Hospitality accountants in Newcastle

Margins that leave no room for error

A restaurant or bar can be packed every night and still struggle, because a few percentage points of margin decide whether a venue thrives or closes. Your two biggest costs, stock (meaning food and drink) and labour, need watching constantly, and a dish or drink that is mispriced by a little quietly drains profit across thousands of covers. Knowing your gross profit by category, and tracking it against where it should be, is fundamental to running a healthy venue.

We provide regular management accounts that show gross profit on wet and dry sales, your wage percentages and the other key ratios, so you can adjust pricing, portions and rotas before small leaks turn into big ones.

How are tips and tronc taxed?

Tips, service charges and gratuities feature in almost every hospitality business, and how you handle them has both tax and payroll consequences. Arrangements for sharing tips fairly among staff are often run through a "tronc", and the way tips are shared out affects how Income Tax and National Insurance apply. The rules in this area have seen change and attention in recent years, including on the fair distribution of tips to workers.

VAT in hospitality

Most food and drink sold for eating or drinking on the premises is standard-rated for VAT, and once your taxable turnover goes over the registration threshold, £90,000 as at April 2024, you have to register. VAT is a large, regular cost for venues, and the treatment of different items, such as some cold takeaway food, is not always obvious. Getting the categories right on your till and in your records keeps your returns accurate and avoids both underpaying and overpaying. Thresholds and rules can change, so we confirm the current position for your menu and handle your VAT returns.

How do I stop losing money on stock?

Stock is where hospitality profit leaks fastest: over-ordering, waste, spoilage, over-pouring and theft all come straight off the margin. Regular stocktakes, sensible par levels and reconciling what you bought against what you sold turn stock from a guessing game into a managed cost. We help you put stock processes and reporting in place, so variances show up quickly and you can act on them, rather than only finding out at the year end.

Seasonal staff and payroll

Hospitality payrolls are rarely simple. You may run a core team alongside part-time, casual and seasonal staff, with hours that change week to week, students on the books and high turnover throughout the year. Every starter and leaver has to be handled correctly for PAYE, National Insurance and pension auto-enrolment, and turning rotas into accurate pay quickly is a constant pressure. Our payroll service takes this on, variable hours, starters and leavers and workplace pensions, so your team is paid right and on time.