Written for owners of restaurants, cafes and coffee shops, pubs and bars, takeaways and delivery kitchens, food trucks and bakeries with seating, anywhere in the UK.
The short version
- Map the next 13 weeks of cash.Start with today's balance and the lowest you will let it go. Add takings week by week, then every payment on its real due date.
- Treat deposits and vouchers as customers' money.Keep them out of spending cash until the meal is served. You still owe the meal.
- Ask for time before the date, not after.Update the plan every week. If a week dips below your lowest balance, ask the landlord or HMRC for time before the payment date.
A restaurant can be busy and profitable and still run short of cash in a single week. Card takings settle almost daily, but the big bills come in lumps. The squeeze comes when a rent quarter day lands next to a VAT payment and a payroll.
How money moves through a hospitality business
- Card takings usually settle the next working day. Delivery platforms pay weekly or fortnightly.
- Wages and tronc go out weekly or monthly. Suppliers want paying in 7 to 30 days.
- Rent is usually quarterly in advance. In England the quarter days are 25 March, 24 June, 29 September and 25 December, unless your lease says otherwise.
- VAT is due 1 month and 7 days after each VAT quarter end. PAYE and NIC, including the tronc scheme, are due by the 22nd of the following month when paid electronically. As of Oct 2026.
- Business rates come in 10 monthly instalments from April unless you ask for 12. In England the retail, hospitality and leisure relief ended on 31 March 2026, and qualifying properties under £500,000 rateable value now pay lower multipliers instead (38.2p below £51,000). For example, a Norwich restaurant at £40,000 rateable value pays £15,280 in 2026/27 before transitional relief, against £11,976 in 2025/26 at the same value. Put the new bill in the model, and challenge the valuation through the VOA's Check, Challenge, Appeal if it looks wrong. Scotland and Wales set their own rates and reliefs. As of Oct 2026.
Build the 13-week model
- Start from the bank.Opening balance, plus the overdraft limit and the minimum balance you will not go below.
- Receipts by channel.Card, cash, delivery platforms and deposits, week by week.
- Payments by due date.Wages, tronc paid out, suppliers on their terms, rent, rates, utilities, VAT, PAYE, loan repayments and card fees.
- Roll it every week.Drop the week just gone, add a new week 13, and look for the first week the closing balance falls below your floor.
| Bank at the start of a quiet March week | £22,000 |
| Trading surplus over 4 weeks at about £1,500 a week | £6,000 |
| Rent paid on the 25 March quarter day | -£15,000 |
| VAT quarter paid on 7 April | -£11,500 |
| Bank in the week of 7 April | £1,500 |
That is £3,500 below the owner's £5,000 minimum balance. Seeing it weeks ahead, the owner asks the landlord to move to monthly rent and calls HMRC about Time to Pay before the quarter day, not after it. Rent left unpaid can be enforced by commercial rent arrears recovery (CRAR): once at least 7 days' net rent is outstanding, the landlord can take control of goods, normally after at least 7 clear days' notice (Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007 s.77). As of Oct 2026.
That money belongs to customers until they eat. Spend it and you still owe the meal, with no new cash coming in to pay for it.
Before you borrow against your card machine
A merchant cash advance takes a fixed share of your daily card takings until a fixed sum is repaid. It feels painless because it comes out before you see it. Compare the total repayable with the advance and turn the difference into an annual cost before you sign. The alternatives: bank lending tests your debt payments against EBITDA (profit before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) and wants personal guarantees; asset finance suits kitchens and EPOS; and a landlord may put in capital in return for a longer term.
| Cash advanced | £30,000 |
| Cost of the advance | £9,000 |
| Repaid from 12% of daily card takings | £39,000 |
At £1,000 a day of card takings, 12% is £120 a day, so £39,000 takes 325 days to repay: £9,000 of cost, 30% of the advance, in under a year. Because repayments start on day one, you never have the full £30,000 for the whole period, so the annual rate is well above 30%. Have your accountant annualise it before you sign. As of Oct 2026.
If a VAT or PAYE payment will not fit, ask HMRC for Time to Pay before the due date. Late payment interest runs throughout, so put the interest in the model too.
Asked in Greymill
Bank today: £22,000
Trading, 4 weeks at about £1,500: plus £6,000
Rent on 25 March: minus £15,000
VAT on 7 April: minus £11,500
Left: about £1,500
Spend the £4,000 on chairs and that week sits about £2,500 below zero.
