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Service
Restaurant CFO
Forecasts, capital decisions, and lender-ready numbers for operators between $3M and $25M — from someone who knows what your P&L is actually telling you.
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Who we help
CFO-level thinking, without the full-time CFO
Independent restaurant operators between $3M and $25M in annual revenue — single-unit at scale, multi-unit groups, and operators planning the next location, a capital event, or an eventual exit. You don’t need a full-time CFO. You need CFO-level thinking eight to twelve hours a month, from someone who knows what your P&L is actually telling you.
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Process
Built for the whole lifecycle
Opening, running, growing, exiting — the numbers matter differently at each stage. Our process is built to move with you through all of them, not just show up when the return is due.
1.
Opening Strong
We help you launch with a back office set up to scale from day one — a restaurant-specific chart of accounts, a disciplined close cadence, sales tax set up across jurisdictions, payroll integrated with your POS, and an entity structure that fits how you’ll actually own and run the business. Most operators inherit a back office cobbled together by the bookkeeper down the street. You start with one built for restaurants, by people who’ve worked in them.
2.
Running the Restaurant
A weekly P&L, prime cost broken down by food and beverage, labor split productive versus non-productive, and a real conversation about what the numbers mean for next week. We close fast, report in operator language, and catch the operational tells — comp and void patterns, ghost shifts, tip-pool errors — before they become your problem. The work is restaurant accounting, but the deliverable is clarity.
3.
Opening the Next Location
The second location is where most restaurant finance functions break. We set up the back office before the second unit opens — multi-entity tax structure, consolidated reporting, store-level contribution analysis, and the cash discipline that keeps unit one funding unit two without surprises. When you’re ready for unit three, the systems already work.
4.
Capital Events and Exit
When you’re raising capital, selling, or transitioning the business, books that “looked fine” suddenly need to hold up under diligence. We prepare lender packages, model scenarios for new investors, build buyer-ready financials, and stay with you through close. We’ve done this across fifteen years in senior corporate finance — on both sides of the table.
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What's included
Every engagement, out of the box
No add-ons, no “premium tier” upsell. This is what CFO-level partnership actually looks like when it’s built for restaurant operators.
Monthly CFO advisory call — focused on the decisions, not the data entry
13-week rolling cash forecast, updated weekly
Lender package preparation — built so it holds up under scrutiny
Capital event support — debt, equity, or refinancing
Scenario modeling for new locations, concept changes, or pricing shifts
Board and investor reporting in operator language and finance language at the same time
Direct line to the partner — not a junior associate
Exit prep when the time comes — buyer-ready books, clean diligence, no surprises
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What we fix
Every operator we work with has hit at least one of these. Most have hit several. They aren't nine different problems — they're the same problem, nine different moments.
Challenges we solve:
- Cash flow that surprises you — not the other way around
- A bank or lender package that doesn’t tell the story your operation deserves
- Capital decisions made on instinct, without the numbers to back them
- A second location that’s bleeding the first one dry
- Investor or partner conversations you don’t feel ready for
- Tax bills that arrive without warning in April
- A board or partners asking questions you can’t answer with confidence
- An exit you’re thinking about but haven’t started preparing for
- Reporting that arrives too late and explains too little
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FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a fractional restaurant CFO actually include?
A monthly advisory call, a 13-week rolling cash forecast updated weekly, unit economics and break-even analysis, lender and investor packages, and scenario modeling for expansion or pricing decisions — without the cost of a full-time hire. You get the finance function of a much larger group, sized to yours.
How is this different from what my CPA already does?
Your CPA reports on what already happened. A CFO helps you decide what happens next. This is forward-looking work — forecasting, capital decisions, expansion modeling, exit readiness — built on top of clean books, not instead of them. We do both, under one roof, so nothing gets lost between the two.
When does a restaurant actually need a fractional CFO?
Usually at a transition: a second location on the table, a lender or investor conversation coming, a group that’s outgrown owner-run finance, or an exit you’re starting to think about. If you’re making capital decisions on instinct — without the numbers to back them — that’s the moment.
Can you actually help with a raise or a sale?
Yes — this is where the background matters. Our founder spent fifteen years in senior corporate finance, including SEC reporting and more than $2 billion raised. Lender packages, investor materials, scenario models, diligence prep: we’ve built them at institutional scale, and we build them for restaurants.
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Ready to take the next step?
Twenty minutes, no sales theater. You’ll leave knowing the three things we’d fix first — whether or not you hire us.
