How do I tell what a café owner actually takes home?

A café’s reported profit and what its owner actually keeps can be different numbers. Owners pay themselves in different ways, work shifts without pay and run personal costs through the business. A buyer needs to see through that to the real picture, because the café has to cover your wages, your living and your loan, not the previous owner’s habits.

Salary, draws and add-backs

An owner may take a salary, draw money out, or both, and the statements may show them differently. Ask for payroll records and bank statements, not only the summary. Sellers sometimes list add-backs, which are costs they say a buyer would not have to pay. Ask for proof of each one and test whether it will disappear under your ownership.

Unpaid shifts the owner covers

Many café owners open, close or work the counter themselves, and family members may help without pay. If you would hire someone for those hours, the wages belong in the picture. Ask who works each shift and who is paid. The question of how much the café depends on one person is covered in how to tell if a café relies on the owner’s own hours.

Cash sales and tips

Ask how cash sales and tips are recorded and where they go: to the owner, to staff or into the register. Compare till reports, card processor statements and deposits, and ask the seller to explain any gap. Your accountant can tell you what the records support. Treat anything that is not documented as unproven.

Ask an accountant to normalise

• Ask for a normalised statement that shows market wages for every role, including the owner’s.
• Ask the accountant to list every adjustment and the evidence behind it.
• Ask which items the seller’s numbers rely on that you cannot check.
• See our café due diligence guide for the wider checklist.