Property management has no shortage of technology. But adding more systems doesn’t automatically create a better operation.

In this episode of Good AP Times, Megan Hardy sits down with Britt Roland of PeakMade Real Estate to talk about what it actually takes to build finance systems that work for the people using them, not the other way around.

Britt brings a unique perspective, having moved from property accounting into strategic systems. She shares how PeakMade has evolved its finance operation from 4 AP team members supporting 30+ properties to just 2 supporting 100+, while reducing manual work along the way.

But this isn’t just a conversation about automation.

It’s about knowing what to automate, what to standardize, what to customize, and what shouldn’t be changed at all. Britt breaks down how PeakMade evaluates technology, gets teams to rethink “that’s how we’ve always done it,” and even goes back to re-demo tools they already own before adding something new.

• How to tell whether you have a technology problem or a process problem
• Why every technology decision should start with the business outcome, not the tool
• How PeakMade measures the real ROI of automation using time and payroll dollars
• Why getting property managers and accountants on the same page matters and how PeakMade's monthly financial calls help
• When standardization makes sense and when a process genuinely needs flexibility
• Why stacking “best-in-class” tools can sometimes create more complexity, not less
• How PeakMade approaches AI, business intelligence, reporting, and cash forecasting
• Why checks, balances, and human judgment still matter even as more finance work becomes automated

The bigger takeaway: good technology shouldn’t force people to become experts in the system. It should make it easier for them to do their actual jobs.

For finance leaders, property management operators, and systems teams trying to modernize without creating another layer of complexity, this episode offers a practical look at what successful finance transformation actually requires.

Do you actually need a full-time CFO? Or do you need the right financial leader at the right moment?

Megan Hardy sits down with Clint Fendley, CPA, former public-company CFO, and Dallas Business Journal CFO of the Year, to talk about why more growing companies are rethinking what financial leadership needs to look like.

And Clint has seen this from just about every angle.

His career spans Big Four accounting, CFO leadership at RAVE Restaurant Group, multi-unit and franchise operations, capital markets, turnarounds, analytics, and now fractional and interim CFO leadership. That experience gives him a unique perspective on what happens when a business grows faster than its financial infrastructure.

Together, Megan and Clint unpack the rise of the fractional CFO and the point where bookkeeping, reporting, and a decent P&L are no longer enough. They dig into what changes when a business goes from 1 location to 5 to 15+, why an outside financial leader can sometimes see what an internal team cannot, and why the best CFOs are far more than spreadsheet jockeys.

You'll hear about:

• How to know when your business has officially outgrown bookkeeping and needs CFO-level leadership
• Why every stage of multi-location growth creates a different set of financial challenges
• What a fractional CFO can see when they aren't buried in the day-to-day
• Why sometimes the CFO's most valuable job is saying the uncomfortable thing everyone else is avoiding
• Why month-end close should be a daily discipline, not a monthly fire drill
• Where AI and automation can make finance teams dramatically better, and where human judgment still wins
• The surprisingly complex world of franchise accounting, fund tracking, and FDD requirements
• Why great CFOs need to understand the operators behind the numbers, not just the numbers themselves

Clint also shares what years of working across public companies, restaurant groups, franchise systems, and growing businesses have taught him about translating financial data into action. Because a report is only useful if the person running the business understands what to do differently because of it.

And yes, somewhere in a conversation about CFO strategy, multi-unit finance, and AI, we also managed to tackle the highly controversial subject of pineapple on pizza. Please don't cancel us. 🍍🍕 Some financial risks are simply impossible to model.

If you lead a restaurant group, franchise organization, or multi-site business and you're wondering whether your financial function is actually keeping pace with your growth, this episode is packed with the kind of perspective that comes from someone who has been in the CFO seat and knows what happens when the numbers get complicated.

Clint Fendley is a CPA, MBA-trained finance executive and former public-company CFO with a career spanning multi-unit restaurants, franchising, financial strategy, data analytics, capital markets, and turnarounds.

His experience includes finance and strategy leadership at 7-Eleven, serving as CFO of RAVE Restaurant Group, the publicly traded parent company of Pizza Inn and Pie Five, and serving as CFO of Latitude Food Group, a multi-brand restaurant platform with more than 100 company-owned and franchised locations. Clint now provides fractional, interim, and strategic CFO leadership to businesses navigating growth, transformation, and financial complexity.

During his time at RAVE, Clint helped lead the company through the pandemic, strengthened its financial controls, forecasting, and analytics, and helped return the company to NASDAQ compliance. In 2022, he was named CFO of the Year by the Dallas Business Journal.

