Outsourced CFO Services 

for Restaurants

Real strategy for margins, cash flow, and growth

Full tables don’t always mean healthy profits. Food costs, labor fluctuations, and vendor terms can quietly erode margins. A restaurant-specific CFO service replaces guesswork with clarity—helping you see where money is made (and lost), plan for seasonality, and grow with confidence.


Straight Talk CPAs provides outsourced CFO services for restaurants of all sizes—cafés, fine dining, fast casual, and multi-location groups—that need more than bookkeeping or payroll reports. Get the financial insight to protect margins, fund growth, and make confident decisions—without the cost of a full-time CFO.

  • Cash flow & seasonality planning tied to busy and slow dining periods

  • Budget vs. actuals with variance analysis across food, beverage, labor, and overhead

  • Margin optimization: plate cost analysis, labor modeling, vendor negotiations, and delivery app fees

  • Menu pricing guidance aligned with food inflation, demand, and market trends

  • Tax planning & entity considerations tailored to restaurant compliance

  • Capex & renovation modeling for expansions, remodels, or equipment upgrades

  • Debt & financing scenarios, including DSCR and loan covenant monitoring

  • Live dashboards: food & labor %, prime cost, average check, table turnover, cash runway

  • Monthly reviews & quarterly deep dives for smarter long-term decisions

What our Restaurant CFO service includes?

Why do restaurants choose an outsourced CFO?

Most financial advisors come from generic small business backgrounds. We at Straight Talk CPAs specialize in restaurant economics—tight margins, high turnover, seasonality, and complex tax rules. Expect clear numbers, practical strategies, and decisions that actually fit your operation.

Case study: From high occupancy to healthy cash

A popular bistro had strong sales, but cash flow was unpredictable. Vendor payments slipped, food costs crept higher, and expansion plans stalled.


What we did:

  • Built a rolling 12-month cash flow forecast
  • Analyzed plate costs and restructured vendor contracts
  • Modeled labor needs and created more efficient schedules
  • Introduced menu pricing adjustments tied to food inflation
  • Set up dashboards for food %, labor %, and prime cost tracking


Results:

  • Food cost reduced by 7% in six months
  • Prime cost dropped below 60% for the first time
  • Cash runway doubled, giving room to reinvest in marketing and staff training
  • Expansion to a second location launched with financial confidence

Clarity and Strategy—Sized for Your Operation

Whether you’re running a single neighborhood café or scaling multiple locations, choose from two clear service levels:

  • Essentials: Monthly clarity with forecasting and margin tracking
  • Strategic Growth: Deeper analysis, planning, and hands-on CFO support tailored to restaurant operations

No jargon. No hidden fees. Just clear value delivered at the pace your restaurant needs.

Your team creates the dining experience. Our CFO services make sure the numbers support it—so your restaurant stays profitable, resilient, and ready to grow.

FAQs

  • Do I need a CFO if I already have a bookkeeper or CPA?

    Yes. A bookkeeper records transactions and a CPA ensures compliance, but a CFO looks ahead. An outsourced CFO provides forward-looking strategy—cash flow forecasting, margin optimization, and growth planning—so you can make confident business decisions.

  • Can a CFO really help with food and labor costs?

    Absolutely. Prime costs (food + labor) make or break restaurants. A CFO tracks these in real time, sets cost benchmarks, and helps renegotiate vendor contracts or restructure schedules to keep margins healthy without cutting quality.

  • My restaurant is small—do I still need CFO services?

    Even small operations face unpredictable cash flow, tax complexity, and rising costs. A CFO service can be scaled to your size, giving you just the essentials you need to stay profitable and avoid surprises.

  • Is this only for multi-location restaurants?

    No. While multi-location groups benefit from consolidated reporting and growth planning, single-location restaurants often see the biggest impact. From menu pricing strategy to cash flow smoothing, CFO support pays off at any stage.

  • Do you work with delivery platforms and POS systems?

    Yes. We integrate with your POS, accounting software, and delivery partners to track costs and performance. This gives you a complete view of where revenue goes—and where profitability can be improved.

Complete Solutions for Restaurant Businesses