Category · 21 posts · Last reviewed Jul 2026

Accounting
basics.

EBIT, COGS, gross-vs-net, VAT, fixed-cost slices — the accounting concepts owner-operators actually need, explained the way owner-operators actually think.

All posts How-tos & templates Accounting basics Pricing & margin Industry benchmarks Changelog

Most shop owners never trained as accountants, yet every pricing call, every staffing decision and every "should I keep this product" question runs on accounting underneath. These pieces translate the words your accountant uses — EBIT, COGS, gross versus net, fixed-cost slices, contribution margin — into plain language you can act on the same day, not at tax time. The goal isn't to turn you into a bookkeeper. It's to let you read your own numbers well enough to know, by tonight, whether today actually paid for itself.

Each concept here is explained the way an owner-operator thinks, with worked examples for cafés, retail shops, salons and small e-commerce stores. Where a textbook gives you a definition, we give you the trap: the place the number quietly lies, the edge case that costs you a few points of margin, the line on the statement most people skim past. Read enough of these and the monthly P&L stops being a mystery your accountant produces and becomes a document you understand line by line — and the daily version becomes a signal you trust.

The profit numbers, defined

Start with what each profit line actually measures. Gross versus net revenue, COGS, EBIT, gross margin, net margin and contribution margin all describe different points along the same subtraction story, and confusing them is how a shop that feels busy turns out not to be profitable. These explainers pin down what each term means and which decision it should drive.

How costs behave

Costs are not all the same shape. Fixed costs land whether you open the door or not; variable costs scale with what you sell; a big purchase like an espresso machine spreads its cost over years through depreciation rather than hitting one brutal month. Get the sorting right and your break-even point, your prime cost and your daily P&L all start telling the truth.

Reading the statements and the rules

Beyond single numbers sit the documents and conventions that hold them together: how to read a profit-and-loss statement top to bottom, why cash flow and profit are different numbers, what VAT is really doing in your sales, and how cash versus accrual changes when you call yourself profitable. These pieces cover the structure — including the difference between a daily operator instrument and the monthly tax document — so the whole picture hangs together.

All accounting basics, latest first.

21 posts
Accounting basics · 10 min

How to calculate COGS for a cafe: formula, example, and the % to aim for

Cafe COGS = opening inventory + purchases − closing inventory — the cost of what you actually sold, not what you bought. Here is the formula, a worked monthly example, the healthy 28-35% band, and how to track it without a Sunday spreadsheet.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 01 Jul
Accounting basics · 10 min

How often should you check your P&L? A cadence, not a number

Check your P&L on a cadence, not a schedule: daily for the numbers, weekly for the trend, monthly for the structure, quarterly for the big calls. Here is what to look at at each interval, how long each takes, and why a monthly-only report from your accountant is too late to run a shop on.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 01 Jul
Accounting basics · 14 min

Fixed vs variable costs for small business: the definition, the examples, the traps

Every cost in your shop is either fixed or variable. Which one it is decides how it shows up in your daily P&L, where your break-even sits, and how every staffing, pricing and scaling decision lands. Most owners get the headline right and the edges wrong — and the edges are where the money quietly leaks. This is the plain-English explainer, with examples for cafe, retail, salon and e-commerce, the six traps that catch almost everyone, and how nouz handles each.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 25 May
Accounting basics · 21 min

Daily P&L for small business: the definitive guide for owner-operators who need to know if today paid for itself

Daily P&L is its own genre — distinct from the monthly accounts your accountant produces, distinct from the revenue dashboards your POS shows, distinct from the spreadsheet most owners abandoned in year two. It is the same-day operating profit number computed every evening from the day's real entries, and it is the single most useful instrument an owner-operator can have on their phone. This guide walks the entire territory: the formula, the worked examples, the diagnostic patterns, the verticals, the 30-day install plan — everything that makes daily P&L the daily ritual that quietly separates owners who build a business from owners who tread water in one.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 25 May
Accounting basics · 14 min

Cash flow vs profit explained: why profitable shops go broke and unprofitable ones survive

Profit is what your business earned over a period. Cash flow is what landed in (and left) your bank account over the same period. They are not the same number, and they rarely move together. The most successful shop on your street can die from a cash crunch. The least profitable can stay open for years on great cash flow. Owners who do not understand the difference get blindsided — usually around month four.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 25 May
Accounting basics · 15 min

Break-even analysis for small business: the formula, the worked examples, the daily number that defines survival

Most small-shop owners can quote their revenue. Almost none can quote their break-even point — the revenue level at which the business stops bleeding. That single number defines survival. Here is the formula in plain language, three sector-by-sector worked examples (cafe, Shopify, salon), the three levers that move it, and how nouz makes it visible monthly and daily instead of quarterly and late.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 25 May
Accounting basics · 13 min

Same-day profit and loss: what it means and why it changes shop owners' decisions

Same-day profit and loss is your EBIT settled before lock-up — today's number, tonight, not next month from an accountant. Here's what it means, the exact formula, and the decisions it changes for cafe, retail, salon and e-commerce owners.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 24 May
Accounting basics · 16 min

Daily vs monthly P&L: the difference between an operator instrument and a tax document

A monthly P&L is the historical record your accountant produces for tax and audit. A daily P&L is a different instrument — a same-day signal that tells you whether today paid for itself, in time to change tomorrow. They answer different questions, run on different clocks, and serve different people. Most small shops only have the first one, and that is the gap this post is about.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 24 May
Accounting basics · 16 min