Restaurant GMs are expected to control a lot. Food cost. Labor. Inventory. Guest experience. Team performance. And somehow, they’re supposed to keep everything moving when a Friday night decides to go completely off the rails.

But the best GMs aren’t trying to control everything. They know what they can control, and they build the right habits and systems around it.

In this episode, Megan Hardy sits down with Keegan Conrey, CEO of Decision Logic, to talk about what he’s learned from years of working alongside restaurant operators and hearing firsthand what makes their jobs easier, harder, and sometimes unnecessarily complicated.

They dig into what separates good GMs from great ones, including why consistency can actually be a competitive advantage, how strong operators create repeatable rhythms around the numbers that matter, and why technology should remove work from a restaurant instead of giving managers one more thing to do.

You’ll hear about:

• The routines great GMs build around inventory, ordering, reporting, and daypart checks
• Why restaurant teams push back on process and how good leaders create structure without creating robots
• The metrics GMs can actually influence, from food and labor costs to guest experience
• Where finance and operations sometimes speak completely different languages
• Why actual vs. theoretical food cost matters and what variance can really tell you
• How to tell whether you have a people problem, a process problem, or a technology problem
• What restaurant leaders should be asking vendors before adding another piece of software to the stack
• Why mobile, in-the-moment tools can be far more valuable than another back-office dashboard

They also get into AI, data ownership, implementation, vendor support, and one of the biggest questions restaurant leaders should ask before buying new technology:

Is this actually making my team’s job easier?

Because better restaurant operations aren’t about adding more processes, more dashboards, or more technology. They’re about giving great operators the structure and information they need to make better decisions when it matters.

Keegan Conrey is the CEO of Decision Logic and has spent years in restaurant technology working closely with operators across the country. Through hundreds of conversations with GMs and restaurant leaders, he’s had a front-row seat to the systems, habits, challenges, and technology that actually make a difference inside the four walls.

Most leaders think building a great business is about having the right strategy or the right systems. Steven Schnitzler believes it's something much simpler and much harder.

In this episode of Good AP Times, Steven shares lessons from a career spent leading through uncertainty. From late-night customer crises and the 2008 recession to navigating the pandemic as CEO of Port City Java, he explains why the strongest organizations aren't the ones with perfect processes, they're the ones that build resilient people supported by intentional systems.

We dive into what it really takes to create a culture where employees can make decisions, solve problems, and deliver remarkable customer experiences without waiting for permission. Steven also shares why onboarding is only the beginning of developing great teams, how leaders earn trust during difficult seasons, and why hospitality should never disappear as businesses scale.

You'll learn:

• Why systems should support people—not replace them.
• How great leaders prepare teams to handle the unexpected.
• The role trust and accountability play in building resilient organizations.
• Why investing in employee growth creates better customer experiences.
• How community, purpose, and hospitality can become a competitive advantage.
  

Steven also gives us a look into his latest venture Bite Club ILM, a community-focused dining experience designed to bring strangers together over incredible food and meaningful conversation, proving that hospitality has always been about much more than what's on the plate.

Whether you're leading a restaurant, growing a business, or building a team, this conversation is a reminder that processes matter but people will always be your greatest investment.

Tune in for an honest conversation about leadership, resilience, and creating organizations that can weather any storm without losing the human connection that makes customers want to come back.

Most companies think automation is about replacing people. Cijoy has spent more than 30 years proving it's actually about helping them do their best work. Coolest part? Cijoy is doing a thesis on automation, so we get really into the technical side of understanding automation at its core. And why do we nerd out? His thesis is on AP automation!

In this episode, Cijoy from GM Pilots shares why the biggest mistake organizations make isn't choosing the wrong technology; it's automating broken processes. From restaurant labor management to enterprise AI, he explains why understanding your operations has to come before implementing any tool.

We dive into:

• Why process should always come before technology.
• How AI can strengthen teams instead of replacing them.
• What separates companies that successfully adopt automation from those that struggle.
• How labor automation creates ripple effects across scheduling, inventory, costs, and the guest experience.
• Why every automation project should start with one simple question: What problem are we actually trying to solve?

Drawing on decades of experience in hospitality and automation, Cijoy shares practical examples, thoughtful perspectives, and a refreshing reminder that great technology should make people more effective, not less important.

Whether you're leading restaurant operations, finance, IT, or simply trying to make smarter technology decisions, this conversation will challenge the way you think about AI and automation and leave you with a practical framework for building systems that scale without sacrificing the human experience.

If your hotel tech stack feels like it's held together by spreadsheets, manual workarounds, and crossed fingers, you're not alone.

In this episode, we sit down with Chip Fritsch, Co-Founder and COO of HIA Software, to talk about one of the biggest challenges facing hospitality today: disconnected systems that make it nearly impossible to get a clear picture of your business.

