DATA
Finance Consulting · Restaurants, CPG & Retail

Your numbers should
work as hard
as you do.

Most operators are running strong businesses with weak financial visibility. We fix that — building the systems, models, and clarity you need to protect your margins and grow with confidence. No full-time finance team required.

What we do

Nashville, TN · Serving operators nationwide · Restaurants, CPG & Retail

3686 Analytics FP&A Cash Flow 13-Week Models Pricing Strategy Inventory Management Dashboards Automated Reporting Annual Operating Plan COGS Optimization Product Insights Financial Modeling 3686 Analytics FP&A Cash Flow 13-Week Models Pricing Strategy Inventory Management Dashboards Automated Reporting Annual Operating Plan COGS Optimization Product Insights Financial Modeling
MARGIN
"The margin is in the details.
We find it — and we show you
exactly where it was hiding."

Independent operators deserve the same financial infrastructure as enterprise businesses — without the overhead or the six-month engagement. We've worked inside operations. We understand the weight of a slow season, the pressure of a busy weekend, and why the numbers have to be right on Monday morning.

3686 Analytics was built around one belief: financial clarity isn't a luxury. It's how you survive and scale.

Who We Work With

Built for operators who take
their numbers seriously.

🍽️
Restaurants
From single units to multi-location groups

Independent restaurants, fast casual concepts, bars, cafes, and emerging hospitality brands. We speak your language — prime cost, covers, food cost percentage, labor mix.

📦
Consumer Packaged Goods
Early-stage to growth-stage CPG brands

Food & beverage producers, artisan makers, and emerging consumer brands navigating SKU margin, retail placement, and velocity. We build the models your buyers will respect.

🛍️
Retail
Independent & emerging multi-unit retailers

Boutiques, specialty stores, and growing retail operators who need real inventory turn analysis, sell-through tracking, and a cash flow model built around their actual business cycle.

FP&A
Areas of Expertise

Eleven ways we move
your numbers forward.

We don't offer a menu of generic services. Every engagement starts with your specific operation — your cost structure, your stage, your goals. These are the disciplines we bring to every relationship.

01
Financial Planning & Analysis

P&L ownership, variance analysis, and forward-looking forecasts built around how your operation actually runs.

02
Cash Flow Management

End-to-end cash visibility so you always know what's coming in, going out, and what's ahead.

03
13-Week Cash Flow

The essential short-horizon tool. Rolling models so you're never surprised by what's coming next.

04
Pricing Strategy

Data-driven pricing rooted in real costs and margin targets — so every price change is intentional.

05
Automated Reporting

Replace manual spreadsheets with reports delivered on schedule. No more chasing data on Monday morning.

06
Dashboard Creation

Custom dashboards built for how operators actually review their business — at a glance, on any device.

07
Product Insights

Item-level analytics revealing which products drive margin and where your mix is leaving money behind.

08
Inventory Management

Tighter turns, less waste, smarter purchasing. Systems that keep shrinkage and over-ordering in check.

09
Financial Modeling

Scenario models and pro formas built for your business — from one unit to multi-location expansion.

10
Annual Operating Plan

A full-year budget and roadmap — sales targets, staffing, cost budgets, and monthly checkpoints.

11
COGS & Labor Optimization

Targeted analysis of your two biggest cost lines. We find the margin hiding in your current operation.

Not sure where to start?

Our Diagnostic is built for exactly this moment. Start there — one-time, fixed fee, no commitment.

How to Engage

Not ready to commit?
Start with a Diagnostic.

A one-time, fixed-fee teardown of your finances. You leave with real deliverables, real clarity, and a clear roadmap — with zero obligation to continue. Most clients do.

Entry Offer · One-Time Fixed Fee
The Diagnostic
$1,500 – $3,000

A fixed-fee financial teardown that lowers the barrier to getting started, delivers immediate value, and becomes the roadmap for everything after. Most clients convert to a monthly retainer — but only because they want to, not because they have to.

