One café, one shoebox, and the year it all added up.
Maddie runs a thirty-cover café on the river. She came to us with fourteen months of receipts and a letter from HMRC. This is her year, in her own words.
Maddie Colquhoun
Owner, The Weir Café, Bewdley
Client since April 2024 · interviewed March 2025
BEFORE
Spring 2024
“Receipts went in a shoebox under the till. I did the VAT return at midnight, the night before it was due, and I honestly couldn’t have told you whether we made any money that year.”
“Two late-filing penalties in twelve months.”
“I paid myself whatever was left, if anything was.”
“Sunday nights went on spreadsheets I didn’t trust.”
→
↓
11 April 2024
The day the shoebox came in
AFTER
Spring 2025
“Now Ruth sends me one page on the first Monday of every month. I know what we took, what we owe and what I can pay myself, and the VAT goes in a fortnight early.”
“Not a single penalty since we started.”
“I pay myself a proper wage, on the 28th.”
“Sunday nights are mine again.”
THE RESULT, FIRST TWELVE MONTHS
£11,460
reclaimed in VAT and allowable expenses that had been sitting, unclaimed, in the shoebox.
From The Weir Café’s filed returns, April 2024 to March 2025. Shared with Maddie’s permission.
Ruth Ashdown takes on four new small-business clients each quarter. The first look at your books is free and takes an hour.
