Taking Over a Pub: The Essential Checklist

Last updated: 10 April 2026

Most people taking over a pub focus on the fun stuff — the decor, the menu, the opening night — and ignore the infrastructure that actually keeps the business alive. I’ve seen new landlords miss VAT deadlines, hire without proper documentation, fail to reconcile their first till, and suddenly realise they don’t know what the previous owner paid for stock. By month three, they’re already in trouble.

Taking over a pub isn’t just about unlocking the door. It’s about understanding exactly what you’ve inherited, who owes what, where the money goes, and how to spot problems before they kill your cash flow. The checklist I’m sharing here is the one I’ve used across multiple pub takeovers and refined over 15 years in the trade. It covers legal, financial, operational, and staffing tasks — the things that actually matter.

In this article, you’ll find a comprehensive checklist covering every critical task before and after takeover, common mistakes to avoid, and the systems you need in place to control your pub from day one. This isn’t theoretical — it’s what works.

Pre-Takeover Tasks (4 Weeks Before)

Start planning your takeover at least four weeks in advance. This is not negotiable. Most new landlords wait until two weeks before and discover problems they can’t fix in time. Four weeks gives you breathing room to handle the unexpected.

Week 1: Get It In Writing

Request a comprehensive handover package from the current owner or their solicitor. This should include:

• Lease agreement (read it fully, with a solicitor if necessary)
• List of all supplier contracts with renewal dates and terms
• Utility supplier details and recent bills
• Insurance policies — buildings, contents, employer’s liability, public liability
• EPOS/till system details and passwords
• Staff contracts, payroll records for the last 12 months, and pension arrangements
• Opening hours and any planning conditions attached to the licence
• Details of any tied beer agreements or pubco arrangements
• Environmental and health & safety compliance records
• Stock take records and supplier payment terms

Do not proceed without these. If the current owner won’t provide them, walk away. This information is non-negotiable and its absence is a red flag.

Week 2: Financial Deep Dive

Get at least 12 months of bank statements, till readings, and P&L records from the outgoing owner. The purpose is to establish what’s normal, what’s seasonal, and what’s actually achievable. Many new owners inherit an inflated view of the pub’s turnover because they only see the numbers presented to them by the seller — not the raw data.

Specifically, look for:

• Monthly cash flow patterns (identify your highest and lowest revenue months)
• Average daily takings and till variance (how much the till is typically out)
• Payment terms with suppliers (are invoices paid on 7 days? 30 days?)
• Peak times and staffing patterns related to revenue
• Any unusual income sources or one-off payments

If records are incomplete or vague, you now know you’ll need to rebuild systems from scratch. That’s actually fine — it means you know the challenge ahead.

Week 3: Meet Key People

Meet your key supplier reps before takeover. Call brewery representatives, your cash and carry contact, your utilities provider, and your insurance broker. Introduce yourself, confirm the current arrangement, and ask about any contract changes or price increases coming.

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More importantly, sit down with the existing staff (if you’re keeping them). Explain what’s changing, what’s staying, and what you need from them. This reduces anxiety, prevents staff from leaving en masse, and lets you identify any cultural or operational issues early.

Legal & Compliance Setup

Your pub licence is your business foundation. Without it, you have nothing. Most licensing issues are preventable with proper documentation and planning.

Premises Licence Transfer

The premises licence (your permission to sell alcohol and operate the pub) must be formally transferred to you. This is not automatic. Contact your local council’s licensing team immediately. You will need:

• The current licence holder’s written consent
• Proof of identity and right to work
• A completed application form for the new designated premises supervisor (DPS) if you’re not the existing DPS
• Proof that you’ve notified the police and local authority

The process typically takes 2-4 weeks. Do not assume the licence transfers automatically. I’ve seen pubs that couldn’t open on the handover date because the licensing paperwork wasn’t filed.

