Built on restaurant accounting practice, with the vehicle and commissary costs a mobile operation carries. No published standard exists for mobile food, so this follows restaurant grouping without claiming a standard.

Download the food truck chart

Pick a format. The file downloads immediately.

What is different

The event that looked busy is often the one that lost money

A festival can take more money than a good week of street service and still be the worst day of the month once the pitch fee, the fuel, the propane and the extra staff are counted. Most food truck charts cannot show this, because those costs sit in one Vehicle or Operating bucket that is never matched to a day.

This chart carries Event & Festival Fees, Truck Fuel, Propane & Cooking Fuel and Event Staff Labor as their own lines. Coded against the day, the ranking of your pitches becomes obvious and you stop rebooking the ones that do not pay.

The chart

The full Food truck chart of accounts

All 49 accounts, with the note that tells you what belongs in each one. This is the same file the download gives you, rendered here so you can read it without opening a spreadsheet.

Code	Account	Type	What belongs here
4000	Revenue	Income	Service, event and catering revenue from the truck.
4010	Food Sales	Income	Kitchen, snack and bar food sales.
4020	Non-Alcoholic Beverage Sales	Income	Soft drinks, mocktails, coffee, energy drinks and bottled water.
4030	Event & Festival Sales	Income	Product sold at festivals, markets and pop-up events.
4040	Catering Sales	Income	Catered food and beverage billed to a client.
4050	Merchandise Sales	Income	Branded apparel, glassware and retail packaged goods.
5000	Cost of Sales	Cost of goods sold	Food, packaging and fuel cost of what was served.
5010	Food Purchases	Cost of goods sold	Food bought for resale, including produce, protein, dairy and dry goods.
5020	Beverage Purchases	Cost of goods sold	Drink stock bought for resale where alcohol is not split out.
5030	Packaging & Disposables	Cost of goods sold	Containers, bags, cutlery and disposables that leave with the order.
5040	Propane & Cooking Fuel	Cost of goods sold	Propane and cooking fuel consumed in service.
5050	Truck Labor	Cost of goods sold	Wages for staff working the truck during service.
5060	Event & Festival Fees	Cost of goods sold	Fees to take part in a festival or market, including pitch fees.
5070	Merchandise Purchases	Cost of goods sold	Branded goods bought for resale.
5080	Delivery Platform Commissions	Cost of goods sold	Commission retained by delivery marketplaces on their orders.
6000	Operating Expenses	Expense	Operating costs of running the business, below the gross profit line.
6010	Management & Office Salaries	Expense	Salaries for management and administration.
6020	Payroll Taxes & Benefits	Expense	Employer payroll taxes and the cost of employee benefits.
6030	Rent & Occupancy	Expense	Rent plus the occupancy costs that come with the building.
6040	Utilities	Expense	Electricity, gas, water and waste for the premises.
6050	Repairs & Maintenance	Expense	Repairs and upkeep of the building, plant and fixtures.
6060	Software & Subscriptions	Expense	Recurring software licences and subscriptions.
6070	Advertising & Marketing	Expense	Advertising spend and marketing programmes not tied to one event.
6080	Professional Fees	Expense	Accounting, legal and consulting fees.
6090	Business Insurance	Expense	General liability, property and business insurance.
6100	Card Processing Fees	Expense	Merchant fees on card payments taken from customers.
6110	Office & Supplies	Expense	Office consumables and general supplies.
6120	Telephone & Internet	Expense	Phone lines, mobile plans and internet connectivity.
6130	Travel	Expense	Agency travel not recharged to a client.
6140	Meals & Entertainment	Expense	Business meals and entertaining. Partially deductible, so keep it separate.
6150	Licenses & Permits	Expense	Operating licences and permits to trade.
6160	Dues & Memberships	Expense	Trade body memberships and professional dues.
6170	Training & Education	Expense	Staff training, certification and continuing education.
6180	Bank Fees	Expense	Account, wire and other charges levied by the bank.
6210	Truck Fuel	Expense	Fuel for the truck.
6220	Truck Repairs & Maintenance	Expense	Servicing and repair of the truck and its equipment.
6230	Truck Insurance	Expense	Insurance on the truck.
6240	Parking & Location Fees	Expense	Parking and location access fees incurred on a job.
6250	Generator Fuel & Equipment Rental	Expense	Fuel and short-term equipment hire for site power.
6260	Commissary Kitchen Rent	Expense	Rent for shared or commissary kitchen space.
6270	Truck Lease	Expense	Lease payments on the truck.
8000	Other Income	Other income	Income earned outside normal trading activity.
8010	Interest Income	Other income	Interest earned on operating and reserve balances.
8020	Grants & Incentives	Other income	Grant funding and government or utility incentives received.
8030	Vendor Rebates & Commissions	Other income	Rebates and commissions paid back to you by suppliers.
9000	Other Expenses	Other expense	Below the line costs that are not part of operations.
9010	Depreciation & Amortization	Other expense	Write-down of tangible assets and amortisation of intangibles.
9020	Interest Expense	Other expense	Interest on notes payable and long-term debt.
9030	Penalties & Late Fees	Other expense	Fines, penalties and late payment charges.

Questions

Food truck chart of accounts questions

How should a food truck account for commissary rent?

As an operating expense, not cost of sales. Commissary rent continues whether you trade or not, which makes it occupancy rather than a cost of what you sold. Keeping it out of cost of sales protects your food cost percentage from being distorted by a fixed cost.

Where do event and pitch fees belong?

Cost of sales, against the event. A pitch fee only exists because you traded that day, so the day should carry it. This is what makes it possible to rank events by actual contribution rather than by takings.

Should fuel be cost of sales or an operating expense?

Split it. Propane and cooking fuel are consumed making the food, so they belong in cost of sales. Truck fuel is a cost of getting there and is better placed in operating expenses. This chart carries both separately.

How do I track multiple trucks?

One chart, with each truck as a class or location in your accounting software. Cloning the chart per truck makes consolidation manual, and you lose the ability to compare the same account across vehicles.

See your own invoices coded to this chart

Send us a week of real vendor invoices. We will run them through Cleo, code each one to the right account, and show you the result posted in QuickBooks.

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