Case Study: How a Fractional CFO Took a NYC Hospitality Group From Zero Financial Visibility to Real-Time Reporting

Taylor Crane is the founder of Fractional Jobs, a matching service for fractional executive talent. In this case study, Taylor sat down with Joe Schinco, co-founder of Terzo Group, a New York City-based hospitality company, to learn how working with a fractional CFO changed the way his business operates.

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Joe Schinco has a finance background. Before running Terzo Group, the NYC hospitality company behind Greats of Craft and four other business units, he spent years building proformas and modeling unit economics. He’s not someone who needs finance explained to him.

But running a growing company with about 50 employees across five locations didn’t leave him much time to actually manage the finances. And when his bookkeepers dropped the ball after a second location opened, he needed someone who could step in and take over.

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Seven Months Without a P&L

“I was essentially flying blind for like six, seven months,” Joe said. “And that was quite dangerous.”

The bookkeepers had fallen way behind. Joe knew he needed to fix it, but he was buried in operations. If he tried to handle it himself, he’d have to let the day-to-day burn, and he’d probably rush the decision on who to bring in next.

“I probably would have made a rather quick and harsh decision rather than properly vetting a bunch of new candidates and a bunch of new firms,” he said.

So he started looking for someone who could take the problem off his plate entirely. Not a bookkeeper. Not an outsourced accounting firm. Someone who could think at his level, but had the bandwidth he didn’t.

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Why Not Just Hire a Full-Time CFO?

It would have been too expensive. Terzo Group was doing about $3.5 million in revenue at the time. A full-time hire with the kind of experience Joe needed wasn’t realistic.

“We’re growing, but we don’t necessarily have the financial resources to afford a full-time person of Rachel’s caliber,” Joe said. “But there are moments where we could really benefit from that level of expertise and experience.”

He’d also thought about going with an agency that would handle everything. But he’d seen that play out before. “There’s something about too much of a one-stop shop sometimes where it doesn’t feel like they’re doing anything particularly well.”

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Finding Rachel Through Fractional Jobs

Joe had some skepticism going in. Hospitality is a niche world, and he worried the talent pool would skew toward tech-focused roles. “There are so many nuances when it comes to tipped employees, the way we structure and look at financials, COGS, all the different metrics,” he said.

When Fractional Jobs brought him a shortlist, that concern faded. “It wasn’t just like, here’s the one and only, take it or leave it,” Joe said. “There was a good amount of legwork and research that had been done to bring a spectrum of candidates to the table.”

Rachel Severo was the clear winner. She’d been a director of finance at another well-known NYC restaurant group, so she already spoke the language. 

“It just seemed like the right high-low mix,” Joe said. “The right personality fit for our type of company, but then also the intellectual horsepower to actually do the role.”

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The Cleanup

Rachel started with a structured project: get the books caught up, find and vet new bookkeepers, and establish a regular monthly close. She set it up as a phased engagement with a project fee, since neither side knew exactly what they were walking into.

She got access to QuickBooks, the POS system, and the HR platform. She then met the management team, and spent the first few weeks asking a ton of clarifying questions. Joe appreciated that she didn’t rush it.

“It was nice to have someone that could thoughtfully approach that project,” he said. “She had the time and the space to do it properly.”

Within a few months, the books were clean, the new bookkeepers were in place, and Joe had a P&L in front of him for the first time in over half a year.

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What the Engagement Looks Like Now

The project phase is long over. Rachel now works about 15 hours a month on an hourly rate. Her scope covers a lot of ground:

• Weekly reports on sales, budgets, cost management, and labor
• Monthly close analysis once the bookkeepers tie out the books
• Serving as the go-between with the bookkeeping firm so Joe only sees the stuff that actually needs his attention
• Special projects like building an internal inventory management tool and prepping financials for a bank refinance

Rachel has provided real results for Greats of Craft and Terzo Group. Monthly closes now happen on a two-week turnaround, which Joe says was the standard he strove for when he worked at much larger restaurant groups. Terzo Group went from having no budgets at all to weekly-level budgets across all five business units. And the whole orientation of their financial reporting flipped.

“We’re catching things on week one of the month rather than looking at the month-end close two weeks after the month is over,” Joe said.

Since hiring Rachel, the business has grown from about $3.5 million to north of $5 million and added two more physical locations.

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More Than Execution

One thing Joe didn’t expect was how well Rachel would work with the rest of his team. She’s not just sending reports to Joe. She’s communicating directly with managers who don’t have finance backgrounds.

“She’s able to share insights in a way that’s educational and not condescending or overly confusing to team members that maybe don’t even have formal education, never mind finance and accounting degrees,” Joe said.

And while Joe handles the big-picture modeling himself (proformas and new unit projections are “really my personal bread and butter,” he said), Rachel has become the person he bounces ideas off of when it comes to making existing operations run better. When one business unit was struggling to stay cash-flow positive, they sat down together, worked through different scenarios, and built tools that managers now use to track spending in real time.

“I think I can get things from zero to 0.5 fairly well, but it’s always very scrappy,” Joe said. “She can actually do things through completion and make it digestible and polished for others to use. And she has enough outside experience to lend alternative thoughts and ideas. Not just saying yes to whatever I throw out there.”

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Joe’s Advice for Other Operators

Joe recommends starting with a specific problem when thinking about fractional hiring.

“Go into it with rather clear objectives or goals as a way to build trust and confidence in what you’re getting for the money,” he said. “And then in time, if you can build the rapport, maybe it becomes more of a fluid thought partner.”

He also mentioned that Rachel is on their company Slack and is generally reachable for quick questions outside of their weekly meetings. That level of access makes a big difference. “I don’t know if that’s more on the rare side,” Joe said, “but I think establishing that up front is probably helpful.”

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If this case study resonates with you, and you want to bring in a Fractional CFO like Rachel, or any other kind of fractions leader, learn more about how Fractional Jobs can help connect you to the right person for the job. You’ll be working with Taylor directly.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is Terzo Group / Greats of Craft?

A: Terzo Group is a New York City-based hospitality company that operates five business units, including Greats of Craft. The company has about 50 employees and has grown from $3.5 million to over $5 million in annual revenue.

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Q: How did Terzo Group find the right Fractional CFO for their needs?

A: Terzo Group worked with Fractional Jobs, a white-glove search service for fractional hiring. Fractional Jobs presented LeaseUp with high-quality candidates, one of whom was hired as a fractional CFO.

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Q: What does a fractional CFO do for a restaurant group?

A: In this case, Rachel handles weekly financial reporting, monthly close analysis, bookkeeper management, budgets, cost control tools, and special projects like refinancing and inventory systems. The engagement runs about 15 hours per month.

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Q: How long did it take to clean up the books?

A: Rachel structured the cleanup as a phased project. Within a few months, Terzo Group had clean books, new bookkeepers in place, and a regular monthly close running on a two-week turnaround.

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Q: Can a fractional CFO work in hospitality specifically?

A: Yes, but industry experience matters. Hospitality has its own nuances around tipped employees, COGS structures, and F&B-specific metrics. Joe specifically chose Rachel because she had been a director of finance at another restaurant group.

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