Free calculators
For cafés, pubs and restaurants.
41 calculators that run on your own numbers: gross profit, staff costs, card fees, menu prices and more. No sign-up, and every assumption is shown.
Card fees and till costs
Card fee calculator: what card payments cost your venue a year, and what your own rate really is
What your current provider is really charging you, what the same turnover costs on each published UK rate, and why a 1.2% headline can be the most expensive number on the page.
Guide with a calculatorDojo Fees 2026: What the 1.2% Rate Really Costs a Cafe, Bar or Restaurant
Dojo advertises the lowest published in-person card rate in the UK, a 1.2% blended rate across every card type. Below an average sale of about £9, its 5p secure transaction fee makes that the most expensive option on the market rather than the cheapest.
Guide with a calculatorSquare Fees UK 2026: What the 1.75% Leaves Out
Square charges 1.75% on in-person card payments in the UK, plus an additional 1.5% on every card issued outside the UK. That surcharge, and the fact that processing fees are not returned on refunds, decides the real cost for any venue serving visitors.
Guide with a calculatorSumUp Fees UK 2026: What You Pay Per Transaction
SumUp charges 1.69% per in-person transaction on pay-as-you-go, or 0.99% on the £19-a-month Payments Plus plan. But the 0.99% rate only covers UK-issued consumer cards, which changes the break-even point for any venue serving tourists or business customers.
Guide with a calculatorZettle Fees UK 2026: What the 1.75% Covers
Zettle by PayPal charges 1.75% on in-person card payments with no fixed pence fee and no card-type surcharge, American Express included. It publishes no international-card premium and refunds the processing fee on refunds, which is where the real difference against a same-priced rival sits.
Guide with a calculatorRestaurant POS costs over three years: Toast, Square, Clover and five more, with what it costs to leave
Eight options a US restaurant would shortlist, priced over 36 months at $50,000 a month in card sales from each vendor's own pages, with the contract term, exit cost and data rules for each. The software fee is the small number.
Staff, pay and rotas
Statutory Sick Pay Calculator: What a Missed Shift Costs You From Day One
Enter what a staff member was paid over the last eight weeks, the days they normally work and the days they missed. The calculator gives the Statutory Sick Pay you owe under the rules in force since 6 April 2026, and what the same absence would have cost before.
CalculatorEmployee Cost Calculator: What a UK Hire Really Costs You a Year
Enter a rate, weekly hours and National Insurance category to see what a UK hire costs in a year and per hour they actually work, with paid holiday, employer NI and pension included, and what adding one more hour a week would cost.
Guide with a calculatorUK Minimum Wage 2027: What the £13.21 April Step Costs a Venue, Per Head and Per Year
The National Living Wage rises from £12.71 to £13.21 on 1 April 2027, and the 18 to 20 rate from £10.85 to £11.27. Here is what that costs per head and per rota once National Insurance and pension ride on top, and what to do before April.
Guide with a calculatorWhy Is My Coffee Shop Busy but Not Making Money? Where a UK Cafe's Takings Go in 2026
A queue at 8am does not pay for two people behind the counter in the quiet hours. Here is where £20,000 of a UK cafe's monthly takings goes once VAT, stock, staff, rent and card fees are out, the sum that tells you how many sales each staffed hour needs, and which half of your costs to fix first.
Guide with a calculatorAre Tips Taxable in the UK? Tips Law, Tronc and National Insurance in 2026
Every tip a UK worker receives is taxable income, but National Insurance depends on who decides how the tips are shared. A route-by-route table for 2026/27, a worked example on one cafe's £600 week of card tips, and what the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 requires of the venue.
Guide with a calculatorThe Employment Allowance for a Small Venue: Who Can Claim the £10,500, and Who Cannot
The £10,500 Employment Allowance is one credit against your venue's employer National Insurance bill for the whole tax year, and any venue with someone besides a sole director earning over £96 a week can usually claim it. Who is excluded, how to claim it, and the month it runs out.
Guide with a calculatorThe Real Cost of an Hour of Staff in the UK: Employer NI, Pension and Holiday for 2026
A UK hospitality employer paying the National Living Wage for a 30-hour role owes about £431.93 a week once employer National Insurance, the statutory minimum pension and holiday accrual are added, not the £381.30 on the payslip. Here is the real hourly cost by wage band, who the on-costs do not apply to, and what changes when you cost a rota against it.
