From Stretched to Scalable:
A Restaurant Brand's Remote Finance Team
1+ Year
Long-term partnership
with Wow
2 Raises
Earned by the
FP&A analyst
100% Overlap
Same business hours
as the U.S. team
Employees
About 400 employees
Location
Multi-state in the USA
Industry
Restaurants
The Challenge
Every new restaurant adds more numbers to track. We needed people who could keep up with the business and work the same hours we do
CFO
Multi-State Restaurant Brand
As the brand added locations in new states, the finance workload grew faster than the finance team. Location budgets, variance analysis, consolidated reporting, and the month-end close all landed on a small group that also supported operations leaders with day-to-day questions.
Leadership needed two mid-level hires at once: an FP&A analyst to strengthen budgeting and performance analysis, and a staff accountant to support accounting operations and the close.
Hiring locally created real constraints.
- Experienced finance talent was expensive in the company’s core markets
- Local searches for mid-level accounting roles were slow
- Senior finance staff were absorbing analysis and close work instead of focusing on strategy
The Approach
The company found Wow Remote Teams through an online search and shared briefs for two full-time finance roles: an FP&A Analyst and a Staff Accountant.
Wow presented a short list of screened candidates for each role, and the finance team interviewed them directly. Both roles were filled with professionals based in Mexico, one to two hours ahead of Pacific Time, so they work inside the U.S. finance team’s business day.
At the center of this story is an FP&A analyst from Mexico with 4 years of experience in financial analysis, consolidation, variance analysis, budgeting, and forecasting. He communicates in advanced English (C1) and joined the team full-time.
He got up to speed quickly and took ownership of:
- Budgeting and forecasting support
- Variance and performance analysis by location
- Consolidation of financial information
- P&L analysis and reporting for leadership
Alongside him, a staff accountant from Mexico with 10 years of experience in revenue accounting, accounts payable and receivable, GAAP-based reporting, and month-end close joined the accounting team. She works in upper-intermediate English (B2) and has become a steady, communicative presence on the team.
Both professionals report to the U.S. finance leads and work in the same systems, meetings, and close calendar as the rest of the department.
We can only say good things about him. He got up to speed right away, was ready to help with every project, and has been a great addition to the department
FP&A Manager
Multi-State Restaurant Brand
The Outcome
She brings good energy to the team and gets everything done that’s asked of her
Controller
Multi-State Restaurant Brand
More than a year later, both professionals are still part of the finance team.
The FP&A analyst has earned two raises since joining. His manager has intentionally given him more project exposure: he led restaurant budgeting last season and now covers operations calls when his manager is out.
The staff accountant completes all of her required work and brings good energy to the team. Her manager’s focus now is keeping her challenged as her responsibilities grow.
More importantly, senior finance staff now spend less time on routine analysis and close tasks, and more time supporting operations leaders and planning for growth.
Communication with Wow has been consistently good and supportive, with no complaints from either side.
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