Food Truck Bookkeeping: How to Handle Cash, Square, and Event Days

A food truck can run $3,000 through a single Saturday, cash, tap-to-pay, and app orders. Here is how to book it all without a bookkeeper.

Running a food truck is one of the messiest businesses to book in America. In a single Saturday you might take cash tips, Square swipes, Apple Pay, a catering deposit via Zelle, and a check from an event organizer. Sunday you are closed and behind on paperwork. By Wednesday you cannot remember what came in from where.

By January, your P&L is a guess.

The Numbers a Truck Actually Needs to See

Food trucks live and die on margin. Food cost, labor, propane, commissary rent, event fees, permit renewals, these are the numbers that decide whether you are running a real business or an expensive hobby.

You cannot see any of that clearly when half your revenue is missing from the books and your expenses are scattered across three bank cards and a personal Venmo.

The System That Works for Trucks

Log the day's cash total at the end of service, one number, thirty seconds. Let your Square or Toast export sit until the end of the month. Upload the bank statement once. LedgerFast combines it all into one monthly P&L that shows food cost as a percentage of revenue, labor as a percentage, and where the margin actually is.

Event Deposits and Catering

Catering and private events are where invoicing starts to matter. A $2,400 corporate lunch deposit that never gets followed up on is real money left on the table. LedgerFast Collect emails the invoice, chases it automatically, and books the payment when it arrives, so you can go back to prepping food.

Year End

The year-end packet is the biggest gift a food-truck operator gives themselves. Categorized expenses. Combined revenue from cash, Square, and events. 1099s flagged for the prep cook you paid weekly through Venmo. One clean file to your tax preparer.

The Year Book is $99 per tax year.

See the sample Year Book and Excel output on the demo page.

Frequently asked questions

How do you do bookkeeping for a food truck?

Log one cash total at the end of each service day, let your Square or Toast reports accumulate, and upload the bank statement monthly. Combining those three sources into a single P&L is what gives you real food cost and labor percentages.

What is a good food cost percentage for a food truck?

Most operators target roughly 28-35% food cost, though it varies widely by concept and region. You cannot manage that number at all if half your revenue never makes it into the books.

What expenses can a food truck deduct?

Typical deductions include food and paper goods, propane, commissary rent, event and permit fees, truck maintenance and fuel, POS fees, insurance, and wages. Confirm treatment of any large equipment purchase with a tax professional.

Do food trucks need accounting software?

Yes, but not the enterprise kind. What a truck needs is a monthly P&L that merges cash, card, and catering revenue and shows margin. A full accounting package is usually more setup than the business will ever use.