Simple cash-week planner for NI small businesses
Thirteen weeks on one sheet. See the short week coming before it comes. £19.
Who it’s for
Owners of small NI businesses with 1 to 20 staff who pay the bills themselves: cafés, trades, salons, shops, cleaners, guest houses. VAT registered or not. You’ve been caught out by a VAT bill, an LPS instalment or a quiet January, and you’d rather see it coming.
What’s inside
- 13-week planner. One column per week, one VAT quarter on one screen.
- Money in. Card takings, cash banked, invoices paid, anything else.
- Money that must leave. Wages, PAYE and pension, VAT set-aside, rent, LPS rates, suppliers, energy, loans, insurance, a tax pot and your own pay.
- What’s actually left. Bank balance at the end of every week, with a SHORT flag when it drops below your buffer.
- VAT box and VAT pot. Default set-aside for standard-rated takings on normal VAT accounting. Flat Rate and Cash Accounting users switch it off and type their own figure.
- Two worked examples. A non-VAT-registered cleaner in Dundonald and a VAT-registered 40-cover restaurant in Stranmillis.
- Spreadsheet and PDF guide. Works in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice. Formulas checked.
How you use it
- Settings: start date, bank balance, VAT position, buffer.
- Type expected money in for each week.
- Put each bill in the week it actually leaves.
- Read ‘what’s actually left’; act on any SHORT week now.
- Every Monday, overwrite guesses with what happened.
What it won’t do
- It doesn’t connect to your bank or do your bookkeeping.
- It won’t work out your VAT return, PAYE or tax bill. Your accountant and your records do that.
- The default VAT box is not for Flat Rate Scheme or Cash Accounting Scheme users.
- It isn’t legal, tax or employment advice.
Worked examples: a cleaner and a restaurant
Both made up. Thirteen weeks from Monday 5 October 2026.
| Cleaner, Dundonald (not VAT registered) | Restaurant, Stranmillis (VAT registered) | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical week in | About £700 | About £9,100 |
| VAT set-aside, week 1 | £0 | £1,516.67 (£9,100 × 20 ÷ 120) |
| Short week | Week 8: an office pays late and the van needs tyres. Bank £354.84, buffer £500 | Week 7: PAYE and a £900 fridge repair. Bank £2,465, buffer £2,500 |
| Fix, planned weeks ahead | Tyres moved to week 9; 14-day terms for the office | £600 supplier payment moved to week 8 |
| VAT bill | None | £15,300 paid from the pot in week 5; main account untouched |
The default VAT box sets aside one-sixth of standard-rated takings. Flat Rate Scheme and Cash Accounting Scheme users must not use it: they pick their scheme and type the figure their accountant gives them.
Official figures last checked: 3 October 2026. VAT standard rate 20%, registration threshold £90,000, Flat Rate Scheme (£150,000 joining limit) and Cash Accounting Scheme (£1.35 million) from GOV.UK; NI Small Business Rate Relief 2026-27 bands and LPS payment options from nibusinessinfo and nidirect; minimum wage rates from GOV.UK. Rates and dates change. Check current GOV.UK / HMRC / nibusinessinfo / nidirect / your accountant before you rely on any of them.
- VAT rates (GOV.UK)
- VAT registration (GOV.UK)
- Flat Rate Scheme (GOV.UK)
- Cash Accounting Scheme (GOV.UK)
- Small Business Rate Relief, NI (nibusinessinfo)
- Paying your rate bill (nidirect)
Belfast Desk Kit sells templates. We’re not HMRC, Invest NI, nibusinessinfo, a council, the Labour Relations Agency or a regulated adviser.