5 Strategic Drivers Reshaping Finance in 2025
Why restaurant groups are winning by outsourcing accounting. In 2025, restaurant groups face more financial complexity than ever before. Growth through franchising, acquisitions, and private equity investment has added layers of operational and reporting challenges. At the same time, the pressure to move faster, stay compliant, and operate leaner is only intensifying. Against this backdrop, a growing number of top-performing restaurant operators are rethinking their approach to finance and accounting. For many, outsourcing key accounting functions has become a strategic lever for, not just efficiency, but insight, agility, and growth. Here are five key drivers behind this shift and how it is reshaping the way leading restaurant groups manage their financial operations. 1. Restaurant groups need real-time financial data to make timely, strategic decisions. In today’s competitive environment, financial data that arrives two weeks after month-end is no longer enough. Restaurant operators need up-to-the-minute visibility into their numbers not just to understand what happened but to anticipate what’s next. Modern outsourced accounting partnerships are making real-time reporting accessible to mid-sized and multi-unit restaurant groups. By integrating cloud-based platforms with point-of-sale systems and bank feeds, these solutions enable dynamic dashboards that track sales, labor, cost of goods sold, and cash flow in real time. Beyond reactive reporting, predictive analytics tools can forecast cash positions based on historical trends and current events. This allows finance teams to spot shortfalls or overages earlier and adjust quickly, whether it’s modifying staffing schedules or delaying a capital investment. These capabilities, once exclusive to large enterprises with in-house tech teams, are now widely available through experienced outsourcing providers. 2. Hiring and retaining accounting talent is harder and more expensive than ever. The accounting profession is facing a well-documented talent crunch. As experienced professionals retire and fewer graduates enter the field, organizations are finding it increasingly difficult to hire and retain qualified staff. For restaurant groups, this often translates into under-resourced accounting teams and delayed reporting cycles. Rather than struggle to fill every role internally, many operators are turning to outsourcing to access full teams of specialists without expanding headcount. According to recent APQC Functional Performance Data, top-performing companies spend 53% more for outsourcing services, yet overall people costs are 50% lower than median performers…
Restaurants Are Trying to Tariff-Proof the Menu
As Trump’s policies fluctuate, restaurants are swapping ingredients and crossing their fingers. Sophina Uong’s New Orleans restaurant, Mister Mao, is the kind of third culture-chaos cooking party spot where strawberry chaat shares the menu with “Spanish octopussy,” and cocktails are served with candy cigarettes. It is a purposeful celebration of a variety of influences, which naturally requires both local and international ingredients to come to life. So when President Donald Trump announced his brash, nonsensical tariff plan — if you can even call it that — in March, Uong realized her whole menu may have to change. She began stocking up on ingredients like asafetida, black salt, and chilies from both India and Mexico, she says. But spices go stale, and some fresh ingredients are becoming more difficult to source. “We have suggested to our bar manager switching acids, or developing a menu less citrus heavy — limes are $74 a case right now and steadily climbing,” she says. Fish sauce, too, has jumped from $2.99 to $8 a bottle. “We have dropped avocados for now, and will just be watching like everyone else [to see] what happens.” “What happens?” is a lingering question, as every day, Trump seems to change his mind about what tariffs are in effect and when. Here’s a relatively updated list of the tariffs that may or may not have been invented by ChatGPT, but the numbers matter less than the overall intention — whether it’s by 10 percent or 27 percent, Trump means to apply reciprocal tariffs widely, affecting everything from cars to fast fashion. Even the most locavore restaurants rely on ingredients and supplies from overseas, whether that’s European wine, Brazilian coffee, or takeout boxes manufactured in China. And Trump’s tariffs, whether they’ve been implemented or not, are having a profound effect on the industry. Some restaurateurs suddenly can’t afford ingredients that have been the backbone of their menus, while others must switch to domestic alternatives that require complete menu revamps. As Top Chef has drilled into the collective consciousness, the mark of a good chef is the ability to adapt. Which one must do when suppliers text you and say everything is going to cost 20 percent more than it did the day before, as recently happened for chef Nick Wong of the newly opened Agnes and Sherman in Houston. Ingredients like rice flour, tofu, and spice mixes — crucial for the Asian-American diner concept — are suddenly far more expensive than when they planned out the business…
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10 Healthiest Restaurant Burgers in America