Personal Licence (if applicable)

If you don’t already hold a personal licence to sell alcohol, you’ll need one. This requires a brief course (online, usually £50-100) and registration with your local authority. Plan this before takeover — you cannot legally sell alcohol without it.

Tax & VAT Registration

Notify HMRC within 30 days if you’re taking over a VAT-registered business. If the pub wasn’t VAT registered and you’re now taking over, assess whether VAT registration is required (typically yes, if you turn over more than £90,000 annually, which most pubs do).

More importantly, request the previous owner’s VAT records for the last 3 years. This is crucial for your accountant to advise you correctly on what VAT you owe, what you’ve inherited, and any VAT surprises that might be waiting.

Employer & Employee Obligations

If you’re keeping staff, you inherit their employment law obligations. Request from the current owner:

• All staff contracts (including how long they’ve worked there)
• Holiday pay records for the current year
• Any grievances, disciplinary records, or disputes
• Proof of DBS checks if required for your venue
• Pension scheme details and contributions

Have your accountant or an employment solicitor review staff contracts before day one. Inherited disputes are expensive.

Financial Systems & Accounting

This is where most new pub owners fail. They don’t set up proper tracking from day one, and by month two, they’ve lost control of their numbers. By month four, they don’t know if they’re making or losing money.

Choose Your Accounting System

You need one system that tracks sales, costs, labour, and cash flow. Spreadsheets are tempting because they’re free, but they fail. Most spreadsheets break within the first few months when you realise you don’t know your drink costs, your labour percentage is wrong, or your cash doesn’t reconcile to your bank.

From day one, every financial transaction in your pub should be recorded in one place where you can see it, analyse it, and fix it. This means till records, stock purchases, labour costs, and operating expenses all visible together. Many new pub owners we work with at SmartPubTools find £1,000+ in hidden savings in their first week simply because they can finally see where the money is actually going.

Your accounting system should handle:

• Daily till reconciliation (with alerts if the till is more than £10 out)
• Stock cost tracking (so you know your true COGS)
• Labour cost tracking by shift and staff member
• Supplier invoice matching (avoiding duplicate payments)
• Monthly P&L with actual vs expected figures
• Cash flow forecasting (so you never run out of cash)

Set this up before takeover. Don’t wait. On your first day, your first transaction should go into the new system.

Notify Your Accountant

Contact an accountant or bookkeeper who understands hospitality (pubs specifically). Book your first consultation 2 weeks before takeover. They need to help you:

• Set up VAT correctly (and avoid surprises)
• Understand your inherited tax position
• Plan for income tax, corporation tax, or self-assessment requirements
• Advise on payroll reporting and RTI deadlines

An accountant costs £1,000-3,000 annually. Not having one costs far more in missed relief, penalties, and tax bills you didn’t anticipate.

Plan for VAT Surprises

VAT surprises are 100% preventable with proper forecasting. If you’re taking over a pub, the previous owner owes VAT on sales up to the handover date. You owe VAT on sales from the handover date onwards. If the handover is in the middle of a VAT quarter, this creates a split liability that catches many new owners off guard.

Work with your accountant to forecast your first year’s VAT liability month by month. Know in advance how much cash you’ll need to set aside for VAT payments. Most pub owners who struggle with cash flow do so because they didn’t plan for VAT.

Establish Credit Terms With Suppliers

Before takeover, confirm credit terms with every major supplier. Most breweries work on 7-day payment terms (invoice Friday, payment due the following Friday). Cash and carry suppliers typically require payment on the day of purchase or at point of order.

Understanding these terms in advance prevents cash surprises. If you’ve planned for 30-day payment terms but your supplier requires 7-day terms, that’s a cash flow problem you need to know about before day one.

Operational Handover & Documentation

The outgoing owner should spend at least 3-5 days with you during your first week, showing you how everything actually works. Not just talking about it — physically showing you where things are, how they work, and what the daily rhythm looks like.

