How to track food cost and VAT in a Dubai restaurant, week by week

You do not need every receipt in the ledger. Take the end-of-day report from your point-of-sale system and post one journal per day: food sales, beverage sales, any service charge, VAT collected, and the split of takings by cash, card and delivery platform. Card and platform amounts go to clearing accounts that empty when the money lands in the bank, net of fees.

Worked example: Tuesday’s report shows food sales of AED 9,400, beverages of AED 2,600, VAT of AED 600 and total takings of AED 12,600, of which AED 2,100 cash, AED 7,300 card and AED 3,200 through delivery apps. When the card settlement of AED 7,153 arrives two days later, the AED 147 difference is the card fee, recorded as an expense.

Food cost percentage is the cost of food used divided by food sales. Cost of food used is opening stock plus purchases minus closing stock. Without a stock count, you only know purchases, which swing week to week with deliveries.

A weekly count of high-value items, such as meat, seafood, cheese and oil, and a monthly full count gives a usable figure. If the monthly count shows opening stock AED 18,000, purchases AED 64,000 and closing stock AED 21,000, food used is AED 61,000. Against food sales of AED 198,000, food cost is 30.8%. Track it monthly; a jump of two points is worth investigating.

Restaurants buy from many suppliers several times a week. Each tax invoice from a registered supplier carries 5% VAT you can usually recover. Capture every bill on the day it arrives; a delivery note is not a tax invoice, and a lost invoice is lost input VAT.

Watch for suppliers who are not VAT registered. Their bills carry no VAT to recover, and if a supplier charges VAT without a valid TRN on the invoice, query it before paying. Since 1 January 2026, the Ministry of Finance says taxpayers must verify the legitimacy of supplies before deducting input tax.

Food that leaves the kitchen without a sale still has a cost. Log it, or your food cost will look worse than reality and you will not know why.

• Wastage log: spoiled, dropped or expired items with estimated cost.
• Staff meals: recorded separately as a staff cost, not food cost.
• Complimentary dishes and manager comps: recorded in the till with a reason code.
• Tasting and recipe development: a separate account so it does not distort the percentage.

Restaurant food and beverage sales are standard-rated at 5% for most venues. Your daily journal should split VAT from sales so the return draws on the right figures. Dubai venues may also be required to collect local fees on bills; how those fees interact with VAT depends on the fee, so ask your tax agent and set the till up accordingly rather than guessing.

Delivery platforms add another layer. They usually deduct commission and charge VAT on that commission. Record platform sales gross, the commission as a cost and the VAT on commission as input tax, using the platform’s tax invoice.

Thirty minutes each Monday keeps the books current.

• Post seven daily sales journals.
• Capture all supplier bills and approve them.
• Match card and delivery settlements in the uploaded bank statement.
• Count high-value stock items.
• Check the week’s food purchases against sales.

HelloBooks does not integrate with point-of-sale systems, so the daily sales summary is entered as a journal; the AI agent can set up a recurring template so you only fill in the numbers. Supplier bills in Arabic or English are read from photos, posted with VAT and matched to the bank. Ask “what was our food cost percentage in September?” and it works from purchases and the stock figures you entered.

Your accountant reviews the VAT 201 the ledger prepares and files it on EmaraTax. For a custom food cost report, email hello@hellobooks.ai.