A restaurant group CFO turns each night's POS sales, payroll and food invoices into budgets, cash plans and a P&L for every restaurant. They manage the banks and the money for new sites, and they keep watch on tips, cash and comps.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
Median pay, full-service restaurants · BLS, May 2025
The Chief Financial Officer runs the money side of our restaurant group: budgets, cash, banking, and the numbers behind every decision to open, remodel or close. You'll turn POS, payroll and invoice data into P&Ls each GM can act on, and you'll keep the controls that stop cash, comps and inventory from leaking.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Build the yearly budget and monthly forecast for each restaurant and for the group.
Close the books each month and deliver a P&L by restaurant within [number] days of month-end.
Manage cash flow, bank relationships, credit lines and equipment financing.
Build the financial model for each new site: build-out cost, sales forecast, rent, labor and payback.
Set financial controls for cash handling, deposits, comp and void approvals, gift cards and inventory counts.
Oversee payroll, tip reporting, sales tax and any alcohol taxes your state charges, with the Bookkeeper and outside CPA.
Manage insurance renewals: general liability, liquor liability, property and workers' comp.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Check bank balances and flag restaurants with unusual comps, voids or cash variances.
Match weekly cost of goods to inventory counts and invoices, and chase counts that don't add up.
Approve vendor payments and plan the week's cash.
Walk GMs or the Director of Operations through P&L lines that are off budget.
Work with the CEO on lease terms, loan covenants and investor reporting.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Monthly close completed on time: [your target].
Prime cost across the group: [your target].
Budget variance by restaurant: [your target].
Days of cash on hand: [your target].
Cash and deposit variances: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
[8+] years in finance or accounting, including [3+] years leading finance for a multi-unit restaurant or hospitality business.
Bachelor's degree in accounting or finance.
Strong command of restaurant P&Ls: prime cost, cost of goods, occupancy and controllable expenses.
Experience with restaurant accounting software [such as Restaurant365 or QuickBooks] and POS reporting.
Has built budgets and new-site financial models that owners used to make real decisions.
6. Preferred Experience
CPA license.
Experience with bank financing, SBA loans or investor reporting.
Has rolled out inventory and invoice-processing software across several locations.
Experience with restaurant payroll, tip reporting and tip-related tax credits.
7. Physical Requirements
Long periods at a computer, with visits to restaurants for audits and inventory counts.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
Central office in [city], [standard weekday hours], with longer days at month-end and during budget season.
Occasional evening visits to restaurants to watch cash-out and closing procedures.
Travel to lender, landlord and investor meetings as needed.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new chief financial officer gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
Need help filling this role? HireBus posts the ad, Iris interviews every applicant by phone before you do, and you decide who to hire. Start hiring now
Restaurant money moves in small pieces, all day: card batches, cash drawers, tips, comps and food deliveries several times a week. The finance job is catching each piece and turning it into numbers a GM can use.
Tips run through payroll
Tipped workers report their tips to you each month unless they made less than a small IRS minimum. You withhold income, Social Security and Medicare taxes on those tips and pay the employer's share. Starting with 2026 Forms W-2, payroll reports total cash tips under code TP in box 12 and a code for the worker's tipped job in box 14b. So every role in payroll has to be tagged correctly. Source: IRS: Tip recordkeeping and reporting.
Each restaurant files its own tip return
The employer files a separate Form 8027 each year for every restaurant where tipping is customary, as long as it normally had more than 10 employees on a typical business day the year before. The form reports sales and tips. If reported tips fall below the share of sales the IRS sets, the employer allocates the gap to tipped staff, and it shows on their W-2s. A group with seven such restaurants files seven forms. Source: IRS: Instructions for Form 8027.
Health coverage rules count part-timers
Restaurants run on part-time shifts, and the Affordable Care Act counts them. Part-timers' hours are turned into full-time equivalents and added to the full-time headcount. An employer whose total averaged at least 50 last year is an applicable large employer, which brings the law's rules on offering coverage and its yearly reporting. Related companies with a common owner are generally treated as one employer, so putting each restaurant in its own company usually doesn't split the count. Source: IRS: Determining if an employer is an applicable large employer.
Prime cost moves every week
Food, drink and labor are the costs a GM can change fastest. They shift with every delivery and every schedule. Each week the CFO matches cost of goods to invoices and inventory counts and compares it with what the recipes say it should cost. Each GM gets a weekly read instead of a surprise at month-end.
