Grace Harbour Accountancy

07/09/2026

How much should I pay myself?

It is one of the most common questions we get, and one almost nobody has had explained to them properly. So here it is, in plain English.

Start with the fork in the road: are you a sole trader or a limited company? Because the answer changes everything.

If you are a sole trader, there is no wage as such. You are taxed on the profit your business makes, not on what you personally take out. The money you draw for yourself is simply called drawings, and it does not change your tax bill one way or the other.

If you are a limited company, it works completely differently. You have two levers to pull: a salary and dividends. How you balance the two is where the tax efficiency lives, and honestly, where we see a lot of owners quietly leave money on the table.

Lever one is salary. Many directors take a modest salary of around £12,570, which is the personal allowance. At that level it uses up your tax-free band and earns you a qualifying year towards your state pension, which matters more than most people realise.

Lever two is dividends. The rest of what you take comes out as dividends, which are paid from company profit after corporation tax. For most directors, a sensible mix of the two works out more tax-efficient than taking everything as salary. That said, the gap has narrowed since dividend tax rates went up in April 2026, so it is worth reviewing rather than assuming.

Then there is the catch, and it is the one that catches people out most. You can only pay a dividend out of actual profit. If you pay yourself one when the profit is not there, you have not given yourself an income, you have created a problem for later.

So what is the right number for you? The honest answer is that it depends. On your profit, your other income, your plans for the year, whether a spouse or partner is a shareholder. There is no single correct figure, and anyone who gives you one without asking those questions has not really looked at your situation.

That is exactly the sort of thing we sit down and work out with you. Your actual numbers, your actual plans, explained in a way that makes sense, with no jargon and no judgement.

No silly questions here.

Book a free discovery call: https://tidycal.com/dorota

04/09/2026

Profitable but skint. Where did it go?

The accounts say you made money. The bank account says otherwise. If that has ever wound you up at the end of a good month, you are not doing anything wrong, and you are very much not alone. It is one of the most common questions we get asked, and almost nobody has had it explained to them properly.

So here is the honest version.

Profit is an opinion. Cash is a fact.

Profit is worked out on paper. It includes sales you have invoiced but not yet been paid for, and costs that get counted in a different month to when the money actually left your account. It is a useful figure, but it is not the balance in your bank. The two almost never match, and that surprises a lot of people.

So where does the money actually hide? Usually in three places.

Some of it was never yours. If you are VAT registered, roughly a fifth of your takings is VAT you are simply holding on behalf of HMRC. It sits in your account looking exactly like your money, right up until the quarter falls due. Spend it, and the bill still turns up all the same.

Some of it is in the stock room. Every full freezer, every case of w**e, every over ordered delivery is cash you have already spent, sitting on a shelf waiting to be sold. It counts towards your profit, but you cannot pay a wage with a pallet of tonic water.

And some of it, you took out. The money you draw for yourself is not a business cost, so it never appears on the profit line at all. You can be profitable on paper and still have quietly drained the account keeping things ticking over at home. It is the one owners tend to spot last.

The fix is not complicated, but it does mean watching cash, not just profit. Keep your VAT and tax in a separate account the moment the money lands. Order stock to what you will realistically sell. Keep an eye on what you draw. Profit tells you whether the business works. Cash tells you whether it survives the month. You really do need to read both.

If you are not sure where yours is going, that is exactly the kind of question we are here to answer, in plain English, without making you feel you should already have known.

No silly questions here.

Book a free discovery call: https://tidycal.com/dorota

23/07/2026

What really happens if you get it wrong.

For a lot of business owners this is the quiet worry that sits in the background all year. So here is the honest version, without the scare stories.

First, the part that is genuinely unforgiving.

File your tax return late and there is an automatic £100 penalty, even if you owe nothing at all. Leave it three months and daily charges of £10 start, running up to a maximum of £900. At six months there is another penalty of £300 or 5% of the tax due, whichever is higher, and the same again at twelve months.

It is also worth knowing that filing and paying are two entirely separate things. Late payment charges sit on top of late filing ones, and interest runs daily until the bill is cleared. So even if the money is not there yet, file on time. It stops half the problem in its tracks.

Now the reassuring part, and it is the bit nobody ever tells you.

If you took reasonable care and still got something wrong, HMRC will not usually charge a penalty at all. You pay the tax that was owed and you move on. And "reasonable care" is judged against your own knowledge and circumstances, not against what an accountant would be expected to know.

There is one more thing that makes an enormous difference. If you spot an error and tell HMRC before they find it, a careless mistake can carry no penalty whatsoever. Wait until they come to you, and that same error starts at 15%. Identical mistake. Completely different outcome. Being upfront is the single biggest lever you have.

Which brings us to the real point. The danger was never making the mistake. It is hiding it. Honest slips are cheap to put right. Deliberate ones are not, and the penalties climb steeply once HMRC decides something was concealed on purpose. Almost every horror story you have ever heard started with someone saying nothing and hoping it would go away.

So if something has been nagging at you, say it out loud. We have never once judged anyone for a mistake. We just fix it early, while it is still small and still cheap.

There are no silly questions here. Fixed monthly fee, 24 hour response, and no jargon.

Book a free discovery call: https://tidycal.com/dorota

08/07/2026

Thinking about switching accountants? Here is why it is easier than you think.

If you have been wondering whether to move, there is usually a reason behind it. Maybe you only hear from your accountant once a year. Maybe the bill is a surprise every time. Maybe you have never quite understood what you are actually paying for.

Whatever it is, the thing that stops most people is the same. It feels like a hassle. You have put time and trust into your current accountant, and changing feels disruptive, especially when you are already flat out running a kitchen or a full room.

Here is the honest truth. Switching is far easier than people expect, and almost all of the work is ours, not yours.

