Bar / pub / Accounting and back office
Accounting for a bar
Scored and compared prices dated
The short answer
QuickBooks Online is the sensible base for a single independent bar, same as most categories here. The extra wrinkle is liquor licensing and excise reporting requirements, which are jurisdiction-specific and something neither QuickBooks nor Restaurant365 handles natively; that stays a job for an accountant who knows hospitality licensing.
Reviewed by the editorial team · updated 11 August 2026
Step 3
What matters most to you?
Pick one or two. Everything below re-scores instantly, and we show you the maths.
Winner overall
QuickBooks Online
The generalist accounting package everyone's bookkeeper already knows, with nothing restaurant-specific built in.
The trade-off
August 2026 brought a 41% to 70% price rise on the Plus and Advanced tiers with nothing new added to justify it.
Why it won
- price
- ease of setup
- support
- volume
- integrations
Our scores, 1 to 5, defined on the methodology page.
Everything else, ranked the same way
| # | Product | From | Contract | Card rate | Score | Price checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | QuickBooks Online The generalist accounting package everyone's bookkeeper already knows, with nothing restaurant-specific built in. | From $38 | none, cancel any time | separate QuickBooks Payments account, rates quoted individually | 3.2 | Pricing checked 11 Aug 2026 |
| 02 | Restaurant365 Restaurant-specific back-office software built for people running five or more sites, priced accordingly. | On request | multi-year is typical | not applicable | 3.2 | Pricing checked 11 Aug 2026 |
What's different about buying this for bar / pubs
A bar's books share the daily sales journal problem every hospitality business has, tabs, tips, sales tax, comps, reconciled nightly, plus a layer neither general accounting software nor a restaurant back office solves out of the box: liquor licensing fees and excise reporting, which vary by state and city and genuinely need someone who knows the local rules.
QuickBooks Online at $38 to $140 a month handles the general ledger and daily sales journal fine once mapped correctly, and is the right starting point for a single bar without complex multi-site needs.
Restaurant365 offers deeper integration between accounting and the inventory-side pour cost tracking discussed above, useful once you are running more than one venue and want that link automated, but it does not solve the licensing and excise question either; that part of the job stays with an accountant regardless of which software you pick.
Questions people actually ask
- Does any software here handle liquor licensing renewals?
- No, and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise. That stays a manual, jurisdiction-specific process best handled with an accountant or licensing specialist familiar with your local rules.
- Should pour cost data feed into the accounting system?
- Ideally yes, since it gives a clearer picture of margin by category than sales figures alone. Restaurant365 links the two natively; on QuickBooks it is usually a manual monthly import.