What's included
  • 13-Week Cash Flow Model
  • Prime Cost / COGS Teardown
  • Custom Operational Dashboard
  • Written Opportunity Memo
  • 1-Hour Working Session to Review Findings
Book Your Diagnostic →
Tier 1 · Single Unit
Essentials
$1,500 – $2,500/mo
  • Monthly close review
  • Financial statement prep
  • Cash flow forecast
  • Basic dashboards
  • Bookkeeping assistance
  • One working session/mo
Tier 3 · 5+ Units
Partner
$6,000 – $8,000+/mo
  • Full FP&A ownership
  • Lender & investor reporting
  • Annual operating plan
  • Expansion & refi modeling
INSIGHT
Data Integration & Reporting

Your data already
has the answers.
We make them visible.

Most operators are sitting on more data than they realize — POS systems, inventory platforms, accounting software, spreadsheets. The problem isn't a lack of data. It's that none of it talks to each other, and none of it's set up to answer the questions you're actually asking.

We take what you already have, connect the pieces, and build reporting that surfaces the numbers that matter — automatically, on a schedule, in a format your team can actually use.

This isn't a full IT or database engineering solution. We work with your existing tools and data sources — no new tech stack required.
01
Data Consolidation
Bring it all into one place

We pull from your POS, accounting software, inventory system, and spreadsheets — and consolidate it into a single, clean source of truth. No more toggling between platforms to get a full picture.

02
Automated Reporting
Reports that run themselves

Daily flash reports, weekly P&L summaries, monthly close packages — built once, delivered automatically. Your team gets the right numbers at the right time without anyone having to pull them manually.

03
Dashboard Creation
Live views of what matters

Custom dashboards built around your KPIs — food cost, labor %, cash position, sales by daypart, inventory turns. Visual, real-time, and built for operators who need answers at a glance, not a spreadsheet degree.

04
Product & SKU Analytics
Know what's actually working

Item-level and SKU-level performance reporting that shows you margin by product, velocity, waste, and mix — so every menu or assortment decision is backed by data, not instinct.

05
Variance & Exception Reporting
Catch problems before they compound

Automated alerts and exception reports that flag when something's off — food cost spike, labor overrun, cash shortfall — so you're acting on issues in real time, not discovering them at month end.

06
Custom Analyses
Answer the questions keeping you up

One-off or recurring analyses built around your specific questions — what's driving the margin drop, which location is underperforming and why, what happens to cash if sales dip 15%. We build the model, you get the answer.

Step 01
Your existing data sources
Step 02
Consolidated & cleaned
Step 03
Automated reports & dashboards
Step 04
Decisions made with clarity
Get Started Today

Let's talk about
your numbers.

One honest conversation is all it takes to know if we're a fit. Start with a free 30-minute call — no pitch, just clarity.

hello@3686analytics.com Schedule a Call →

Nashville, TN · Serving operators nationwide · Accepting new clients now

Why Operator Finance Is Different

We didn't come from a consulting firm.
We came from operations.

The Challenge
Thin margins leave no room for guesswork.

Operators across restaurants, CPG, and retail face razor-thin margins while managing dozens of cost variables daily. A 1% shift in COGS, labor, or shrink has outsized P&L impact — and most operators don't see it coming until it's already hit.

Our Approach
Systems built around how you actually operate.

We don't bring generic frameworks. We build financial systems around how your business runs — whether that's food cost cycles for restaurants, SKU-level margin for CPG, or inventory turns and sell-through for retail.

Multi-Unit & Multi-Channel
Scale without losing control of the numbers.

As you add locations, SKUs, or sales channels, complexity multiplies. We build the infrastructure and benchmarking that let you run a growing portfolio with the same precision as a single unit.

The Result
Clarity that becomes a competitive advantage.

Our engagements don't end with a report. We embed into your operation, automate the reporting, and deliver ongoing advisory so the financial clarity we create stays with you permanently.