From smashed to impossible, these are the healthiest burgers at chain restaurants. Burgers are an American staple and rightfully so. Backyard barbecues just wouldn’t be the same without firing up the grill. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re just so mouth-wateringly good. Despite being one of the most popular entrees on the menu, burgers get a bad health rap. Full-fat beef patties piled high with calorie-rich toppings is enough to send anyone into a grease food-coma. But not all burgers are of the gluttonous kind. In fact, there are plenty of burger options that are just as delicious as they are nutritious. Even as a Dietitian, burgers are a popular choice in my family. My favorite way to serve them is topped with cheddar cheese and maple bacon. This combo never fails to impress guests. While there’s nothing wrong with enjoying a decadent burger, sometimes you just want something a little lighter on the tummy. After researching almost 20 chain restaurants, these are the 10 best restaurant burgers in America. You don’t always have to order the healthier choice, but when you do here’s how to navigate the menu. When reading the menu, start by identifying whether the burger is balanced – contains a sufficient portion of protein, carbohydrate, fiber, and fat. If the burger’s got a beef (or other animal protein) patty it’s a given that it’s packed with protein. On the other hand, some plant-based burgers are low in protein which can be deceiving. Check the restaurant’s nutrition facts before committing because you may need more than one patty (or other additional ingredients) to get the protein where it needs to be. Fat is also something that’s easy to come by in a restaurant burger since many restaurants use anywhere from 80-90% lean ground meat. Carbs are pretty simple, too. If it’s got a bun, it’s got carbs. Fiber may be more of a challenge – adding veggies to your burger can help increase the fiber. You’ll also notice that plant-based burger patties are higher in fiber than meat patties. This is because the plant-based ingredients (whole grains, fruits, and vegetables) that make up the patty are naturally rich in dietary fiber. Once you have found a burger you think fits the bill, you can confirm it by looking up the nutrition profile. Use the restaurant’s website to access this information or ask someone who works there for assistance. I used a combination of the restaurant’s online menu and nutrition facts page to pinpoint the top 10 healthiest burgers in America. Here are the criteria I used…
How to Avoid the Biggest Business Red Flags
If you don’t take these simple precautions, you’re going to get eaten alive. “It got too triggering, I had to stop.” “I don’t need to go home and watch an equally stressful version of my real life on TV.” These are the answers I get from my chef clients when I ask if they’ve watched The Bear. I get it. For years before I was a lawyer for chefs, I worked in the industry, starting as a hostess and moving up to food running and expediting. When I was old enough to open and pour wine, I moved into serving gigs which I held up until the point I was graduating from law school. To this day I still say “behind” when walking behind anyone in a restaurant, or even my husband in my own kitchen. That said, since I mostly worked front of house, little of The Bear’s drama hit too close to home for me to enjoy it. That is, until I finished Season Three of the hit FX show. As someone whose sole job is to represent and protect the legal interests of those in the hospitality industry, it became too hard for me to accept as believable several of the major conflicts around those legal issues, business structure, and that operating agreement that the restaurant’s sous chef, Sydney, was (rightly!) avoiding signing. If you’re in the position to be an owner of a restaurant yourself, there are ways to learn from their mistakes. In Season Two’s “Sundae” episode when Sydney makes the rounds of Chicago spots before her own restaurant opens (or should I say, the restaurant that she was told she was a partner in, but given no substantial details), a chef named Nayia asks her, “What’s your profit share?” Sydney responds, “Oh, not like that, we’re just, um, working together. Yeah.” With a cautionary tone, Nayia responds, “Listen to your gut.” At that point I thought, “I hope she finds a good lawyer next season.” Sydney goes on to Avec where real-life restaurateur Donnie Madia tells her, “Make sure you have a great partner, someone you can trust.” He shares a story about a partner running off with funds to Hawai’i and that, “It happens all the time.” Well, that’s theft, fraud, and a whole host of other tort claims, perhaps even criminal securities fraud, and something that I’ve never seen or ever heard of happening in my 20 years of practice, but I digress…
AI Has the Potential to Truly Become the Brain of the Restaurant
How AI is revolutionizing restaurants? “As the restaurant industry appears to increasingly embraces AI, the journey to full-scale transformation is still a work in progress,” said Evert Gruyaert, restaurants and food service industry leader, Deloitte. “Leveraging AI to create personalized experiences and deeper connections with consumers can be an effective strategy. However, to unlock AI’s potential, leaders will likely need to balance innovation and operational discipline, strengthen governance, and address capability gaps to help optimize operations, boost margins and future-proof their business — in both the front and back of house.” How AI is Revolutionizing Restaurants, a Deloitte report based on a survey of 375 global restaurant executives in 11 countries fielded during Q4 2024, explores how operators are using AI. Among the findings: Eight in 10 (82 percent) plan to increase investments in AI technologies over the next fiscal year, with enhanced customer experience (60 percent), improved restaurant operations (36 percent), and loyalty programs (31 percent) cited as the top desired outcomes…