Why: voucher money belongs to customers until they eat. When they come in, you still owe the meal, with no new cash to pay for it.
Ask before the due dates, not after: your landlord about moving to monthly rent, and HMRC about Time to Pay on the VAT. HMRC's late payment interest still runs, so plan for it.
Shall I map all 13 weeks so you can see every tight week coming?
Ask it about your own business
Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Cash & Profit works it through for your business.
I run a restaurant, cafe or bar in the UK. My bank balance today is [amount] and the lowest I want it to go is [amount]. Weekly takings are about [amount] by card, [amount] in cash and [amount] from delivery platforms. Rent is [amount] a quarter, due on [dates], my last VAT payment was [amount], PAYE is about [amount] a month and wages are [amount] a week, and I am holding [amount] of table deposits and unredeemed gift vouchers. Build me a 13-week cash model, show the lowest week, and tell me what to ask the landlord or HMRC for, and by when.
More for restaurants, cafes and bars in the UK
- Pricing a dish and a pint so the GP survives VAT and wasteSet menu prices from what a plate really costs, find the gap between the recipe card and the stock count, and know how many covers you need to break even.Read the lesson
- Charging the right VAT on eat-in, takeaway, meal deals and service chargeWhether food is zero-rated or standard-rated turns on where it is eaten, whether it is hot and what it is, and the wording of a service charge decides whether a sixth of it is VAT.Read the lesson
- Changing hours, running an event or losing your DPS without stopping alcohol salesWhat a licensed site can change during the year, by which route and on what notice, and what to do the day your designated premises supervisor walks out.Read the lesson
- Taking, renewing or buying a lease without losing your right to stayWhether your lease has 1954 Act protection decides whether your fit-out has a future, and the deadline in a section 25 notice or a pub tie trigger cannot be missed.Read the lesson
- Sharing tips fairly and paying casual staff without a claimHow to set up a tipping policy and tronc that stand up, what a casual hour really costs once holiday pay is added, and the rota rules that catch late-night sites.Read the lesson
- Getting more covers without falling foul of the price, review and platform rulesThe channels you control earn the most, and the rules on showing service charges, asking for reviews and signing platform deals decide what you can do to grow.Read the lesson
- An allergic reaction, a food poisoning complaint or the council closing your kitchen: the first 24 hoursWhat to keep, who to call and what not to say when something goes wrong in the kitchen, and the insurance conditions that decide whether you are covered.Read the lesson
Open the interactive lesson · Every restaurants, cafes and bars lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade
Sources
The primary sources behind this lesson, checked Oct 2026.
- deadlines (The calendar: licence fee, VAT, PAYE, tips, rates and fire checks)
- returns (The calendar: licence fee, VAT, PAYE, tips, rates and fire checks)
- s.55A (The calendar: licence fee, VAT, PAYE, tips, rates and fire checks)
- TPR re-enrolment (The calendar: licence fee, VAT, PAYE, tips, rates and fire checks)
- Non-Domestic Rating (Collection and Enforcement) (Local Lists) Regs 1989 Sch 1 (The calendar: licence fee, VAT, PAYE, tips, rates and fire checks)
- s.87 (The calendar: licence fee, VAT, PAYE, tips, rates and fire checks)
- Business Rates Information Letter 5/2025, para 2 (Business rates and machine games duty)
- VOA 2026 list (Business rates and machine games duty)
- Gambling Act 2005 s.282 (Business rates and machine games duty)
- SSI 2026/69 regulations 4 to 6; SSI 2026/135 regulation 2 and Schedule 1A (Business rates and machine games duty)
- Welsh Government NDR multipliers and relief guidance 2026/27 (Business rates and machine games duty)
- Business rates table (Business rates and machine games duty)
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 ss.29A, 29B (The lease: 1954 act protection, renewal and alienation)
- s.38A; SI 2003/3096 Sch 1 and 2 (The lease: 1954 act protection, renewal and alienation)
- ss.26(6), 30(1), 30(2) (The lease: 1954 act protection, renewal and alienation)
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 sections 37 and 38(3) (The lease: 1954 act protection, renewal and alienation)
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 section 33 (The lease: 1954 act protection, renewal and alienation)
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 sections 24A and 24B(2) to (3) (The lease: 1954 act protection, renewal and alienation)