With more than 30 years of experience spanning hotel operations, finance, and hospitality technology, Chip shares why so many hotels are still making decisions with yesterday's data and what it takes to build a smarter, more connected operation.

Together, we cover:

• Why disconnected hotel systems create more problems than they solve.
• The difference between looking at yesterday's reports and managing your business in real time.
• How clean, unified data is the foundation for AI, automation, and better decision-making.
• How hotels can build stronger processes and smarter systems without losing the "warm hug" of hospitality that keeps guests coming back.
• Why technology should empower your people—not create more work for them.
  
  

Whether you're a CFO, controller, hotel operator, or technology leader, this conversation is packed with practical insights on modernizing hotel finance and operations without sacrificing the guest experience.

Chip Fritsch is the Co-Founder and COO of HIA Software, a hospitality ERP platform built specifically for hotels. After years leading hotel operations himself, he set out to create technology that eliminates data silos, connects every department, and gives hotel teams the real-time visibility they need to make better decisions.

If you're ready to spend less time chasing data and more time driving results, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

Episode Presented by Factura.ai

For years, restaurant operators have wrestled with the same question: Is delivery helping the business or quietly hurting it?

In this episode, we sit down with Jake Schostak, founder and CEO of Catapult, a platform helping restaurant brands simplify online ordering, delivery management, and off-premise growth. Coming from a family deeply rooted in the restaurant industry and with years of experience helping operators navigate the evolving digital landscape, Jake has seen firsthand how delivery has transformed from a nice-to-have convenience into a critical part of restaurant growth.

Jake shares how the pandemic accelerated the adoption of online ordering, why many operators still struggle to make delivery profitable, and what separates brands that use delivery as a competitive advantage from those constantly battling operational chaos.

We break down:

• Why delivery isn't going away and what successful operators are doing differently
• The real financial impact of third-party delivery platforms
• How to avoid "tablet hell" and create a more seamless operation
• The role technology should play in supporting growth, not creating more complexity
• Why some brands focus on sales growth while ignoring profitability
• How to build a delivery strategy that strengthens your business instead of draining your margins
• What restaurant leaders should consider before expanding locations or adding new revenue channels
  

Jake also shares lessons from working with restaurant brands across the country and discusses how operators can balance convenience, profitability, and guest experience in an increasingly digital world.

Whether you're running a single location, managing multiple units, or planning your next phase of growth, this episode is packed with practical insights on making online ordering and delivery work for your business not against it.

Because delivery isn't the problem. The strategy behind it is.

Jake Schostak is the Founder and CEO of Catapult, a restaurant technology company that helps operators manage online ordering and delivery channels more efficiently. A lifelong restaurant operator with deep industry roots, Jake is passionate about helping brands grow their off-premise business without sacrificing profitability, operational simplicity, or the guest experience. His work has helped restaurants nationwide navigate the complexities of modern delivery while building more sustainable growth strategies.

Episode presented by Factura.ai

In this episode of Good AP Times, brought to you by Factura.ai, we sit down with Herb Taylor, Managing Director at Eisner Advisory Group, to explore a fascinating question: What if restaurants operated more like hotels, airlines, or even tech companies?

With decades of experience helping hospitality brands improve operations and profitability, Herb shares why many restaurants still rely on "the binder," tribal knowledge, and manual processes that create unnecessary complexity and risk. From handwritten checks to disconnected systems, he explains how these outdated habits hold brands back from scaling efficiently.

Fair warning: if you've spent years in restaurant operations and have a little PTSD from printer jams, missing invoices, and that one mysterious binder everyone is afraid to touch, you've been warned. In fact, after this conversation, we briefly considered naming the episode "Trauma Bonding."

Drawing lessons from industries that have mastered consistency and process, Herb discusses how restaurants can adopt more discipline and automation without sacrificing the hospitality and culture that make them unique. We dive into everything from employee experience and predictive scheduling to the importance of building a thoughtful technology stack that supports growth instead of creating more chaos.

Whether you're operating a single location or managing dozens of units, this conversation offers practical insights on how to move beyond constant firefighting and build a business designed for long-term success.

• Why hotels and airlines prioritize operational discipline and what restaurants can learn from them.
• The hidden costs of relying on paper processes and tribal knowledge.
• How technology can improve both the employee and guest experience.
• Why scaling successfully requires systems, not heroics.
• How to preserve hospitality while embracing automation and standardization.

About Herb Taylor

Herb Taylor is a Managing Director at Eisner Advisory Group and a longtime restaurant operations leader with extensive experience helping hospitality organizations improve performance, streamline operations, and scale sustainably. His unique perspective combines decades of industry expertise with a passion for helping brands modernize without losing the heart of hospitality.

