The High Street Hustle: Accountancy Services UK for Shops, Cafes and Restaurants

You run a shop, cafe or restaurant on a busy high street. People walk past all day, the tills are going, and on a Saturday you barely stop. Yet when you check the bank account, there’s far less in it than the footfall suggests. It’s the question we hear most often as an accountant in Slough working with high street businesses.

That gap is where most high street businesses get into trouble. Wages have gone up again, business rates were reset in April 2026, delivery apps take a large slice of every order, and card fees come off almost every sale. Working longer hours rarely fixes it. Knowing your numbers does.

At Asmat & Co, our head office is on Slough High Street, and we work with shops, cafes, takeaways, pubs and restaurants across Slough, Reading and the West Midlands. This guide covers the money issues we see most often on the high street, and how the right accountancy support helps you keep more of what you take.

Here are the pressures hitting high street businesses in 2026:

Know your margins, not just your takings

Takings tell you how busy you were. Gross margin tells you whether the business works. For a cafe or restaurant, that means knowing what each dish or drink costs you in ingredients and packaging, and what share of the price is left after VAT. For a shop, it means knowing the margin on each line, not just the total sales for the week.

Once you can see those figures, the decisions get easier. You can spot dishes that are popular but barely profitable, suppliers whose prices have crept up, and lines that take up shelf space without earning their keep. Monthly management reports from your bookkeeping make this routine rather than a once-a-year shock.

Menu tip: Be careful with buy-one-get-one-free offers on expensive dishes. You pay for two plates of food and get paid for one, so if the ingredients for one dish cost more than half of its price after VAT, every deal loses money. A set menu at quieter times usually protects your margin better.

Why an accountant in Slough who knows the high street helps

High street businesses have their own rhythm: busy weekends, quiet Mondays, school holidays, Christmas and a long, slow January. A general online service won’t always see that. An accountant in Slough who works with local shops and cafes understands how your takings move through the week and the year, and can build that into your forecasts.

Our head office is at 84 High Street, Slough, so you can drop in with your paperwork and talk things through face to face. Working with a local accountant in Slough also helps when you’re weighing up a new lease, a second site or a refit, because the advice is based on how your business actually trades.

Business rates: what changed in 2026

After rent and wages, business rates are often a high street business’s next biggest cost. In England, new rateable values took effect on 1 April 2026. At the same time, qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure properties moved onto permanently lower multipliers, but the old percentage discount ended, so many bills changed, some up and some down.

The Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026 added more support. From 1 April 2027, the Small Business Rate Relief threshold for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure premises rises from £12,000 to £18,000, and bills for qualifying properties are due to be frozen in real terms for 2027/28 and 2028/29.

• Check your rateable value. You can see it on GOV.UK and challenge it if it looks wrong.
• Claim every relief. Small Business Rate Relief can reduce or remove the bill for smaller premises, usually if it’s your only business property.
• Plan for April 2027. If your rateable value is between £12,000 and £18,000, your bill could fall significantly.

Wages, National Insurance and the Employment Allowance

Staff is usually the highest cost on the high street. Since April 2026, the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over has been £12.71 an hour, and the rate for 18 to 20-year-olds is £10.85. From 1 April 2027, these rise to £13.21 and £11.27. Employers also pay National Insurance at 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year.

The Employment Allowance can take up to £10,500 a year off your employer National Insurance bill, and most employers with staff can claim it. A limited company whose only employee is a single director can’t. Our payroll service runs your payroll, handles pension auto-enrolment and makes sure the allowance is claimed.

Tips, service charges and tronc

Since 1 October 2024, employers have had to pass on all tips, gratuities and service charges to their workers in full, with no deductions other than tax and National Insurance. That includes card tips, so you can’t take card processing fees out of them. Tips must be paid out by the end of the month after the month they’re received, and they can’t be used to top up pay to the minimum wage.

If customers tip more than occasionally, you need a written tips policy that all staff can see, and you must keep records of how tips were shared for three years. Many businesses use a tronc, run by an independent troncmaster. When it’s set up properly, tips paid through a tronc don’t attract National Insurance, although Income Tax is still due through PAYE. We can help you set up a tronc and run it through payroll correctly.

VAT for cafes, takeaways and restaurants

VAT on food is one of the areas HMRC checks most often in hospitality. Food and drink eaten on your premises is standard-rated at 20%, whether it’s hot or cold. Hot takeaway food and hot drinks are also standard-rated. Most cold takeaway food, such as a sandwich or salad, is zero-rated, but crisps, confectionery, ice cream and most cold drinks are standard-rated.

