Shaqildi CPA Group
Accountants and Advisors
Thin margins, high volume, complex labor rules, cash-intensive operations, and constantly evolving tax and compliance requirements make restaurant accounting a specialized discipline — not a task for a generalist CPA who serves everyone from nail salons to law firms.
At Shaqildi CPA Group, we bring something most accounting firms simply can’t offer: real, inside experience in the restaurant industry at the highest level. Our founder, Ahmad Shaqildi, CPA, spent over five years as a pivotal member of the McDonald’s corporate finance team — supporting the U.S. restaurant system, international markets, and M&A activity across one of the world’s most complex food service organizations. That experience fundamentally changes the quality of advice we’re able to deliver.
We work directly with industry-leading POS systems like Toast and Clover — and understand how to reconcile what your point-of-sale reports versus what hits your bank account after tips, voids, third-party delivery settlements, and cash handling variances. We also know that prime cost — food cost and labor as a percentage of revenue — is the single most important operational metric in food service, and it's one that most outside accountants never look at. We do.
Spoilage, over-portioning, and theft are real P&L problems that compound quietly over time. Proper inventory accounting and variance analysis reveals where margin is leaking — and gives you the data to fix it.
Tip pooling rules, tip credits, FICA tip credits under §45B, overtime calculations, and the DOL’s evolving regulatory posture all create compliance exposure. We help you navigate these complexities as the rules continue to shift.
DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub generate 1099 income that needs to be properly reconciled against POS sales, accounted for net of platform fees, and reported correctly. Many operators are double-counting or misclassifying this revenue without realizing it.
Illinois — and most states — apply different sales tax rates to prepared food, packaged goods, soft drinks, and alcohol. In a high-volume environment, misclassification compounds fast.
Daily sales reconciliation, over/short tracking, and tip reporting require disciplined processes — areas where bookkeeping errors accumulate quickly and create both tax exposure and internal control risk.
Expanding from one location to two or three requires entity structure, intercompany accounting, and lender-ready financials in place before growth happens. Franchise operators carry royalty structures, advertising fund contributions, and franchisor reporting requirements that demand an advisor who understands the environment from the inside.
Our goal is straightforward: help you keep more of what you earn, invest back into your business intelligently, and build something that has real value. That means building and interpreting prime cost reporting monthly, structuring entities and compensation to minimize tax exposure, preparing lender-ready financials including SBA loan support, coordinating year-end tax planning, and advising on growth and exit strategy — whether selling to a private buyer or positioning a multi-unit group for private equity acquisition.
The difference between a CPA who has read about restaurants and one who has lived inside the financial operations of the world’s largest food service system is significant. We ask better questions, catch issues earlier, and bring strategies to the table that only come from genuine industry depth.
Shaqildi CPA Group serves independent restaurant operators, franchise owners, multi-location groups, and food service businesses across the country — bringing corporate-level financial rigor to the entrepreneurial operators who deserve it most.