Ask the Collective
The questions independent drinks founders ask most — answered. Distilled from years of community knowledge so the good stuff never disappears in the feed again.
What's the correct process for importing glass bottles from Germany: do we need a VAT deferment account or can we use postponed VAT accounting instead?
You can use postponed VAT accounting rather than setting up a separate deferment account. Here's how members are handling it: - **Postponed VAT accounting** — Register for this in the UK and provide your EORI number and VAT number to your haulier; your German supplier then invoices without VAT, and you account for the VAT on your UK VAT return instead. - **Haulier handles paperwork** — Several members report that their German suppliers or hauliers manage all import documentation once you supply your EORI and VAT details; bottles then arrive with no charge at import. - **Monitor the deferred VAT portal** — VAT entries can take time to appear on the postponed accounting portal, so members recommend asking your accountant to check it each quarter as they prepare your VAT return, otherwise the entry can easily be overlooked. - **Give it to your accountant** — This is a detail easily missed; flag it explicitly during VAT return preparation to avoid surprises. **Caveat:** One member noted this can "become a nasty little surprise" if not tracked properly—make it part of your standard quarterly accounting process.
Should duty be itemized separately on invoices when selling duty-paid products, and what are the accounting implications?
It is not standard practice to split out duty as a separate line item on invoices to duty-paid customers. Members advise against this for customer-facing invoices because: - **Splitting duty on invoices creates confusion** — customers compare prices against agreements, and breaking out duty separately can muddy that comparison and create friction. - **ABV changes become visible problems** — if you change the ABV of a product but keep the invoice price flat (to manage the duty impact), splitting duty out will flag an apparent price increase to customers outside their agreed annual increase window, causing pushback. However, members strongly recommend splitting duty out **in your internal accounting system**: - **Track duty separately in your accounts** — this gives you a true view of net sales figures and actual margins. Duty changes (particularly rate rises) can otherwise distort your margin reporting and hide the real performance of your business. The separation is an internal accounting discipline, not a customer-facing practice.
How should we account for different pack formats (cans vs bottles) when reporting sales in 9-litre case equivalents?
Members report that the industry standard for converting multiple pack formats to a single reporting unit is the **divide-by-10 method**, used by major players like Diageo. This means 90L of product (whether RTD, beer, spirits, or cans) = one 9-litre case equivalent (also called "EU" or "Equivalent Units"). So a 250ml can would be counted as 0.25L in your calculation, then divided by 10 to get the case-equivalent contribution. This approach normalises across different volumes and formats on a single standardised metric for reporting purposes.