NZ Hospitality Chart of Accounts for Xero: Entertainment + GST on Food

A hospitality business is almost entirely food, drink and the cost of serving them, and New Zealand makes one part of that simple and one part subtle. The simple part: a flat 15% GST with no GST-free food category, so everything you sell is taxed the same way. The subtle part: the half-deduction rule on entertainment. This is a New Zealand hospitality chart of accounts for Xero that reflects both, as a readable reference CSV and a Xero import CSV.

GST on food is uniform

Unlike countries that zero-rate basic groceries, New Zealand charges 15% GST on all food and drink a registered business sells. That keeps the revenue side clean: sales and services income use 15% GST on Income, with no carve-outs to track. On the cost side, food and beverage purchases and liquor and beverages sit in their own accounts at 15% GST on Expenses, so your gross margin on kitchen versus bar is visible at a glance and the input GST is easy to reconcile.

Entertainment and the 50% rule

This is where hospitality bookkeeping earns its keep. Entertainment with a private element, staff social functions, client hosting, a long lunch that is not strictly business travel, is only 50% deductible for income tax. The GST follows: you can claim GST on the deductible half only, and the correction is made once a year as a GST adjustment, usually when the income tax return is prepared. The chart puts entertainment in its own account, coded to 15% GST on Expenses with a note explaining the limitation, so the half that needs adjusting is sitting in one place at year end rather than scattered through general costs. Genuinely business-only food, such as a meal while travelling on business, stays fully deductible and is better kept off this account.

Low-value assets

Hospitality buys a lot of mid-value gear. The chart separates kitchen and fit-out equipment (a fixed asset, depreciated) from low-value assets written off (expensed immediately), because anything under the NZ$1,000 threshold can be claimed in full in the year you buy it rather than depreciated over its life. Splitting them keeps the fixed asset register honest and the immediate write-offs easy to total.

Cleaning, crockery and the daily run

Two more accounts cover the constant small spend: cleaning and laundry and crockery and consumables. Both are standard-rated at 15% and fully deductible, and pulling them out of general office costs gives a truer read on what running the floor and kitchen actually costs. Tips passed straight through to staff are outside GST and sit apart from the till takings, so keep them off sales; only a service charge the business itself retains forms part of the taxable supply.

How to use it

1. Open the CSV: each account shows its class, default Xero GST code, alternatives and a note. Entertainment, food, liquor and the low-value account are the hospitality additions.
2. In Xero go to Accounting, then Chart of accounts, then Import, and upload the CSV into a demo organisation first.
3. Confirm the New Zealand GST rates exist in your organisation.
4. Brief the team to keep private-element entertainment off the fully deductible accounts so the year-end GST adjustment is clean.

Keeping each receipt coded correctly through service is the ongoing work:

• Hubdoc brings recurring supplier invoices into the file.
• ExpenseFlow reads each receipt and bill, codes food, liquor and entertainment to the right account at 15% GST, and posts it into Xero, so the entertainment account is ready for the annual adjustment.
• Dext applies supplier rules for repeat food and beverage suppliers.

On QuickBooks instead? See the NZ hospitality chart of accounts for QuickBooks. For the detail on the entertainment rule and the GST adjustment, see the New Zealand hospitality expenses guide.