Restaurants & Franchises

Baker Tilly’s dedicated restaurant industry team works with independently owned restaurants, franchises and restaurant groups of all kinds. Learn the structures and strategies that can help accelerate growth for your restaurant business.

Let us serve you while you serve them.

Running a restaurant is a lot of work. You have to worry about everything from menu planning to customer service to food safety. And on top of that, you also have to manage running the business.

The Baker Tilly restaurant and franchise assurance, tax and advisory teams can elevate your operations. Our restaurant growth services help by providing thoughtful leadership and guidance through every season of growth. Restaurant and franchise owners regularly face challenges, from complex regulatory environments to unique tax burdens. We can help you navigate, offering some of the world’s most comprehensive and effective services for restaurant accounting and more. With us, you get unrivaled care. We have decades of industry experience in restaurants and franchises, so we know how to work with you to create a road map for success.

A better restaurant business experience

The Baker Tilly restaurant and franchise assurance, tax and advisory teams can elevate your operations, providing thoughtful leadership and guidance through every season of growth. How can our restaurant growth services help you today?

Assurance
Tax
Specialty tax
Advisory
Digital solutions
Outsourced accounting
Mergers and acquisitions

Assurance

Assurance services help improve the quality and reliability of financial and non-financial information for your company. Restaurants and franchises face unique challenges and opportunities, and you need assurance services that can help achieve your objectives, as well as comply with regulations, reduce risk and enhance your performance and reputation. Whether it is an audit, financial reporting, compilation, review, or other specialized services, our team has the knowledge and experience to deliver the solutions you need.

We are committed to providing high-quality assurance services to our clients, using the latest technology and industry insights. We have deep experience in in the restaurant and franchise industries, which allows us to understand the specific needs and issues of our clients.

Our assurance services include:

Agreed-upon procedures
Employee benefit plan audit
Financial statement audit
Financial statement preparation, compilation or review
System and Organization Controls (SOC) Reporting

Tax

At Baker Tilly, we offer a range of tax services to help you achieve your personal and business goals. Whether you are a business owner, an executive or an individual, our specialists can work with you to find tax solutions that suit your needs. We combine our tax knowledge with insights from other disciplines to reduce your tax liabilities and maximize your tax savings.

Our core tax services include tax planning and compliance, as well as specialized services in areas such as state and local tax, IRS practice and procedure strategies, research tax credits, international tax and tax accounting.

Learn more about our services related to federal, state and local, individual and income and franchise tax needs.

Specialty tax

There are many layers to the types of tax considerations a company may face. The tax issues that restaurants and franchises face can be particularly complicated and have significant financial consequences for your organization. Our Value Architects™ can assist you and your company in navigating the tax challenges that are specific to the industry and provide customized solutions that align with your organization’s objectives.

Our specialty tax services team, in collaboration with our restaurant and franchise specialists, can assist you and your organization to minimize tax burdens and accelerate tax deductions.

Our tailored specialty tax solutions include:

Advisory

Restaurants face a unique set of risks, from safety considerations to data breaches to supply chain disruptions to expansion and construction management. Our team of Value Architects™ pair specialized industry experience with accounting knowledge to understand the challenges our clients face. We keep up with the emerging issues and regulatory changes to offer clients practical solutions that are aligned with their strategic goals.

At Baker Tilly we use an integrated approach to help you focus on the strategic landscape of your organization and its future.

Our accounting advisory services include:

Digital solutions

Reimagining your company may seem overwhelming. But our Digital Solutions team has seen how companies that embrace digital solutions across their functions can gain a competitive edge and achieve lasting success. Digital transformation can take your organization to the next level. When done right, it can be the game-changer you need. Let us help you with our digital consulting services to transform your organization and stand out from the rest.

Our digital solutions for restaurants and franchise clients include:

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) design and implementation
Sage Intacct implementation
Digital strategy
Systems integration

Outsourced accounting

Running a restaurant or franchise can be stressful. You want to increase your revenues and create a smooth, scalable operating model that can also handle the challenges and risks of running a business. But according to a pulse survey on time management from The Alternative Board, “most business owners spend most of their time on administrative tasks and employee issues instead of strategic growth efforts.”

Get an edge for your business.

Baker Tilly Advantage is a subscription-based service tailored to your company’s tax, accounting and HR needs. We offer perfect combination of resources, expertise and turnkey services — based on years of industry leading experience and, more importantly, the flexibility to support your needs as they change throughout your business’s life cycle.

