Tight-margin business deserves tighter numbers.
Accountants who understand cafés, restaurants, takeaways, pubs, and food trucks. Tronc, payroll, VAT, gross margin — all sorted.
What you face
- Wafer-thin margins and rising input costs
- Complex payroll: shift work, tronc, holiday pay, minimum wage compliance
- VAT rates on different food and drinks
- Cash handling and till reconciliation
- Stock control and gross profit leakage
How we help
- Weekly bookkeeping with proper food-vs-drink GP reporting
- Tronc scheme setup and management
- Hospitality payroll including holiday pay calculations
- Daily till and cash reconciliation procedures
- Margin analysis by category and supplier price tracking
- Cash flow forecasting and break-even analysis
Hospitality is one of the toughest businesses to run profitably. Margins are thin, regulation is heavy, and a small mistake (overpaid VAT, mis-set tronc, wrong holiday pay) can wipe out a month’s profit.
We work with cafés, restaurants, gastropubs, takeaways, and food trucks across the UK. We’ll get your bookkeeping clean, your payroll right, your VAT codes set up properly, and give you the reporting you need to spot leaks fast.
Common questions
What is a tronc and do I need one?
A tronc is a separate scheme for distributing tips to staff. Run properly, tips are exempt from National Insurance — saving roughly 15% on what they cost you. We set it up and run it monthly.
What's the new Allocation of Tips Act?
From October 2024, the law requires that all tips, gratuities and service charges be passed to staff in a fair and transparent way, with a written policy in place. We help draft the policy and audit your distributions.
Is takeaway food zero-rated for VAT?
Cold takeaway food is generally zero-rated; hot takeaway is standard-rated; eat-in is always standard-rated. It gets fiddly fast. We make sure your till settings and VAT codes are right.