Free tool
Owner Pay Planner
Pay yourself on purpose, not on whatever is left.
Founder pay is usually the residual after everything else. This flips it: set a stable monthly figure, check it against profit, and see what is genuinely left for reserves and growth.
Last reviewed:
Your result
£4,038
Sustainable monthly owner pay
Your target sits within the sustainable figure.
- Monthly profit before owner pay
- £7,000
- Tax reserve
- £1,750
- Growth reserve
- £500
- Distributable
- £4,750
- Volatility buffer retained
- £713
- Sustainable monthly pay
- £4,038
- Annual gap to your target
- £0
Paying yourself a stable amount makes household budgeting possible and stops good months disappearing invisibly.
Anything above the sustainable figure is best treated as an occasional bonus taken after the reserves are funded, not as a raise.
Assumptions this tool makes
- Profit is taken before your own pay, so the tool can test whether the pay is sustainable.
- Tax reserve is applied as a planning percentage, not a computation. Limited-company salary and dividend planning should be agreed with an accountant.
- Nothing here is tax advice or a recommendation about how to structure your remuneration.
The formulas used
- distributable = monthly_profit_before_owner_pay - tax_reserve - growth_reserve
- sustainable_pay = distributable x (1 - buffer_percentage)
- annual_gap = (target_pay - sustainable_pay) x 12
Estimates only. This is a planning aid, not regulated financial advice, tax advice or a personal recommendation. Figures are rounded deliberately to avoid false precision. Your answers stay in your browser: nothing you type here is sent to us, to a partner or to an advertising platform. Read the full disclaimer.