Wahaca
Hear from Claire Peacock, Head of Finance at Wahaca, as she shares her experience of using Aqilla since joining the company in 2025 and explains how the finance team uses the finance and accounting platform today.
Think tacos. Think cocktails. Think Wahaca – a much-loved restaurant chain inspired by the vibrant flavours of Mexican street food.
Founded in 2007 by Thomasina Miers (best known as a MasterChef winner), Wahaca began with a single restaurant in Covent Garden, London. From there, the brand’s popularity quickly grew, and today it operates 14 restaurants across the UK.
From early on, the finance team was thinking forward about the needs of a scaling business. With multiple locations, high transaction volumes and the realities of hospitality operations, Wahaca needed a finance and accounting system that could keep up with its ambitions.
Like many growing hospitality brands, the team needed accounting software for restaurants that could handle multi-site complexity without enterprise-level rigidity.
The restaurant chain required accounting software that could:
Support complex, multi-site operations
Provide clear financial insight by location
Scale with the business without the cost or rigidity of a full ERP
That’s why the team chose Aqilla in 2011. Not just for what the business was then, but for what it was set to become. More than 15 years on, the finance team at Wahaca continues to use Aqilla cloud accounting software for its detailed reporting and flexibility.
Managing invoices, expenses & financial reporting for multiple restaurants
Like many multi-site restaurant groups, Wahaca operates in a high-volume, fast-moving environment. Each of its 14 restaurants receives daily invoices from multiple suppliers, creating a significant processing workload for the finance team.
At the same time, leadership needs clear, reliable insight at both site and group level. Being able to track performance by restaurant while maintaining a consolidated view is essential for informed decision-making.
This is where purpose-built accounting software, customisable for restaurants becomes essential.
User-friendly cloud accounting software built for complex business operations
Aqilla supports Wahaca’s multi-location operation by allowing all sites to be managed within a single system, while still providing detailed visibility across cost centres.
For Claire, Aqilla stands out for its usability and flexibility:
“From a user experience perspective, I’ve found Aqilla very straightforward and easy to use compared to other software I’ve worked with.”
The platform enables:
Multi-site accounting across all 14 restaurants
Customisable reporting without unnecessary complexity
Clear visibility at both site and group level
Claire is now working with the Aqilla team to further optimise the setup as the business continues to evolve:
“It’s highly customisable without being overly complicated, which many other systems can be.”
Why hospitality and restaurant groups choose Aqilla for accounting
More broadly, Aqilla supports complex hospitality finance teams with capabilities such as:
A flexible, highly customisable finance system
Advanced reporting at group, company and site level
Confidence that the system will scale with the business
Equally important is the personalised customer support. As Claire explains:
“We’re not just a ticket number – everything feels very one-to-one.”
See how Aqilla can support your finance team
If you’re outgrowing basic systems like Xero or QuickBooks and need accounting software that can meet more sophisticated business requirements, see what Aqilla can do for you.
