Role and industry
Controller, Multi-Unit Restaurant or Hospitality Group Recruiters
No postings. No stacks of resumes. No chasing. You interview a short list.
Financial Headhunters: Hire a controller who converts messy site-level operational data into accurate financial reports instead of just processing paperwork.
This is what we do all day: recruit accounting, finance, banking and insurance professionals.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
Need someone now? Call 305-306-4829.
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
- Controller
- CFO
- VP Finance
- FP&A Director
- Accounting Manager
- Director of Accounting
- Assistant Controller
- Tax Director
- Treasury Manager
- Internal Audit Director
- Senior Accountant
- Financial Analyst
- Head of Financial Reporting
- Commercial Lender
- Chief Credit Officer
- Business Systems Finance Lead
- No upfront fee
- Pay only if you hire
- Accounting, finance, banking and insurance
- We reach people who aren’t on job boards
- Replacement terms on standard searches
01
What does this hire really come down to?
Your controller must turn raw point-of-sale and labor data into a unified set of books. You need someone who views every location as a profit center and keeps the total group performance clear.
This person controls prime costs. Ask them how they detect food waste and excessive labor spend. They must be able to confront managers when data shows spending trends that deviate from the budget.
You need a person who builds systems that prevent financial variances. They must communicate directly with store managers who resist accounting rules while satisfying your auditors and leadership team.
02
What do we check before you see anyone?
- 01Can they show they finished the month-end close for a multi-unit group without missing deadlines or creating reconciling items?
- 02Ask how they set up R365 or M3 to flag inventory discrepancies and intercompany variances automatically.
- 03Do they provide specific examples of creating rules that prevented staff from stealing cash or misusing credit cards at the store level?
- 04Ask how they managed payroll taxes across five different states while avoiding penalties and tax notices.
- 05Can they point to the specific audit workpapers they drafted and the questions the auditor asked them about those files?
- 06Ask for a time they explained a balance sheet adjustment to a non-financial general manager and how that changed the manager's spending habits.
03
Where do we find them?
We approach people currently working in regional hospitality accounting or those inside audit firms who specialize in franchise clients. These individuals are usually not on job boards because they spend their time fixing complex reconciliation cycles.
People move when their current systems break down and they lack the power to fix them. They change jobs to find a company that needs them to build a new reporting system from the ground up.
To source this role, we look directly at regional accounting heads in multi-unit groups who currently spend their weeks chasing down missing invoices from site managers. These individuals often hit a wall because their current employer treats accounting as a data entry exercise rather than a strategic function. You can determine if a candidate will move for your role by asking them to explain the single most broken part of their current month-end workflow. If they describe a process that prevents them from reporting timely margins to their leadership, they are ready for a change. Ask them if they have the authority to pull their own data from the point-of-sale system or if they are waiting on a manager to send a spreadsheet. A candidate who feels limited by a restrictive or manual data environment will jump at the chance to build a cleaner reporting pipeline in your group where they have direct access to source files.
We also target senior accountants at firms focused on franchise audits. These candidates see the flaws in dozens of different hospitality groups and possess the technical ability to clean up messy intercompany balances. You should ask them to describe the last time they had to enforce a financial rule that a general manager refused to follow. If the answer involves them backing down or waiting for an owner to intervene, they may lack the backbone to hold your site managers accountable for labor or inventory costs. Conversely, if they describe a process of direct confrontation backed by hard data from an audit, they demonstrate the necessary strength to improve your margins. Ask them how they handled a situation where the general ledger did not match the physical cash on hand. A candidate who provides a clear path to identifying the source of that variance rather than just adjusting it away shows they can prevent recurring losses in your locations.
04
Which hiring mistakes should you watch for?
- 01Hiring someone from a massive corporate headquarters who has never had to troubleshoot a broken point-of-sale interface or check physical inventory at a site.
- 02Overlooking a candidate who cannot communicate with field staff, resulting in the controller being ignored by the very managers they need to control.
- 03Selecting a candidate based on their CPA license or degrees while ignoring the lack of actual experience with restaurant liquidity or margin management.
05
The search in three steps
- 01We audit your current reporting system and list your biggest financial pain points to define the exact skill set you need.
- 02We message controllers currently managing similar portfolios and test them on your margin requirements before you see their resume.
- 03We set up interview rounds and contact former bosses to see how they resolve disputes with operators and handle month-end pressure.
06
Which related hiring decisions are worth comparing?
How your Controller search runs
How does The Six-Step Search work?
One sequence, from a well-defined seat to a shortlist you can judge.
Search Calibration
We start with a call about the seat, the books, the owners and the people the hire will work with. We learn what the role must fix in the first year and what would make a candidate wrong even if the resume looks right.
You get: A written search brief: scope, must-haves, deal-breakers and the pay range, agreed with you.
Market Mapping
We map the companies and institutions where the right people already work: similar size, similar ownership, similar complexity, in your market and in others.
You get: The target list of companies and institutions we will search, reviewed with you before outreach.
Professional Contact Intelligence
We find direct ways to reach the people on the map. Most are employed and not reading job boards, so reaching them takes real research.
You get: Direct routes to people who are not on job boards, researched for your search.
Persistent Personalized Outreach
We call and write to people individually and follow up. Interest varies, so we discuss the actual opportunity rather than promising a particular response.
You get: One-to-one conversations about your actual role, followed up, never a mass email blast.
Live Candidate Qualification
We speak with every candidate before you do. We check scope, systems, reporting lines, compensation expectations, location and why they would move.
You get: Only candidates we have spoken with, checked on scope, systems, pay, location and motive.
Candidate Intelligence and Process Support
You receive a short written brief on each finalist covering what they have done, where they are thin and what they want. Then we help with interviews, references and the offer.
You get: A short written brief on each finalist, plus help with interviews, references, counteroffer risk and the offer.
Questions people ask
Can you guarantee a specific date for delivering our candidate shortlist?
We provide candidates as we vet them. We focus on finding the right match rather than hitting a calendar deadline.
What is your process for managing interview schedules and feedback loops?
We manage all email communication and interview coordination between you and the candidates. This keeps you focused only on people who passed our vetting criteria.
Does your contingency fee model require any deposits to start the search?
We operate on a contingency basis. You only pay a fee after you hire a candidate.
How do you maintain strict confidentiality regarding our hiring search?
We discuss how much information we share before we start talking to candidates. We protect your company name until the point of a formal interview.
How do you qualify candidates who have worked in different industries but share our technical complexities?
We ignore industry labels and focus on the technical tasks they performed. We look for proof of managing inventory, complex labor reporting, and multi-unit consolidations.
What about counteroffers on a Controller hire?
We ask every Controller candidate early why they would move and what their employer might do to keep them. Counteroffer risk goes in the written brief before you make an offer.
What don't you do?
We do not post your Controller job and forward whoever applies. We do not send stacks of unscreened resumes, and we do not recruit outside accounting, finance, banking and insurance.
Start a search
Tell us about the seat.
No upfront fee. You pay only if you hire.
We offer a candidate replacement guarantee on standard search agreements. The applicable period and exact terms are set out in the signed client recruiting agreement.
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