Best daily P&L tracker 2026: honest comparison of 5 options for small shops

The best daily P&L tracker in 2026 depends on what kind of shop you run. Café owners, boutique retailers, salon owners and Shopify operators each have a different right answer. Here's an even-handed look at five real options — nouz, QuickBooks Online, Xero, TrueProfit, and a DIY spreadsheet — so you can pick the one that actually fits.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 24 May
Accounting basics · 15 min

Accounting software vs daily P&L tool: two different instruments for two different jobs

Owners search 'best accounting software' when what they actually want is to know whether today made money. Those are different questions and they need different tools. Accounting software answers 'what did the year add up to, and what do I owe in tax'. A daily P&L tool answers 'did today pay for itself, before I close up'. This post explains the genres honestly, names where each fits, and walks through the order most small shops should adopt them.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 24 May
Accounting basics · 14 min

EBIT explained in plain English: the one profit number every shop owner should track

EBIT is the operating profit your shop earned today, before the bank takes interest and the tax office takes corporate tax. nouz computes it every evening using one formula: Gross revenue − Tax − Card fees − COGS − Variable costs − today's slice of fixed costs. Examples for café, retail, salon and e-commerce — and the owner-salary trap that flatters most P&Ls.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 09 May
Accounting basics · 7 min

Three spreadsheet sins, ranked. (And the one redemption.)

The three mistakes I see in nearly every shop spreadsheet I've ever inherited — mixing gross and net, hiding rent, and never reconciling the till — plus the small habit that fixes all of them.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 01 May
Accounting basics · 8 min

COGS vs. COGS percentage: which one actually tells you something

COGS is a euro number — what it cost to make what you sold today. COGS percentage is that number divided by revenue. The euro tells you what happened; the percentage tells you whether it should have happened that way.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 17 Apr
Accounting basics · 8 min

VAT for small business: what owner-operators actually need to know

VAT is a tax you collect on behalf of the government — it was never yours. Most spreadsheet errors I see are owners treating VAT-inclusive sales as revenue. Here's how it works, what to put in your P&L, and where the traps hide.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 02 Apr
Accounting basics · 12 min

Gross vs net revenue: the difference and why it determines whether your shop is profitable

Gross revenue is everything the customer paid. Net revenue is what stayed with your business after VAT, card fees and refunds came off. For a typical European shop the gap is 20-26% — and every margin, every menu price, every "is this product worth keeping" decision made on the gross number is silently wrong by exactly that gap.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 21 Mar
Accounting basics · 15 min

COGS snapshot explained: why nouz freezes cost-of-goods at the moment of sale (and not later)

When you sell a croissant in nouz, the product's current cost is frozen onto that revenue entry forever. If flour gets more expensive next month and you update the croissant's cost, today's sales keep their old cost and tomorrow's sales pick up the new one. That's the snapshot. It's the only way to make COGS honest in a small shop where supplier prices move every few weeks and you don't run period-end inventory counts.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 12 Mar
Accounting basics · 14 min

Depreciation for non-accountants: why the espresso machine costs €80/month for five years, not €4,800 in January

You spent €4,800 on an espresso machine in January. Was January a €4,800 loss month, or did you just convert cash into a five-year asset? Depreciation is how accountants answer. The cash leaves once; the cost on paper leaves slowly — €80/month for sixty months. Get this wrong and every year after the purchase looks healthier than it is, right up until the asset breaks and you discover you never put money aside to replace it.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 07 Mar
Accounting basics · 15 min

Accrual vs cash accounting in plain English: which lens your small shop is actually using

Most owners use cash accounting without ever calling it that — you log the money when it hits the bank. Most accountants want accrual — log it when it's earned, not when it's paid. The difference shapes when you call yourself profitable, when you owe tax, and what your daily P&L is actually saying. This post explains both, shows how the same February looks under each lens, and is honest about which one nouz uses by default.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 18 Feb
Accounting basics · 13 min

Fixed costs vs variable costs for small shops: the difference, with worked examples

Fixed costs are the scheduled payments your shop owes whether you sell anything or not. Variable costs scale with sales and operations. nouz slices both into a daily number so you can see, every evening, whether today actually paid for itself — instead of waiting for the month-end P&L.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 04 Feb
Accounting basics · 14 min

How to read a profit and loss statement: a 10-minute guide for shop owners

A profit and loss statement is a one-page subtraction story: revenue at the top, profit at the bottom, and seven or eight lines in between that explain where the money went. This guide teaches owner-operators how to read every line, what each number should look like for a small shop, and which ratios actually predict whether next month will be tight or comfortable. The same reading routine that nouz emits every evening, written out long-form.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 22 Jan
Accounting basics · 14 min

Chart of accounts for cafes and retail: the categorization rulebook that decides whether your P&L lies to you

Your chart of accounts is the list of buckets every euro flowing in or out of your business gets sorted into. Get it wrong and the same euro lands in the wrong group, your gross margin reads ten points off, your fixed cost number is half what it should be, and your monthly P&L tells lies you cannot unwind. This is the practical, plain-English guide for owners who want to stop outsourcing the structure to their accountant and never looking at it again.

Ibrahim Ölmez Ibrahim Ölmez · 08 Dec