Special thanks to Factura.ai, the AI-powered accounts payable and intelligence platform for multi-unit operators, and Eisner Advisory Group, a leading business advisory and consulting firm, for supporting conversations that help hospitality leaders build stronger, more resilient businesses.

Connect with Herb Taylor:
Herb's LinkedIn

Learn more about Eisner Advisory Group

Most companies are stuck in the past when it comes to accounts payable - drowning in manual tasks, endless paper, and costly inefficiencies that threaten growth. But what if there’s a better way?

Mark Brousseau, a leading voice in AP transformation, reveals how outdated processes are costing businesses millions in late payments, fraud risk, and lost strategic value and shares how AI and holistic automation can turn AP from a pain point into a strategic powerhouse.

In this episode, Mark exposes the true state of AP today: 84% of an AP team’s day wasted on manual data entry, approvals stuck in endless email chains, and paper checks still being written long after the digital age passed us by. He dives deep into the hidden costs; late payment penalties, supplier distrust, and even fraud vulnerabilities, all driven by broken workflows and outdated data practices. You'll discover why traditional automation solutions often fall short and how AI-powered tools can seamlessly extract invoice data, eliminate manual errors, and provide real-time visibility.

We break down the critical steps to transforming your AP: conducting honest workflow assessments, setting meaningful KPIs like cost per invoice and early payment discount capture, and embracing a holistic, data-driven approach. Mark shares practical strategies to cut costs, scale operations without increasing headcount, and turn AP into a strategic data broker that fuels smarter business decisions.

Whether you’re in hospitality, retail, or manufacturing, this episode holds the secrets to not just surviving, but thriving, in today’s fast-changing economy.

If you've been hesitant about AI or overwhelmed by where to start, this episode is your game-changer. Mark’s insights will inspire you to rethink AP’s role, from mere transaction processing to an invaluable source of strategic intelligence, and show you how to leverage technology to reduce costs, prevent fraud, and build stronger vendor relationships. Plus, learn how to avoid the biggest pitfalls, like hoarding paper or relying on tribal knowledge that leaves your business vulnerable when key people leave.

Perfect for finance leaders, operations managers, and anyone serious about scaling smarter, this episode unlocks the potential of automation and data in AP not as a cost center, but as a catalyst for growth. Ready to ditch the chaos and harness the power of intelligent AP? Hit play and start your transformation today.[Mark Brousseau is an AP automation expert and industry advisor known for pioneering innovative solutions that solve real-world challenges across multiple industries.

Efficiency Benchmarking Quiz

Unlock the transformative power of AI in finance and hospitality! Discover the real differences between generative, agentic, and traditional AI, and learn how to leverage these game-changing tools effectively.

Most people are overwhelmed by the AI buzz, mistaking superficial features for true innovation. Derek Henry, a CPA, fraud examiner, and AI educator with over 20 years of experience, reveals how AI is fundamentally reshaping industries, especially accounting, restaurants, and retail, by boosting efficiency, reducing errors, and creating new roles, not replacing them.

He shares insights on the buzzwords you need to understand: what makes AI truly impactful versus just trendy. If you're evaluating AI tools or thinking about integrating AI into your processes, this episode will give you the clarity needed to cut through the noise.

You'll discover:

• Why prompt engineering is the new career path and how to master it
• How AI thrives on quality data and why a strong foundational data layer is essential for meaningful results
• The practical ways AI is automating routine tasks in Excel, finance, and restaurant operations
• What makes agentic AI different, and how it can perform tasks beyond simple queries, like building reports and making decisions
• How to avoid common pitfalls—using AI as a bandaid rather than fixing root problems
• Why humans remain irreplaceable in hospitality: the importance of warmth, human connection, and excellent customer service in an AI-driven world
• Critical steps for restaurant operators and finance teams to start their AI journey without getting overwhelmed

This episode is perfect for finance professionals, restaurant owners, and managers eager to harness AI’s potential without the hype. Derek Henry’s insights will empower you to leverage AI responsibly, avoid hallucinations, and create new opportunities for your team, all while maintaining that essential human touch.

Derek Henry is a senior solutions consultant at OneStream, a CPA, certified fraud examiner, and AI educator known for making complex topics accessible. His passion for efficiency, accountability, and hospitality shines through as he explains how AI can serve as a powerful ally, if used with purpose and consciousness.

Don't miss out on the practical guidance that could redefine your approach to automation, data, and customer experience. Grab the knowledge to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving AI landscape.

Reference Tip: Here’s the link to a video of my favorite custom Excel hack: Watch here

Companies:

• ExcelEvate
• OneStream

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