Singapore Hospitality Chart of Accounts for QuickBooks: F&B and GST

A Singapore cafe or restaurant on QuickBooks Online processes a stream of small supplier bills, and the GST treatment differs from most other countries in ways a generic chart does not capture: no GST-free food, claimable entertaining, and capital allowances on kitchen gear. This is a Singapore hospitality chart of accounts for QuickBooks Online, mapping each F&B account to its GST code. It ships as a readable reference (CSV) and a QuickBooks import CSV.

Structure first, codes second

The QuickBooks import carries no tax column, so you import the account structure from the CSV and then set the GST code on each account from the mapping. For an F&B business the codes to get right are SR (9%) on the sales accounts, TX (9%) on food stock and most overheads, IM (9%) on imported stock, and OP (0%) on statutory licences.

All food is standard-rated, both ways

Singapore has no zero-rated basic-food category, so a registered restaurant charges 9% on everything. The chart carries food and beverage sales and beverage and liquor sales accounts, both mapped to SR (9%), and a food and beverage purchases cost account on TX (9%) with IM (9%) listed for stock brought in through Customs. Because there is no shelf-zero-rated split to manage, the coding is simpler than a UK F&B chart: standard-rated in, standard-rated out.

Entertainment maps to TX, not a blocked code

The treatment operators from abroad get wrong: in Singapore, input tax on entertainment food and drink is claimable. So the Entertainment account maps to TX (9%), the ordinary standard-rated purchase code, rather than a blocked code. The single exception is food or benefits for the spouse, child, or relative of staff, which Regulation 26 blocks and which would move to BL (9%). The chart keeps Entertainment claimable and leaves the family-benefit case as a coding call.

Kitchen equipment and stock

Commercial ovens, refrigeration, and fit-out are capital, held in a kitchen equipment fixed asset and deducted through capital allowances, since Singapore grants those instead of depreciation. A food and beverage inventory account holds stock on hand. The depreciation line stays out of the tax computation.

Cleaning, consumables, and licences

Cleaning and laundry and kitchen consumables and packaging are standard-rated costs on TX (9%) with claimable input tax. Licences and permits maps to OP (0%), because government food-shop and liquor licence fees are out of scope of GST, a fee that is easy to mis-code and over-claim.

How to use it

1. Open the CSV, which maps each account to its QuickBooks GST code, and adapt the account names to the venue.
2. In QuickBooks Online, go to Settings, then Import data, then Chart of Accounts, and upload the CSV for the structure.
3. On the import wizard, confirm the Type and Detail Type for each account.
4. After import, set the GST code on each account from the CSV, keeping SR (9%) on sales and TX (9%) on food stock.

The recurring work is the supplier ledger and daily takings:

• Dext extracts the GST from photographed supplier bills.
• ExpenseFlow reads each receipt and bill, codes it to the right F&B account with the correct GST treatment, keeps entertainment on TX (9%) while flagging an apparent family benefit, and posts it into QuickBooks Online, so coding holds as covers grow.
• StoreHub and similar POS tools feed daily sales into the SR (9%) accounts.

Keep the entertainment details against each entertainment receipt: food-and-drink input tax can be claimed without a full tax invoice, but the who-and-why evidence must be on file.

On Xero instead? See the Singapore hospitality chart of accounts for Xero, where the import sets the GST codes directly. For the full GST picture, see the Singapore hospitality expenses guide.