That means the same sandwich can carry 0% or 20% VAT depending on whether the customer eats in or takes it away. Your till needs to be set up to record the difference, and meal deals that mix zero-rated and standard-rated items need to be split correctly. Our VAT return service checks your till settings and files your returns through Making Tax Digital software.

Delivery apps: are they making you money?

Delivery apps can fill the kitchen on a quiet night, but they come at a price. Commission on the big apps often runs from around 15% to more than 30% of each order, depending on the plan and whether the app delivers for you. Add VAT, food, packaging and staff time, and there may be very little left.

An example. A VAT-registered takeaway receives a £20 order through an app that charges 30% commission. VAT takes £3.33, commission is £6.00, food and packaging cost £5.80, and staff and energy come to £3.40. That leaves £1.47, a margin of about 7%, before tax. These costs are shown without the VAT the business can reclaim.

These figures are only an example, but they show why it pays to know your profit on each channel. Our bookkeeping splits app sales from walk-in and direct orders, and if you trade through a limited company, our company accounts preparation services carry that through to your year-end accounts, so you can see which apps are worth keeping. Many businesses find that a simple direct ordering option, even for collection only, brings back much more of each sale.

Cash flow: Friday’s till and Tuesday’s bills

High street cash flow can be misleading. The till is full on a Friday night, then the supplier invoices, rent and wages arrive the following week. Over the year, the busy summer months and the run-up to Christmas are followed by a slow January and February, when the rent is still due.

A simple cash flow forecast, updated every month, shows the pinch points before they arrive. Keep money aside each week for VAT, rent and tax, and build a buffer from the busy months to carry you through the quiet ones.

Receipts, records and HMRC checks

Cafes and shops produce a lot of small receipts: milk, bread, cleaning products, window cleaning. Stuffed in a drawer, they’re easy to lose, and missing records are a problem if HMRC opens a compliance check. Cash-heavy businesses are a common focus for HMRC, so every sale and every cost needs to be recorded.

A receipt scanning app solves most of this. Photograph the receipt, and it goes straight into your bookkeeping. HMRC accepts clear digital copies. Sole traders must keep their records for at least five years after the 31 January filing deadline, and limited companies for six years from the end of the financial year.

Paying yourself the right way

Taking a bit of cash out of the till for the weekly shop is common, but how it’s treated depends on how you trade. As a sole trader, money you take out is drawings. You’re taxed on the business’s profit, not on what you draw, but every sale still needs to go through the books. In a limited company, the money belongs to the company, and cash you take without paying it as salary or dividends is a director’s loan, which can bring an extra tax charge if it isn’t repaid in time.

Our self assessment tax return services make sure your own tax return reflects your profit, salary and dividends correctly, so you pay the right tax and nothing more.

Planning your exit

If you’d like to sell the business one day, start preparing now. Buyers look for steady, provable profit, clean VAT records and accounts that match the bank statements. A drawer full of receipts and unrecorded cash makes a business harder to sell and lowers the price.

When you sell a qualifying business, Business Asset Disposal Relief can reduce the Capital Gains Tax rate to 18%. The lifetime limit on gains that qualify falls from £1 million to £500,000 for sales from 6 April 2027, so if a sale is on the horizon, plan the timing early.

High street survival tips

The 30-second high street check

Answer these three questions honestly:

If you answered no to any of them, it’s worth a conversation. A short review often finds savings and gives you a clear picture before your next VAT return or tax bill.

Frequently asked questions

Do I charge VAT on takeaway food?

It depends. Hot takeaway food is standard-rated at 20%, and most cold takeaway food is zero-rated. Food and drink eaten on your premises is standard-rated, whether hot or cold.

Can I keep some of the tips to cover card fees?

No. Since 1 October 2024, all tips must be passed on to workers in full, with no deductions other than tax and National Insurance.

Will my business rates go down in 2027?

If your premises qualify as retail, hospitality or leisure, the rateable value is between £12,000 and £18,000, and it’s usually your only business property; the higher Small Business Rate Relief threshold from April 2027 could cut your bill significantly. We can check your position.

Should my cafe be a limited company?

It depends on your profits and plans. We compare both options using your own figures before you decide.

Talk to our accountants in Slough

Whether you run one shop or several sites, Asmat & Co provides fixed-fee accountancy services for high street businesses across the UK. We handle bookkeeping, payroll and tronc, VAT returns, Self Assessment and company accounts, with QuickBooks management reports included, unlimited support and a reply within three hours.

Visit our head office at 84 High Street, Slough, or call 01753 424 968. We also see clients at our Reading branch and our West Midlands office. Book a meeting with Asmat & Co today. We do Numbers & You do Business!

This article is general information for the 2026/27 tax year, including changes announced in the Autumn Budget on 28 October 2026. It isn’t personal tax or legal advice. Please speak to us about your own circumstances before acting.