Document Everything

Create a handover document covering:

• Daily opening procedure (alarm codes, till setup, stock checks)
• Supplier delivery schedules and what to expect
• Till reconciliation process and where discrepancies are typical
• Stock location map and rotation procedures
• Key customer names and their usual orders (sounds small, but this is relationship management)
• Any quirks with the building (the gents toilet runs slow, the fridge cuts out if you open it more than twice in an hour)
• Local events calendar (football matches, community events that affect footfall)
• Staff holiday dates already booked for the year
• Emergency contact procedures

Take photos. Write it down. Make it a reference guide you can consult in your first month when you’re overwhelmed.

Supplier & Utility Handover

Walk through every supplier arrangement with the outgoing owner:

• How frequently do they deliver? What’s the process?
• Where are deliveries left? Are they secured?
• What’s the complaint procedure if something arrives damaged or short?
• When do invoices arrive and how are they paid?
• What’s the minimum order value?

For utilities, get a final meter reading from the outgoing owner with a dated photo. This is your proof of the handover point for billing purposes. Disputes over utility bills from before your takeover are avoidable with proper documentation.

EPOS & Till System Access

Get all passwords, administrative access, and supplier contact details for your till system in writing before handover. If something breaks on day one, you need to know who to call and how to access your own system.

Request a full backup of your till history from the previous owner. This is your sales record and you may need it for accountancy purposes.

Staffing & Payroll Setup

Labour is the single biggest controllable cost in any pub. Get this right from day one or you’ll be managing problems all year. Tracking staffing costs properly alone has saved pub owners thousands in my experience.

Verify All Staff Contracts

Before takeover, obtain signed copies of every staff member’s contract. Verify:

• Start date (how long have they worked there?)
• Hours per week and whether they’re salaried or hourly
• Notice period (how long to fire them?)
• Any probationary period still active
• Holiday entitlement already accrued this year
• Any existing grievances or disciplinary warnings

If contracts are missing or vague, reissue new ones on day one. This protects you and clarifies expectations for the staff member.

Set Up Payroll Immediately

Register with HMRC for PAYE and employer’s national insurance within 14 days of taking over. If the pub was already doing payroll, you need to register as the new employer. Do not guess at how to do payroll — engage an accountant or payroll service.

Set a fixed payroll day (e.g., every Thursday) and stick to it. Consistency matters to staff and to your tax obligations. Set up a separate bank account for payroll if possible, so you’re not tempted to raid payroll cash for other expenses.

Brief Your Team

On day one, before opening, brief every staff member on:

• Who you are and why you’re there
• What’s changing operationally
• What’s staying the same (especially important for customers’ regulars)
• How to contact you with questions or problems
• What the new expectations are (if any)

Staff anxiety kills customer experience. A 10-minute briefing on day one prevents rumours, quit notices, and deteriorating service.

Set Up Staff Tracking

From day one, track every staff member’s hours, shift patterns, and wages. This isn’t for control — it’s for cash flow. Payroll tracking done properly lets you know exactly how much cash you’ll spend on labour each week, which directly impacts your cash flow forecast.

Most pub owners who run short on cash do so because they don’t know their labour cost until it’s paid out. By then, it’s too late to adjust spending elsewhere.

First Week Checklist

Your first week sets the tone for everything that follows. Execute these tasks with absolute discipline.

Day 1: Reconcile the Till

On your first day of trading, reconcile the till with a witness present (ideally the outgoing owner). This is non-negotiable. Record:

• Opening float amount
• Expected cash (from till readings)
• Actual cash in the till
• The variance (difference between expected and actual)
• Signature from both parties confirming the reconciliation

Do this every single day for your first month. This trains your team, establishes accountability, and flags problems early. After a month, you’ll see patterns in your till variance (typically ±£5-10 is normal).

Days 2-3: Verify Supplier Delivery & Stock

Your first few deliveries need to be checked in person. Verify:

• Delivery matches your order
• No items are damaged or out of date
• Prices match the quoted rate
• Invoice quantity matches what’s actually delivered

This prevents you from being overcharged or receiving wrong deliveries that go unnoticed. It also trains your team on the standard you expect.

