e.g., automated invoice capture, integrated POS-to-GL daily sales journal, third-party delivery reconciliation automation). Deliver a clean mid-year package to the outside CPA with zero rework requested.
· Days 181–365: Be the system-of-record owner for a multi-location group. Help underwrite the next unit with location-level historicals, ratios, and cash forecasts that a lender or investor would accept without question.
El Jefe's Grill is an equal opportunity employer. We hire on the basis of skill, character, and fit — and we believe a great bookkeeper is one of the highest-leverage hires a growing restaurant group can make.
Pay: $55,000.00 - $65,000.00 per year
Benefits:
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Post Falls, ID 83854