Guide with a calculatorHoliday Pay for Staff Who Work Irregular Hours in 2026: What You Owe and How to Pay It
Rolled-up holiday pay, a 12.07% uplift added to every payslip instead of holiday pay held back until leave is taken, has been lawful for irregular-hours and part-year workers since leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024. Here is who qualifies, where the 12.07% figure comes from, what has to appear on the payslip, and the record-keeping duty that started on 6 April 2026.
Guide with a calculatorStatutory Sick Pay From Day One: What the April 2026 Reform Costs a Small UK Venue
Since 6 April 2026, UK Statutory Sick Pay has been payable from the first day of illness, the old earnings threshold is gone, and anyone earning under about £154 a week gets 80% of their own average earnings instead of the flat rate. Here is what that actually costs a small venue, using government figures and named operators reporting five months in, not upcoming-change guesswork.
Guide with a calculatorWhere Restaurant Overtime Comes From (and How to See It in Your Data)
A high level of demand-forecast inaccuracy can push required staffing as much as 50% higher, per Cornell hospitality research. Overtime in an independent restaurant, cafe or bar is not random: it clusters into five repeatable causes, none of which show up if you only look at the total hours. Here is how to find which one is costing you money, and why cutting hours blindly can make things worse.
Guide with a calculatorSales Per Labor Hour: 2026 Benchmarks and Daypart Decisions
What a good SPLH means in 2026, how to calculate your venue’s labor target, and what to change when a daypart falls short.
Guide with a calculatorWhat to Pay a Barista, Server and Chef in the UK: 2026 Benchmarks
Practical 2026 pay guidance for a new cafe, bar or restaurant owner: legal floors, current role benchmarks, living-wage choices, tips and what each pay strategy says about the place you are building.
Guide with a calculatorWhat Staff Turnover Costs Your Restaurant: A Practical Calculator (2026)
There is no defensible flat replacement-cost figure for every restaurant role. Use this six-part method and calculator to cost your last real departure without double-counting wages or inventing turnover.
Guide with a calculatorUK Shift Notice and Cancellation Pay: What Hospitality Owners Need to Know About the 2027 Rules
The Employment Rights Act 2025 creates three new rights for zero and low-hours hospitality staff: guaranteed hours, reasonable shift notice, and short-notice cancellation pay. Here is what each one means, the real 2027 timeline, what the consultation that closed on 25 August 2026 left undecided, and what a small venue can do now.
Guide with a calculatorHow to Set Up a Tronc Scheme Without a Consultant (UK, 2026)
An independent tronc keeps tips off the 15% employer and 8% employee National Insurance charge that applies to ordinary wages, but only if you meet HMRC's independence test. Here is the DIY setup path, what the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 already requires, and why the consultation duty that was pencilled in for October 2026 is no longer happening then.
Guide with a calculatorRestaurant Labour Cost Percentage: 2026 Benchmarks
Compare verified restaurant labour cost benchmarks: 36.5% for US full service and 33.2% for Germany in 2024, with 2026 wage costs and a free calculator.
Menu and margins
Beer GP Calculator: Keg Yield, Wastage and Margin Per Pint
A keg holds more pints than you can sell out of it. This calculator converts keg size to saleable pints, applies your line wastage, strips the VAT off the pint price, and gives you the GP you actually take.
CalculatorDrinks GP Calculator: Cost Per Serve, Measures and Margin
Bottle price is not serve cost. This calculator turns a bottle into servings at your house measure, takes the VAT off the selling price, and gives you the GP on the drink as you actually pour it.
CalculatorFood GP Calculator: Dish Cost, Yield Loss and Real Margin
A food GP calculator that accounts for the two things that make kitchen margin different from bar margin: a dish cost you have to build from a recipe, and yield loss between what you buy and what reaches the plate.
CalculatorGP Calculator: Gross Profit on Any Drink or Dish, Ex-VAT
A gross profit calculator that takes the VAT off before it does the sum, because that is how GP is quoted in UK hospitality. Enter your selling price and your cost, get the GP percentage your supplier and your accountant would recognise.
CalculatorHow to Price a Menu Item: Food Cost, Contribution Margin, and a Free Calculator (2026)
Food cost percentage tells you a ratio, not a dollar. Here is the plate-cost formula, the contribution-margin method most guides skip, current US and UK wage inputs, and a calculator that shows its numbers without an email gate.
Guide with a calculatorSupplier Negotiation for Independents: Scripts That Work
Every guide to negotiating with food distributors says "build a relationship" and stops there. This one starts with the one question that actually decides your leverage (cost-plus or list pricing), gives a real email script, and runs the numbers on early-payment terms, fuel surcharges, and whether buying groups are worth it.
