How do I check what a mobile coffee van really earns?

Walk-up coffee sells in small, frequent sales, which is a help: the records are detailed if the owner kept them. A seller can say the van does well, but only the records show it. Ask for them early, read them with your accountant, and look for the gaps between what was sold, what was banked and what the tax filings show. This page covers reading records only, not putting a value on the business.

Start with the card-terminal data

Ask whether takings go through a card terminal or point-of-sale app, and ask for its sales reports by day and by hour. Ask for a long run of reports, not a hand-picked few. Match the totals to bank deposits and the bookkeeping. Ask how cash sales were recorded, because a gap between the terminal and the books needs an explanation before you go further.

Sort the days by pitch and by weather

A van that parks at a busy market on a sunny weekend is not the same as one at a quiet site on a wet weekday. Ask the owner to tag each day with the pitch or event, and compare. Look at the days that were rained out or cancelled, and at the off-season. Ask what the owner does when the van cannot trade, and whether any other work fills the gap.

Costs, limits and the owner’s hands

Subtract what it costs to trade: pitch and event fees, milk, beans, cups, fuel, generator running, insurance and repairs. One machine and one barista can only serve so many cups in an hour, so ask whether busy sites already hit that limit. Then ask who pulls the shots. If the owner works every shift without pay, the books may not show what hiring staff would cost you.

What to do with what you find

Write down each question the records raise and ask the seller for a written answer. Do not rely on the listing summary alone, whoever prepared it. If you work with a broker, ask how they are paid and whom they act for. Your accountant is the person to tell you what the records can and cannot support.