Clean books don't make you money.
What we do with them does.
Operator-run bookkeeping and advisory for independent restaurants.
Bookkeeping is offense — not defense.
You have been taught your books are defense: stay legal, do not get burned in April, look in the rear-view mirror. It is backwards. A back office run tight is not about staying out of trouble — it is where your next percent of margin comes from.
You do not need a forty-first report. You need to know what to do about it.
It comes down to one number you already live by: prime cost.
Food plus labor — the number that decides whether a restaurant makes it. Here is how we get yours under control.
Clean books.
QuickBooks done right, your POS wired straight in so the day's sales post on their own. For a lot of owners, it is the first time their real prime cost shows up at all. You cannot run a number you cannot see.
Cost control & labor control.
Cost control is food and bar, where the money leaks — the invoice that crept up, the pour that got heavy, the plate that costs more than you charge. We find it, usually 2 to 4% of food cost. Labor control is the other half — hours and tips, with the weekly labor note early enough that you fix Tuesday before Tuesday costs you again. You run the floor; we run the numbers.
Margin, every week, in writing.
The SBO Brief — a written note on your numbers, weekly and monthly. Never just a figure: the number and what to do about it, together. And a call when something needs one — by exception, not a standing meeting.
Cut costs, grow the check — we show you where.
Margin has two sides, and most bookkeepers only ever look at one. We work both — the money leaking out the back, and the money sitting in your dining room that nobody is selling. We find it and put it in front of you every week; what you do about it is your call.
That is what one percent of food cost is worth on a $1.8M restaurant — and we usually find two to four percent, plus the labor hiding in a slow Tuesday. We show you the number and where it is bleeding; you make the cut. Straight into gross profit.
The guests are already there. If one in eight orders dessert and it should be one in four, that is real gross sales left on the table — the most missed profit opportunity there is, because the rent is already paid. We show you the gap every week; your floor sells it.
Never just a number. The number, and what to do about it.
Anyone can email you a pile of reports. The SBO Brief is a short written note — weekly and monthly — that pulls the numbers worth your attention to the top and, next to each one, a heads-up on what to do about it. The weekly note arrives within 4 business days of your complete week — early enough to do something about it.
An AI CFO has never been 86'd on a Saturday night.
The market is selling owners AI assistants, fractional AI CFOs, automated tools — software that has never stood on a line at 7pm on a Friday. It hands you reports. It cannot tell you which two servers never suggest dessert, or that your Tuesday lunch is running 48% labor because of one bad schedule.
We are not against the automation — we lean on it, and it does the typing. But the judgment on top is a person who has been in the weeds, not a model that has never plated a cover. Anybody can hand you reports. We give you the heads-up — and what to do about it.
Where you are — and where we would look.
Every restaurant has two sides. Our team knows both.
SBO was built by two operators — Philippe and Kym Rousseau, who owned and ran restaurants in Santa Barbara for close to thirty years, three restaurants at the peak and $5.2M a year. Philippe ran the numbers and the kitchen; Kym ran the guest side and the events. And the team we have built is made the same way — certified books people who have also worked a line, not a service reading your numbers from the outside. Nothing about your restaurant is foreign to us. Meet the operators →
See what we would see — before you pay us a dime.
Give us your restaurant's name and city. We read what anyone can see online — your menu, your prices, your reviews, and the three restaurants closest to what you do — and send you a one-page note in the same format our clients get every week: the numbers that matter, in dollars, and what to do about each one. The software does the gathering; an operator reads it, corrects it, and signs it before it goes out.
And when you want the real version: send us a copy of your P&L and your targets for food, labor and prime, and we will do the same read on your actual numbers. That one is free too — you'll never see a bill for asking.
Get the Free LookYour note arrives within 4 business days.
See where you stand — and what we would look for.
A few questions about how your restaurant runs today. Every answer read by a person — no phone tag, no pitch. We show you the shape of it, and the money we would look for. The daily sales pulse is automatic; your one job is uploading the week's invoices from your phone, and the weekly note arrives within 4 business days, your month closed within 10 to 15.
Bigger than the monthly close — opening, fixing, or setting a place up right? That is SBO Advisory — Rescue & Build.