Fractional Financial Leadership For Serious Growth.
If you’re leading a growing restaurant group, you’re already making CFO-level decisions—whether or not you have one.
But without the right financial leadership, those decisions often fall to:Founders and operators who are already stretched thin.
Bookkeepers who aren’t trained to think strategically. Or CFOs who don’t understand the nuance of foodservice.
That’s where we come in.
We connect restaurant leaders with fractional CFOs who specialize in this industry—people who know that expansion isn’t just about clean books. It’s about labor forecasting, cash flow timing, menu margins, and location economics.
Why Restaurant Leaders Turn to Fractional CFOs
Whether you’re prepping for growth or trying to make sense of it after the fact, a restaurant-specific CFO brings clarity where you need it most:
You’re still running the numbers yourself
You’re juggling payroll, invoices, and unit economics—when you should be focused on leading.
You hired a generalist, and it’s not translating
Your CFO came from tech, retail, or a corporate office—and they’re missing the nuance of variable labor, seasonality, or shift-based performance.
You’re scaling fast, but flying blind
You’re adding units, but don’t have the modeling, forecasting, or real-time reporting to grow with confidence.
You want investor readiness without full-time overhead
You need capital, but not a $250K/year CFO. Fractional gets you strategic insights—without bloating your payroll.
What Most CFOs Get Wrong About Restaurants
A lot—and it can cost you big time.
Misaligned Growth Planning
Many CFOs build models that work for SaaS or retail—but restaurants are a different beast.
Margins are tighter. Labor is unpredictable. Growth isn’t linear.
Generalists misjudge the timing, capital, and staffing needs of expansion—leading to underfunded rollouts and missed opportunities.
Poor Cash Flow Forecasting
Restaurants have to manage short-term cash needs and long-term planning.
Generalist CFOs often miss the nuance of seasonality, vendor terms, and real-time labor dynamics—putting your cash position at risk.
No Benchmarking to Industry Standards
You can’t improve what you don’t compare.
Generalist CFOs don’t have access to restaurant-specific benchmarks like prime costs, revenue per labor hour, or kitchen productivity.
Without that, you’re flying blind.
Incomplete Financial Visibility
If your numbers are late, vague, inconsistent, or disconnected from operations, you’re not leading—you’re guessing.
Restaurant-specific CFOs bring clarity with reporting built for leaders: unit-level P&Ls, contribution margins, break-even models, and more.
You’ve got great vision.
You need a finance partner to keep up.
Why Restaurant-Specific CFOs Are Different
You don’t just need a numbers person.
You need someone who understands how finance drives operations, growth, and investor readiness.
Here’s what a specialized CFO brings:
Scalable Financial Models that reflect your real-world unit economics
Expansion & Franchise Strategy Support that’s grounded in operational reality
Cash Flow Forecasting that protects your runway
Investor-Ready Reporting and capital strategy development
Clear Financial KPIs to manage and motivate your team
Tech Stack Optimization across accounting, POS, payroll, and labor
With the right financial partner, you can stop guessing—and start scaling.
When Does It Make Sense to Bring on a Fractional CFO for Your Restaurant?
Not every restaurant needs a full-time CFO. And for many growing brands, it’s not feasible—or desirable—to bring one in-house. But eventually, the numbers get too complex to handle without expert help
Here’s when bringing on a fractional CFO makes sense:
You’re Growing Fast
New units, new staff, new systems—and suddenly your financials are outpacing your capacity to manage them.
A fractional CFO helps you grow without growing pains.
You Need Strategy, Not Just Bookkeeping
Clean books are one thing. But now you’re asking: Where should we open next? Can we afford a new GM? How do we improve margins without cutting quality? That’s CFO territory.
You’re Not Ready for Full-Time Overhead
Hiring a full-time CFO can cost as much as $250K+ per year.
Fractional lets you scale support up or down, depending on your needs, without adding someone to payroll.
You’re Wasting Time in the Weeds
You didn’t get into the restaurant business to analyze spreadsheets.
A fractional CFO gives you your time back—and turns your financials into a growth tool.
“Our Accounting Firm Offers CFO Services Too…”
Maybe they do.
But unless they specialize in restaurants, their advice can fall short where it matters most:
- They don’t model unit economics the way you operate
- They aren’t fluent in labor metrics, prime costs, or kitchen throughput
- They don’t have benchmarks tied to your business model
You don’t just need more reports.
You need a restaurant-specific strategy from someone who’s helped operators like you grow successfully.
We work only with accounting partners who live and breathe restaurants.
Why Our Fractional CFO Partners Are Different
Every fractional CFO service in our network specializes in restaurant finance.
They’ve helped restaurant leaders:
- Build scalable unit models and expansion playbooks
- Raise capital and prepare for investor meetings
- Transition from chaotic growth to clear, confident leadership
We vet. We match. You scale.
How One Restaurant Found the Right Fit — and Unlocked $120K in Savings with the WOTC
Get a full look at how we helped a multi-unit operator replace their generalist accountant with a restaurant-specific firm — and transformed turnover into a tax strategy that saved them $120K.
Your Growth Is Too Important to Wing It
Send us a few details, and we’ll match you with a restaurant-focused CFO who can lead the way.
Find The Right Accountant, Right Here
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Stop Crunching Numbers and Start Charting a Course For Growth
With the right restaurant-focused outsourced CFO