Senior Accountant

The Senior Accountant is responsible for maintaining the accuracy, completeness, and integrity of financial reporting across the company's restaurant locations and corporate operations. This position owns key components of the month-end close, leads weekly payroll processing, prepares and reviews account reconciliations, analyzes financial results, and resolves accounting issues in partnership with restaurant operators and corporate department leaders.

The Senior Accountant serves as a senior resource within the accounting team, reviewing transactional work, strengthening internal controls, improving accounting processes, and supporting the development of junior team members. The role requires strong technical accounting knowledge, attention to detail, sound judgment, and the ability to manage deadlines across a fast-paced, multi-unit organization.

Key Responsibilities:

Month-End Close and Financial Reporting

• Own assigned components of the month-end close process and ensure work is completed accurately and within the established close calendar.
• Prepare and review journal entries for accruals, prepayments, fixed assets, intercompany activity, bank activity, payroll-related items, and other operational expenses.
• Prepare and review balance sheet reconciliations, ensuring that reconciling items are supported, investigated, and resolved promptly.
• Review unit-level and corporate profit and loss statements for unusual activity, missing expenses, coding errors, and period-over-period variances.
• Coordinate with the Vice President of Finance and other accounting team members to support the timely issuance of final financial statements.
• Maintain complete and organized supporting documentation consistent with internal control and GAAP requirements.
• Assist with consolidated financial reporting across restaurant entities and corporate operations.

Weekly Payroll Processing

• Lead weekly payroll processing across restaurant locations and corporate operations, ensuring payroll is accurate, complete, properly approved, and submitted on schedule.
• Review payroll data for hours, rates, earnings, deductions, reimbursements, and other adjustments before final submission.
• Coordinate with restaurant operators, Human Resources, and finance leadership to resolve payroll discrepancies and missing information promptly.
• Prepare and review payroll-related journal entries and account reconciliations, and maintain complete supporting documentation.
• Identify recurring payroll issues and recommend process or control improvements to reduce errors and late adjustments.

Cash, Sales, and Revenue Accounting

• Review daily and weekly sales and cash reconciliations completed in Restaurant365 against point-of-sale, payment processor, and bank data.
• Investigate and resolve complex or recurring discrepancies involving deposits, open checks, payouts, petty cash, gift cards, third-party delivery platforms, and other payment sources.
• Monitor accounts receivable activity and partner with the Private Events team and restaurant operators to resolve outstanding house account balances.
• Identify recurring reconciliation issues and develop practical solutions to improve accuracy and reduce manual corrections.
• Review location-level cash activity and escalate material exceptions or control concerns to finance leadership.

Accounts Payable and Vendor Accounting

• Review expense coding and accounting treatment for vendor invoices, ensuring charges are recorded to the correct entity, location, department, account, and accounting period.
• Support the accuracy and effectiveness of the corporate procure-to-pay workflow.
• Review vendor statements and reconciliations, investigate discrepancies, and coordinate the resolution of aged or disputed items.
• Monitor recurring vendor charges and identify duplicate payments, missing invoices, unusual fluctuations, or incorrect allocations.
• Partner with restaurant and corporate departments to improve invoice submission, approval, coding, and documentation practices.
• Support the effective use of Restaurant365 invoice management and automation tools.

Operational Accounting and Analysis

• Partner with restaurant General Managers and corporate department leaders to investigate accounting questions and correct financial reporting issues.
• Review restaurant inventory and cost data for completeness, reasonableness, and potential reporting errors.
• Help identify the accounting drivers of unit-level margin variances, including inventory adjustments, purchasing activity, revenue discrepancies, and expense classification.
• Provide clear explanations of significant financial variances and unresolved accounting matters to finance leadership.
• Assist with accounting for restaurant openings, capital projects, new entities, and other business initiatives.
• Support intercompany reconciliations and ensure transactions are recorded consistently across related entities.

Compliance, Controls, and Audit Support

• Maintain and improve accounting controls and documentation across cash, revenue, payroll, purchasing, accounts payable, and month-end close processes.
• Assist with financial statement audits, tax filings, licensing renewals, business insurance reviews, and other compliance requirements.
• Prepare schedules, supporting documentation, and responses for auditors, tax advisors, insurance partners, and other external parties.
• Identify control gaps, recurring errors, and inefficient workflows, and recommend practical corrective actions.
• Ensure accounting records and supporting documentation are complete, accurate, and readily available for review.

Process Improvement and Team Support

• Review selected work prepared by junior accounting team members and provide clear, constructive feedback.
• Serve as a technical and operational resource for Staff Accountants and other members of the finance team.
• Help document standard accounting procedures, close responsibilities, reconciliation requirements, payroll workflows, and internal controls.
• Recommend and implement process improvements that increase accuracy, strengthen controls, shorten the close process, or reduce manual work.
• Support the onboarding and training of new accounting team members.
• Help maintain scalable accounting workflows as the company adds locations, entities, and operating complexity.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes

•   Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field.
• Approximately four or more years of progressive accounting experience, preferably in hospitality, retail, multi-unit operations, or another fast-paced corporate environment.
• Demonstrated experience preparing journal entries, completing balance sheet reconciliations, leading payroll processing, and managing responsibilities within a formal month-end close.
• Strong understanding of accrual accounting, financial statement preparation, internal controls, and GAAP.
• Ability to analyze general ledger activity and independently investigate and resolve accounting discrepancies.
• Experience reviewing the work of junior accounting staff or serving as a senior technical resource is preferred.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, including pivot tables, lookup functions, and the organization and analysis of large data sets.
• Experience with Restaurant365 or comparable enterprise accounting software is strongly preferred.
• Strong organizational and project-management skills, with the ability to manage multiple entities, priorities, and deadlines.
• Consistent attention to numerical precision, supporting documentation, and data accuracy.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain accounting matters clearly to non-accounting stakeholders.
• High integrity, sound judgment, and discretion when handling confidential financial and payroll information.
• Ability to build collaborative and trusting relationships with corporate stakeholders, restaurant-level operators, vendors, and external partners.
• A practical, solutions-oriented approach to accounting issues and process improvement.

Position Requirements

•   Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.
• Must be able to access various departments within a restaurant or corporate location.
• Must be able to meet recurring weekly payroll, month-end, year-end, audit, and reporting deadlines.