Guide with a calculatorPrime Cost: The Formula, a Good Percentage by Venue Type, and Which Half to Fix (2026)
Prime cost is cost of goods sold plus total labour, divided by net sales. Most operators target 55% to 65%, but the median US limited-service restaurant ran at 65% in 2024. Here are the bands by venue type, a weekly calculation, and how to tell whether food or labour is the problem.
Guide with a calculatorHow to Raise Restaurant Prices Without Losing Customers (2026)
US menu prices rose 3.5% year over year to September 2026, and the monthly pace has eased to 0.2%, yet 82% of Americans still say restaurant prices have climbed too far. Here is what protects guest loyalty when you raise a price: not a longer explanation, according to a new Cornell study, but the value guests can see.
Filling tables
How Weather Affects Restaurant Sales in the UK, and the Cash Reserve That Covers It
In a February with 42% more rain than average, UK restaurant sales fell 1.1% and bar sales 4.1%, and pub and bar sales fell 13% on a wet bank holiday Saturday. Meanwhile 29% of UK hospitality businesses hold no cash reserve. How weather moves your takings, how to measure your own rain penalty, and how big a reserve you need.
Guide with a calculatorRestaurant Slow Season Marketing: What UK Data Says About January (2026)
The NIQ RSM Hospitality Business Tracker shows UK bar sales down 4.9% year-on-year in January 2026, while August pub and restaurant sales have grown for two years running. Here is what actually causes the UK dip, why it is a spending problem rather than an absent-customer problem, and a costed plan for fixing it.
Guide with a calculatorRestaurant Loyalty Programmes: What a Repeat Guest Is Worth (2026)
The only rigorously sourced figure on repeat-guest economics comes from the US: 7% of guests can drive up to half of order volume. Here is what UK data actually shows, what loyalty software really costs against a free list, and when it earns its keep.
Guide with a calculatorFixing a Dead Tuesday: A Costed Playbook for Empty Weeknights
Toast's own US reservation data shows Tuesday bookings rose 15% year-over-year in 2025, the largest gain of any day. A dead weeknight is rarely permanent, it just has one of three causes. Here is how to diagnose which one you have, and what each fix costs before you touch a discount.
Guide with a calculatorHow Much Should a Restaurant Spend on Marketing? 2026 UK Benchmarks
The "3-6% of revenue" marketing budget rule traces to no trade body or study. Real UK channel costs, a build-your-own-budget calculator, and the retention data that matters more than the percentage.
AI, in practice
Rules, tax and funding
What a Music Licence Costs a Cafe, Bar or Restaurant, and When You Don't Need One
TheMusicLicence, the joint PPL and PRS for Music licence UK venues need to play copyrighted music, starts at £364.62 a year before VAT for a small pub and £400.81 for a restaurant or cafe, by PPL PRS's own figures. What VAT adds, what pushes the bill higher, who is exempt, and why a venue that never got round to it can be billed for six years of past music use.
Guide with a calculatorYour Business Rates Bill Changed in April 2026: What Happened, and What You Can Still Do
Two separate changes hit English hospitality business rates bills on the same day, 1 April 2026, and most coverage runs them together. Here is what actually moved your number, why pubs got help that restaurants and cafes did not, and the worked numbers for a small venue in each position.
More calculators
Kitchen Display Systems for a Small Kitchen: What Happens When the WiFi Drops (UK, 2026)
A small UK kitchen should wire its screen and keep a ticket printer until its vendor documents offline behaviour. What Toast, Square and Lightspeed say happens when the internet or the WiFi fails, what thick walls do to a signal, and what a wired screen costs.
Guide with a calculatorRestaurant No-Show Fees and Deposits in the UK: What You Can Charge, What It Costs, and Which Policy to Pick (2026)
A UK restaurant can keep a deposit or charge a no-show fee, but only up to what the empty table costs it, and a deposit kept in full should be a small share of the price. A default policy for a single venue, the arithmetic behind it, what the booking tools add, and when to charge nothing.
Guide with a calculatorWhat Delivery Apps Really Cost a UK Restaurant: Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat, All In (2026)
Uber Eats publishes 30% for its riders and 13% if you deliver or the customer collects. Deliveroo charges its fee on the VAT-inclusive order, with VAT on top. What a £25 order leaves on each route, where going direct saves real money, and where the app costs about what doing it yourself would.