Accountants for takeaways

HMRC's regime requiring digital records and software-filed returns — long mandatory for VAT, arriving for Income Tax from April 2026.

Pay HMRC a fixed percentage of turnover instead of tracking every input. Simpler, but the 16.5% limited-cost-trader rate killed the old easy win for many.

Output VAT is what you charge customers; input VAT is what you pay suppliers. You hand HMRC the difference — which is why missed input claims are pure loss.

Each late VAT return earns a point; at your threshold (4 for quarterly filers) every late return costs £200. Points expire after sustained good behaviour.

Matching your books to the bank, transaction by transaction — the discipline that makes every other number trustworthy.

The category structure your transactions are coded into. A generic one makes reports vague; a tailored one makes them useful.

Who owes you and whom you owe, banded by how overdue — the two lists that predict cash flow problems before the bank balance does.

Real Time Information — the rule that HMRC must receive a payroll submission on or before every payday, not at year end.

Your sale is the full menu price to the customer (with VAT on it); the platform's commission is your cost, carrying its own VAT you may reclaim. Booking only the net deposit understates both sales and costs — wrong for VAT and blinding for margins. Settlement statements, not bank lines, are the source of truth.

Daily gross takings records (Z-readings or till exports) that reconcile to banking and to purchases. HMRC's approach to cash businesses is analytical — they model expected takings from your supplies and margins — so the defence is consistency: recorded takings that make sense against what you buy. We build that routine into the bookkeeping.

Hot food for takeaway: standard-rated (the 'hot when provided' tests). Cold items — sandwiches, salads, cakes, cold drinks other than certain categories: mostly zero-rated. Mixed orders split. Getting the till buttons mapped correctly once fixes years of over- or under-paying; it's usually our first-week job.

Everything listed in your package, with no metering: accounts, tax, bookkeeping, and VAT/payroll on the larger plans. Questions and calls are included too — we'd rather hear about a decision before you make it than fix it after.

No. You tell them you're moving; we handle professional clearance and record transfer. Most switches complete inside two weeks, and the health-check fee is refunded when you join.

When your taxable turnover in any rolling 12-month period passes £90,000 — a rolling test, not your accounting year, and the most common way businesses get caught out. We monitor it for bookkeeping clients automatically.

It depends on your margins and customers. The flat-rate scheme suits some service businesses; cash accounting helps if customers pay slowly; standard suits most. We'll compare them for your numbers before registering you.

Xero, QuickBooks or FreeAgent — whichever suits your business (or whichever you already use). Software subscription can be included in your monthly fee, and we handle all the setup and migration.

Each line on your bank statement — a payment in or out. Most one-person businesses sit comfortably under 50 a month. If you drift over your band we'll tell you before the fee changes, never after.

If you pay yourself a salary, yes — you need a PAYE scheme and RTI submissions even for one person. Director-only payroll is our most popular package at £25/mo, and we set the salary at the most tax-efficient level for you.

Every employer must assess staff for a workplace pension and enrol eligible employees. Even if your only staff member is you as director, you have duties to declare. We handle assessments, letters and declarations as part of the service.