Once you decide to move, we handle the whole transition. We contact your current accountant, request your records, and make sure everything transfers over cleanly and professionally. There is no awkward phone call for you to make, and no admin landing on your desk.

You are not tied to a year end either. You can move at any point in the year, and nothing gets left behind when you do. Your records, your history and your details all come with you.

As part of settling you in, we also take a proper look at where your business stands right now, so you start with a clear picture rather than a question mark. Most owners tell us it is the first time in years they have felt properly on top of things.

The whole point is to make the change feel like a relief, not a chore. You get back to running the place, and we take care of the rest.

If you have been putting it off, consider this your nudge. We are Cornwall hospitality specialists offering a fixed monthly fee, a 24 hour response, and no jargon.

Book a free discovery call here: https://tidycal.com/dorota

02/07/2026

How much is each customer really worth?

It is one of the most useful numbers in hospitality, and also one of the least tracked. Average spend per head quietly decides whether a busy day is actually a profitable one, yet most café, pub and restaurant owners we meet have never worked it out.

Here is how it works.

Take your total sales for a service, a day or a week, and divide by the number of covers, meaning the number of people you served. That figure is your average spend per head.

For example, if you take £4,000 in a week across 320 covers, that works out at £12.50 a head. That is what the average guest spends when they walk through your door.

One thing to get right: a cover is a person, not a table. A table of four is four covers, not one. If you divide by tables, or by card payments, instead of by people, the number flatters you. Count heads, and count them the same way every single time.

Now for the part that matters. Lift that £12.50 by just one pound, across the same 320 covers, and that is £320 more in a single week. Over a year it passes £16,000. Same number of people through the door. You simply earn more from each one.

So how do you move it? A side, a second coffee, a dessert special, a better bottle of w**e. The extras tend to carry the highest margin in the building, so most of that added pound drops straight to profit. Train the team to offer, put it on the menu, and make it easy for the guest to say yes.

Small adds, big totals. It is often the difference between a busy season that leaves you exhausted and one that actually pays.

If you would like help finding the numbers that move the needle in your business, and actually using them, that is exactly what we do. Fixed monthly fee, 24 hour response, no jargon.

Book a free discovery call here: https://tidycal.com/dorota

23/06/2026

Why a great summer can sink you in January.

The busiest months of the year feel like the safest. For a lot of Cornwall cafés, pubs and restaurants, they quietly set up the hardest part of the year, and it usually comes down to one thing: a full till is not the same as profit.

Some of the money moving through the business in July is VAT you are holding, tax you owe, and supplier bills that have not landed yet. The account looks healthy. The position underneath might not be.

Here is what catches people out:

Your VAT bill grows with your best months. More sales means a bigger quarterly bill, and it often falls due in autumn just as the season winds down and daily takings drop away. The bill is from the good times. The payment lands in the lean ones.

You hire for the rush, then carry it. Peak season needs more hands, but hours that made sense in August are often still on the rota in October when covers have halved.

Fixed costs do not take a winter off. Rent, insurance, software and the core team run at the same rate in January as they do in July. When income falls off the cliff and the costs stay flat, the gap is what catches people out.

The fix is simple, but it has to start now. Set money aside for VAT and tax every week through the peak, and know your real off season running cost before you reach it. The owners who sail through winter are the ones who planned for it while the sun was out.

One bit of good news for summer 2026: under the government's Great British Summer Savings scheme, children's meals eaten in on the premises drop from 20% to 5% VAT between 25 June and 1 September. Takeaway meals do not qualify. If this applies to you, it is worth making sure your till and menus are set up correctly so the saving is passed on.

If any of this feels like guesswork in your own books, we would love to help. We are Cornwall hospitality specialists offering a fixed monthly fee, 24 hour response and no jargon. Book a free discovery call here:

https://tidycal.com/dorota

04/06/2026

03/06/2026

Guess the deductible. Hospitality edition.

We put four common expenses to our followers this week. Some allowable, some not. Most café, pub and restaurant owners we meet across Cornwall get at least one wrong, and the ones they miss tend to be the same every time.

Here’s the round:

1. Chef whites — Allowable. Branded chef whites and aprons count as protective clothing or uniform. Plain black t-shirts from the high street don’t. The branding is what makes the difference.
2. Staff Christmas party — Allowable, with a sting. Up to £150 per head per year for an annual staff event open to all employees. Go a single penny over and the whole amount becomes taxable, not just the extra.
3. Coffee with a supplier — Not allowable. HMRC treats client and supplier entertaining as not deductible for corporation tax. The coffee itself is fine, the habit of putting it through the books isn’t.
4. Gym membership — Not allowable. Even if you’re on your feet for 50 hours a week, personal fitness is treated as a private benefit. The company can pay for it, but it becomes a taxable perk on the employee.

How many did you get right? The Christmas party rule and the gym membership are the two we see catching people out the most.

If any of this feels like guesswork in your own books, we’d love to help. We’re Cornwall hospitality specialists offering a fixed monthly fee, 24 hour response and no jargon. Drop us a message or book a free discovery call through the link below.

graceharbouraccountancy.co.uk

29/05/2026

Welcome to the crew, Robert! ⚓

Say hello to Robert Bodkin, our new Accounts Assistant. With a caring heart, a problem-solving mind and a talent for making the numbers actually mean something, Robert is here to help your business flourish.

We couldn’t be happier to have him aboard. Drop a 👋 to welcome him!

Your financial anchor, no matter the weather.

27/05/2026

Today was a bit special! 💫 We had the absolute pleasure of meeting Helen Flanagan at Prow Park Media as part of our sponsorship and what a lovely lady she is. Thank you to everyone who made today happen. Watch this space! 👀