Money leaks at the register
Comps, voids, discounts, cash drawers and gift cards are where restaurant money slips away. The CFO sets who can approve each one in the POS, reviews exception reports by server and manager, and matches every deposit to the POS and the card batches. When one restaurant's voids jump, the CFO calls the Director of Operations as well as the GM.
How much restaurant chief financial officers make
The closest BLS group for restaurant chief financial officers is chief executives. Chief executives who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $132,640 a year ($63.77 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s below the $213,990 median for chief executives in all industries. About 270 of the 204,350 chief executives in that survey work for full-service restaurants.
Salaried. The bonus is often set on an on-time close, hitting the budget and keeping cash variances down. A CFO who leads the financing for new sites may also get a stake in those restaurants.
Full-service restaurants
$132,640$132,640 median Middle half $98,270–$206,150 10th–90th $84,900–$233,400
All industries
$213,990$213,990 median Middle half $129,540–$356,200 10th–90th $75,700–$507,730
Understands tip reporting, tip allocation and service charges in payroll
Can walk a chef through a food cost report without losing them
Sets POS approval limits for comps, voids and discounts
Teach these on the job
Your POS exception reports and how each concept rings comps
The quirks of your Restaurant365 or QuickBooks setup
Each restaurant's lease terms and renewal dates
Your state's sales tax and alcohol tax filings
The group's budget calendar and investor report format
Many restaurant groups keep their books in Restaurant365 or QuickBooks. Sales flow in from the POS, and invoices come from a scanning app such as MarginEdge. Each POS and payroll system tags tips and service charges its own way, so ask finalists how they've set that up before.
There are no numbers in the template's KPIs, only blanks. Most come straight out of the budget. Set days of cash on hand with your loan covenants in mind.
Monthly close completed on time
Log the date each restaurant's final P&L goes out to its GM, and measure the group by the last one out. Note each month that slipped and why, such as a late inventory count or missing invoices.
Prime cost across the group
Food, beverage and total labor as a share of group sales, from the monthly P&L after inventory counts. Reconcile it to the weekly flash numbers so GMs trust both.
Budget variance by restaurant
Compare each restaurant's P&L with its budget, line by line, once the month closes. Set a limit with the Director of Operations, and have the GM bring a fix for every line past it.
Days of cash on hand
Cash in the bank divided by average daily cash spending. Check it weekly, and look ahead to weeks when payroll, rent and large invoices land together.
Cash and deposit variances
The gap between POS cash sales and the deposit that reached the bank, for each restaurant and day. Track repeat shortages by manager and shift.
Prime cost is your cost of food and beverages plus your total labor cost, including payroll taxes and benefits. It groups the costs a GM can change week to week, which is why restaurant P&Ls show it near the top. Track it weekly from the flash report, then confirm it monthly after inventory counts.
How much does a restaurant chief financial officer make?
Chief executives who work for full-service restaurants earned a median of $132,640 a year ($63.77 an hour) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $98,270 and $206,150 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and bonus terms.
Are automatic gratuities on large parties tips?
No. The IRS treats a charge the guest has to pay, such as an automatic gratuity on a large party or a banquet service charge, as a service charge. When you pass it on to staff, it's wages, taxed like any paycheck, not tip income. A payment is a tip only when the guest chooses whether to pay it and how much.
What is the FICA tip credit?
It's a federal credit for the employer's share of Social Security and Medicare taxes paid on workers' tips. Restaurants where tipping is customary claim it on Form 8846. Tips that only bring a worker up to the federal minimum wage as it stood on January 1, 2007 don't count, so the math runs worker by worker and month by month. You can claim the credit on an amended return up to three years after the return's due date. A new CFO should check whether past years were missed.
How should gift cards show up on the books?
Record a gift card sale as money you owe the guest, not as sales, and count it as revenue when it's redeemed. A guest can buy a card at one restaurant and use it at another, so settle those balances between restaurants each month to keep both P&Ls right. Ask your CPA how your state treats balances that are never used.
How often should a restaurant group count inventory?
Count every restaurant at each month-end so the P&L's food and beverage costs are real. Weekly counts of the costliest items, such as proteins, seafood and liquor, catch waste and theft sooner. Now and then, have a manager from another shift or restaurant count with the kitchen, so no one checks their own work.