The Robot Revolution Is Already Happening in Restaurants
Here’s what it looks like. n a video shared on X recently, one of Tesla’s impressive humanoid Optimus robots was shown expertly serving popcorn from a machine to a waiting customer, rounding off the interaction with a little wave. The simple but effective robot demo happened at the opening of Tesla’s new Diner and Supercharger station in Hollywood. The venue itself has attracted plenty of attention and excitement on social media, causing long queues among eager diners, and the use of an Optimus robot certainly adds to the so-called “retro-futuristic” buzz of the diner experience. This is the latest clip showcasing how dextrous the Optimus machines are, and in this case it was not much more than a good PR stunt for the EV maker. But it’s also a herald for a coming robotization of the food industry, according to a report at Restaurant Technology News. The industry news outlet explains in a recent report that seeing robots working and serving in food outlets is “no longer a rare scene,” because restaurants around the world are adopting robotic tech in new and ever-more visible ways. Robots are stepping into roles as varied as “server bots and kitchen cobots to full-fledged humanoid hosts.” It’s no mere stunt, the report contends, since many of these automated systems are “solving real problems.” This starts with helping to tackle what’s said to be persistent labor shortages in the industry, which the U.S. restaurant sector is acutely aware of: In 2024 nearly half of American restaurant operators said they planned to increase automation to make up for missing staff—not necessarily as direct human replacements, but to boost work efficiency among the other people working. This is an argument often used by AI proponents keen to suggest that the innovative tech isn’t stealing work from real people, and instead is merely a force multiplier…
4 Tips to Tighten Your Restaurant’s Ticket Times
If you want to speed up ticket times, you don’t need to overhaul everything. Tight communication is the glue that holds it all together. Sluggish ticket times can wreak havoc on your restaurant. They can ruin the guest experience and stress out your team. But with the right systems and habits, you can shave off minutes—and I mean minutes—and speed up service without sacrificing quality. Today, we’re going to tackle a common frustration: slow ticket times. If your kitchen lags behind during busy shifts or you’re getting complaints about long wait times, it’s time to take a hard look at your operation. Here are four powerful strategies you can use to speed things up. Prep to par based on product mix. The first thing I check when ticket times are slow is prep. Are your cooks scrambling because they ran out of mise en place right in the middle of a shift? If they run out of diced onions and have to jump off the line to prep more, your ticket timing is completely thrown off. That’s a prep system problem. You should be using a prep sheet that’s built off your product mix report—not just guessing or relying on habit from last week. This keeps your team ready, not reacting. Set up your line for speed. Your kitchen layout is either helping you or hurting you. Small inefficiencies add up fast. Are tools within arm’s reach? Are ingredients organized in the right order? Are stations getting in each other’s way? Take a walk through your kitchen during peak service and look for choke points. A few layout changes can trim serious time off every ticket. Improve communication on the line…
Did You Know?
Coaching is Culture: Why Great Teams Don’t Rely on Compliance. If your managers aren’t coaching consistently, your culture is running on hope, and hope is not a strategy. More often than not, culture gets shaped in the quiet moments between tasks. Restaurant operators talk a lot about culture, but what actually drives it? It’s not the posters on the wall, the mission statement in the handbook, or even the values printed on team T-shirts (although I do love a great T-shirt!). Culture is what your team sees, feels, and experiences every single shift. It’s what your guests describe to their friends about the consistent vibe and service they encounter every time they walk through your doors. And more often than not, culture gets shaped in the quiet moments between tasks: the way feedback is given, how accountability is handled, and whether development is expected, or just optional…
Employee Tip
Why investing in people is the smartest move a restaurant can make right now. While much of the hospitality industry is chasing automation, shrinking labor, and looking for ways to cut costs at all costs, some brands are leaning in the other direction and doubling down on what matters: people. A recent study from Project ROI showed that strong corporate social responsibility programs can reduce employee turnover by up to 50 percent and increase productivity by as much as 13 percent. When your team knows that their company cares deeply about real people—not just profit margins—they show up stronger and stay longer…
