How do you work out GP% for a pub?

Take the selling price and strip the VAT out of it to get the net selling price. Subtract what the product costs you ex VAT. Divide that gross profit by the net selling price and multiply by 100. So a pint selling at £5.00 inc VAT is £4.17 net; if it costs you £1.50, that's £2.67 profit on £4.17, which is a GP of about 64%.

Should I use the price including or excluding VAT?

Enter the selling price the customer actually pays, including VAT, and the cost price you pay your supplier excluding VAT. The calculator removes the VAT from the sale for you so the GP is a true ex-VAT figure. Mixing inc and ex VAT is the single most common reason a GP number looks wrong.

What is a good GP% for a UK pub?

It varies by category. Spirits and minerals usually run high, cask and draught lower because of wastage and the legal head on a pint. As a rough guide on wet sales, under 50% is worth investigating, the high 50s to high 60s is healthy for most lines, and spirits can sit above 70%. Judge each line against its own category, not one blanket target.

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Pub GP & profit-leak calculator

Two quick sums most licensees get told by a stocktaker four times a year. Do them yourself in ten seconds. First, your real GP% on any line. Then what the gap to your target is quietly costing you a year. No jargon, no VAT confusion, built by someone who runs a wet-led pub.

STEP 1Your GP% on a line

Enter the price a customer pays (inc VAT) and what the product costs you (ex VAT). We strip the VAT out for you, because mixing the two is the number-one reason a GP looks wrong.

Selling price (inc VAT)

Cost price (ex VAT, per unit)

VAT rate

Gross profit

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enter figures

Net selling price (ex VAT)—

Cash profit per unit—

STEP 2What a GP gap costs you

Now the one that stings. Put in your weekly wet sales and the GP you're actually running, against the GP you're aiming for. This is the money on the table, not an accusation — most of it is priced-in wastage, miskeyed till buttons and drift, not people.

Weekly wet sales (inc VAT)

Your current GP

Your target GP

Closing that gap is worth

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Rough guide, not gospel: it assumes your current and target GP are blended across your wet sales. A weekly stocktake is what turns a guess like this into a real number you can act on.

Get the 20-line GP cheat sheet

The one-page sheet I actually use: the 20 lines worth counting first, the GP band each should hit, and the three till-button mistakes that fake a stock loss. Pop your email in and it's yours to download straight away.

No spam, no daily emails. Just the sheet, and the odd genuinely useful thing for licensees.

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This is the bit StockTap does on its own

The calculator is the manual version. StockTap weighs your spirits to the millilitre, handles draught and the legal head on a pint properly, and hands you the GP and the variance the same night, on your phone. Founding price is £19 a month, cancel any time.

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How the GP sum actually works

Gross profit is the share of a sale you keep after the product cost, before your rent, staff and everything else. The only trap is VAT. The price on your till is inc VAT, but your GP has to be worked out on the ex-VAT price, or the number flatters you. So the tool takes your selling price, removes the VAT to get the net sale, subtracts the ex-VAT cost, and shows what's left as a percentage of that net sale. Do it on a £5 pint that costs you £1.50 and you're looking at roughly 64%, which is healthy for draught.

Why the gap in step two matters more than the GP itself

A single line's GP is easy. The money hides in the gap between what you think you're making across everything and what you actually bank. A few points of GP on decent wet sales is thousands a year, and most of it isn't theft — it's the pint poured with too much head counted as sold, the double vodka keyed as a single, the promotion nobody switched off. You only see it if you count, weekly, and compare. That's the whole job.

Common questions

Do I use the price including or excluding VAT?

Selling price including VAT (what the customer pays), cost price excluding VAT (what you pay your supplier). The tool removes the VAT from the sale so the GP is a true figure. Mixing them is the most common reason a GP looks off.

What's a good GP% for a pub?

Depends on the category. Spirits and minerals run high, cask and draught lower because of wastage and the legal head on a pint. Under 50% on wet is worth a look, high-50s to high-60s is healthy for most lines, spirits can top 70%. Judge each line against its own category.

Is this stored anywhere?

Your figures stay in your browser. Nothing is sent unless you ask for the cheat sheet, and then it's only your email plus the results, so I can send the right thing.