Additional features:

Proactive support and prompt response from a client success manager
Exclusive 24/7 access to My Baker Tilly, our online client service and communication portal
Comprehensive annual business review
Transparent pricing and automated monthly billing

Mergers and acquisitions

Restaurant mergers and acquisitions (M&A) can be a complex and time-consuming process, but they can also be a great way to expand your business, reach new customers, and increase your profits. If you are considering an M&A deal, it's important to have a team of experienced professionals on your side to help you navigate the process.

At Baker Tilly, we have a team of experienced investment bankers who work with restaurants and franchises to help them achieve their transaction goals for restaurant M&A. We help you evaluate a transaction objectively and take the necessary steps to maximize value. Our team has extensive experience in providing you with practical solutions that suit your specific transaction needs.

We collaborate with Baker Tilly’s industry and transaction accounting and tax specialists, as well as our estate planning professionals, to help clients:

Prepare for and identify a transaction opportunity
Value a business
Negotiate, structure and close the deal
Plan for the future after the transaction closing with clear advice

Connect with us today

Contact us

Baker Tilly has assisted Dave’s Hot Chicken with several projects over the years. They are a knowledgeable advisor for both business and accounting that we frequently turn to for assistance and guidance. They have provided us with the necessary tax and audit services to help us continue to expand our franchise.

James McGehee, CFO, Dave's Hot Chicken

Franchises

Hand interacting with virtual icon on dark background

Baker Tilly dedicates a team of professionals to the franchise industry providing quality audit, tax and consulting services. This industry specialization means we understand the unique challenges and opportunities franchises face and can provide specialty services to help strategize, plan and implement organizational and financial strategies. We work with franchisors and franchisees across the fitness, restaurant, retail, entertainment, hospitality, and leisure industries.

As a franchise owner, you may feel pressure to maximize income and create an efficient, scalable business model that can also withstand the challenges and risks that come with running a business. Our primary focus is to provide exceptional franchise accounting services which include core audit, tax, and consulting services while adding value by providing industry-specialized solutions and proactive advice. In addition to the services detailed on the page above, we can also help you address key areas, including:

CFO Advisory services
Closing unprofitable locations
Compliance with franchise requirements
Corporate governance including internal controls
Determining data needed for decision-making purposes
Employee Retention Credits
Financial statement audit review
Growth and expense forecasting
Incentive structure compensation
Mergers & Acquisitions (including sales and refinancing)
Outsourced accounting
Opening new locations
Productivity improvement
Work opportunity tax credits

The result is that we spend more time addressing your business needs and less time picking up industry knowledge along the way.

restaurant consulting | Chefs in a modern ghost kitchen

Annual restaurant benchmarks report

Determine how your restaurant stacks up against industry standards with Baker Tilly’s restaurant benchmarks report.

Explore restaurant KPIs

Our clients

Restaurant resources

The Main Dish

Want bite-sized insights? We have that through our newsletter, The Main Dish, and it’s stuffed full of actionable ideas to streamline into your restaurant’s operations.

Explore restaurant insights

Restaurant roundtables

Our restaurant roundtables bring together industry owners, operators and finance professionals to dive into the hottest trends and learn from each other during the engaging roundtable discussion. Subscribe to our restaurant mailing list to learn more about our roundtables.

Subscribe now

In the years that Gala Capital Partners has worked with Baker Tilly, we’ve been continuously impressed with the team. They are very knowledgeable about the restaurant franchise industry and how to apply accounting to it. We value their flexibility and proactive out-of-the-box thinking to make accounting implementation work for our internal team.

Gilles Kersten, Vice President, Gala Capital Partners, LLC

Our professionals

Brian CampbellPrincipal

Kristi OatesPrincipal

Rene BalliPrincipal

Todd C. BernhardtPrincipal

Andrew ChavesPrincipal

Ryan M. ManiscalcoPrincipal

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We have relied on Baker Tilly as a trusted business advisor to help structure our growing organization strategically in order to maximize profit while allowing flexibility for future growth. With Baker Tilly’s depth of industry and technical expertise, we’ve been able to save valuable time — ultimately allowing us to devote more time to supporting our franchisees and operators so they have the resources and tools to run exceptional restaurants.

Craig Culver, Co-Founder, Culver Franchising System, Inc.