Day 4: Run Your First P&L

At the end of your fourth day of trading, run a P&L statement showing:

• Gross sales (actual till takings)
• Cost of goods sold (stock purchased)
• Gross profit margin (typically 65-70% for pubs)
• Labour costs
• Operating expenses (utilities, rent, insurance, etc.)
• Net profit/loss

This tells you whether you’re on track. If your gross profit is 55% instead of 68%, something’s wrong with pricing, stock, or till theft — and you need to know within days, not months.

Day 5: Meet Your Regulars

Spend time on the bar on your fifth day. Introduce yourself to the regulars. Learn their names and their usual drinks. This is relationship management and it’s essential. Regulars drive 40-60% of most pub revenue — losing them costs thousands.

End of Week 1: Cash Flow Forecast

By the end of your first week, you should have forecast your cash position for the next 13 weeks. You need to know:

• How much cash you’ll have by the end of week 2, 4, 8, 13
• When major expenses hit (rent, rates, VAT, wages)
• Whether you’ll run out of cash at any point
• How much overdraft facility you actually need

Many pubs fail in the second month because cash flow wasn’t forecasted. You might be profitable, but if all your cash is tied up in stock and VAT, you can’t pay the rent. Cash flow forecasting is the difference between survival and failure.

Mistakes That Cost New Landlords Money

Assuming You Know Your Numbers After 2 Weeks

You don’t. Two weeks is one pay cycle and maybe half a stock cycle. You won’t understand your business until you’ve done at least one full month of reconciled data. Then do another month. Only after month three should you start making operational decisions based on numbers.

Not Getting Written Documentation From the Previous Owner

If it’s not in writing, it doesn’t exist. Verbal agreements about supplier terms, staff holidays, or customer arrangements will bite you. Get everything documented, signed, and dated before handover.

Keeping Bad Staff Out of Loyalty

If the previous owner kept someone despite chronic lateness or poor customer service, you inherited a problem. Fix it in week two or it will define your pub’s culture. New owners have 2-3 weeks to make cultural changes. After that, it’s your pub’s identity.

Changing Everything on Day One

Don’t. Change the decor in month three. Change the pricing in month two. Change the menu in month four. Your customers came here for a reason — the familiarity, the staff, the regulars. Disrupting all of that on day one costs footfall you won’t recover.

Not Setting Up Separate Financial Tracking

Most new owners try to combine their personal finances with pub finances or use the same spreadsheet they used for a previous business. This is a disaster for tax, VAT, and understanding what’s actually happening in the pub.

Open a separate pub bank account. Use a dedicated system for pub finances. Keep personal finances completely separate. This is both legally required (for tax) and practically essential (for knowing your numbers).

Ignoring Till Discrepancies in Week One

If your till is £50 out on day one and you ignore it, your team learns that accountability doesn’t matter. On day thirty, you’ll be £500 out and you won’t know when it started. Fix till variances immediately, ask why they happened, and retrain if needed.

Not Verifying Inherited Staff Records

You inherit all employment law obligations for existing staff. If someone’s been there for two years but their contract says they have no holiday entitlement, that’s your legal problem now. If someone’s on the payroll but you don’t have proof they’ve been DBS-checked, that’s your compliance problem. Verify everything before day one.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

Taking over a pub is one of the biggest business decisions you’ll make. Getting the first four weeks right determines whether you survive year one and whether you’ll actually enjoy owning the business.

The checklist I’ve outlined here isn’t exhaustive, but it covers the critical areas: legal compliance, financial setup, operational handover, staff management, and your first week. Execute each section with discipline and you’ll have avoided the mistakes that kill new pub owners.

Start planning four weeks in advance. Get everything in writing. Set up your financial system before day one. Reconcile your till every single day. Know your numbers by the end of week one. Do this and you’re already ahead of 80% of new pub owners.

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