Accountant Assistant Controller 21445

Employment Type: Full-time Independent Contractor

Work Model: Remote

Work Hours: US Central Standard Time (CST) alignment (Matching corporate office hours in Wisconsin)

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer (CEO) & Vice President of Operations

We are seeking a tech-savvy proactive Assistant Controller / Accounting Lead to take full ownership of day-to-day accounting operations financial systems modernization and unit-level P&L analysis for a growing multi-unit restaurant group operating 10 corporate-owned locations across Wisconsin (Madison and Milwaukee regions).

Transitioning our financial operations away from an outsourced manual legacy setup (Microsoft Great Plains) you will lead the implementation and optimization of Restaurant365 as our core enterprise platform. Reporting directly to executive leadership you will act as the internal financial answer keyowning month-end closes automating vendor EDI invoice flows benchmarking unit-level economics (COGS labor waste) and leading monthly P&L reviews with Area Managers and General Managers to drive store profitability.

1. Financial Systems Migration & Modernization

• Restaurant365 Implementation: Lead the migration off legacy systems (Microsoft Great Plains) to fully deploy and optimize Restaurant365 across all 10 corporate locations.

• EDI & Workflow Automation: Establish direct Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) connections with primary food/beverage distributors and build streamlined invoice capture workflows for store General Managers.

• Multi-Unit Reporting Structure: Build a standardized chart-of-accounts structure that delivers consolidated P&Ls alongside regional breakouts (Madison vs. Milwaukee store clusters).

2. Core Accounting & Month-End Close Execution

• End-to-End Financial Close: Own month-end quarterly and year-end close processes to deliver accurate predictable financial statements on a fixed monthly schedule.

• General Ledger & Bank Reconciliations: Manage general ledger hygiene automated daily bank/credit card reconciliations vendor accounts payable store-level cash audits and state tax filings.

• Operational Financial Reviews: Facilitate monthly financial review sessions with the VP of Operations Area Managers and store GMs to review store performance against targets.

3. Proactive P&L Analysis & Unit Economics

• Cost Variance Auditing: Perform deep-dive P&L and cash flow analysesflagging raw ingredient inflation labor overages food waste trends linen/laundry spikes and promotional discounts.

• Benchmarking & Margin Optimization: Benchmark key restaurant performance indicators against industry targets to provide actionable profitability recommendations to executive leadership.

4. Field Support & Process Standardization

• GM Training & Support: Partner with store General Managers to ensure non-EDI store expenses local vendor invoices and inventory counts are accurately categorized in Restaurant365.

• Scalable Accounting Playbooks: Document standard operating procedures (SOPs) to ensure new restaurant locations can be seamlessly onboarded into the accounting system.

• Multi-Unit Restaurant Accounting: 4 years of hands-on accounting experience within the restaurant hospitality or multi-unit retail industry with deep knowledge of prime costs (COGS labor) store-level inventory and unit economics.

• Enterprise Restaurant Tech Stack: Direct experience implementing operating or managing Restaurant365 (or equivalent multi-unit restaurant platforms like Compeat NetSuite or QuickBooks Online with specialized restaurant add-ons).

• Financial Analysis & Problem Solving: Proven ability to analyze store-level P&Ls identify margin erosion factors and present clear data-driven financial insights to operational stakeholders.

• Executive Communication: Exceptional written and spoken English skills with the confidence to lead financial check-ins with C-suite executives Area Managers and restaurant GMs.

• Systems Agility: High technical proficiency with cloud accounting platforms automated bank feeds EDI integrations and data tools.

• Bachelors degree in Accounting or Finance.

• Experience transitioning a multi-location business away from legacy desktop accounting software (e.g. Great Plains QuickBooks Desktop) to cloud-native platforms.

• System Migration Timeline: Flawless transition off Great Plains onto Restaurant365 without operational or vendor payment interruptions.

• Month-End Close Cadence: Consistently delivering final monthly P&L packages by the target close deadline each month.

• EDI & Invoice Automation: Achieving high automated invoice processing rates via direct EDI feeds to reduce manual store-level data entry.

• Prime Cost Visibility: Providing clear actionable weekly/monthly prime cost reports to help store managers control labor and food costs.

Required Experience:

Junior IC