Accountant

Key Responsibilities

• Handle the full accounting cycle for multiple restaurant entities: journal entries, reconciliations, accruals, and month-end close.

• Produce location-level P&Ls that track sales, cost of goods, labor, and inventory trends, and be ready to explain what changed and why.

• Assemble the monthly financial package for ownership and restaurant leadership.

• Catch discrepancies early, before they compound into problems at close.

• Process payroll for all locations through Paylocity, including tipped employees, overtime, and multi-entity setup.

• Make sure time entry data flows correctly from timekeeping into payroll, and fix issues at the source when it does not.

• Reconcile payroll to the general ledger so labor costs are accurate on every P&L.

• Stay current on Chicago, Cook County, and Illinois wage and hour requirements that affect pay.

• Own accounts payable end to end: vendor invoices, expenses, coding, approvals, and payment runs.

• Manage day-to-day relationships with purveyors and service providers.

• Work with chefs and General Managers to run down food, beverage, and supply cost discrepancies.

• Keep documentation clean enough to hand to an auditor without flinching.

• Track construction and buildout costs for new restaurant locations currently in development.

• Report budget versus actual on each project so ownership always knows where spend stands.

• Set up the accounting for each new location so it is ready to operate from day one.

• Build reporting that gives ownership a current, honest picture of each restaurant: sales, labor, costs, and cash.

• Answer the question “how are we doing?” with real numbers, not a promise to get back to them.

• Participate in budgeting and forecasting conversations with ownership.

• Prepare and file sales tax across state, county, and city jurisdictions.

• Support year-end tax preparation and respond to requests from the outside CPA.

• Maintain internal controls consistent with GAAP and company policy.

Essential Qualifications

• 5 years of accounting experience, with restaurant or multi-unit hospitality experience strongly preferred.

• Hands-on payroll processing experience. Paylocity and Toast experience is a real plus.

• Working knowledge of GAAP and accrual-based accounting.

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting or Finance, or equivalent experience that proves you can do the work.

• Strong Excel skills.

• Able to explain financial results to chefs and operators in plain language.

• Able to communicate and understand the predominant language(s) of the company's operating area.

• Proficiency with Paylocity (payroll, HRIS, and timekeeping) required, or the ability to get there quickly.

• Experience with the Toast POS system.

Desired Experience

• Comfortable being the accounting department. You will have support, but you will not have a team to delegate to.

• Able to sit and work at a computer for extended periods, with occasional travel between locations.

• Job costing or construction-in-progress experience, ideally on restaurant buildouts.

• Experience opening a new restaurant location.

• Familiarity with restaurant POS, reservations, inventory, or reporting platforms.