Hospitality finance lives on prime cost. A restaurant CFO owns the weekly food and labour reporting, manages multi-unit consolidation, and models new-unit ROI honestly enough to prevent expensive misfires.
Metrics that matter
- Prime cost (food + labour) as % of revenue
- Food cost % and beverage cost %
- Labour cost % (BOH and FOH)
- Same-store sales growth
- Average check and cover count
- New-unit payback period
Common finance challenges
- Weekly prime cost reporting
- Multi-unit P&L consolidation
- New-unit CapEx and ROI modelling
- Franchisee vs. corporate unit economics
- Tipped wage and labour law compliance
What to look for in a specialist CFO
- Restaurant or hospitality group CFO experience
- R365, Compeat, or MarginEdge fluency
- Multi-unit rollup experience
- New-unit development modelling experience
Frequently asked questions
- What's the fastest fix in a struggling restaurant P&L?
- Usually labour scheduling. Most operators overspend on labour by 200–400 bps of revenue and don't see it until a CFO installs weekly reporting.
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