The Franchisor
Stats
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Franchising Since: 2005
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Multi-Unit Franchisees: 8
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Total Franchise Units: 426
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Company Owned Units: 3
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Total Unit Cost: $300,000 to $500,000
Store Formats
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Drive-thrus, food courts, stand-alone;
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Lifestyle centers, inline/end-cap retail;
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Airports, colleges, office buildings; and
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Convenience stores, free-standing kiosks.
The Franchisee
Systems
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QuickBooks Online
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Aloha
Challenges
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We never know how much money we need to make to be profitable.
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QuickBooks entries are made by the owner/operator once a quarter.
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Prior to running payroll, we need to check our bank statement, our QuickBooks and our internal notes on food purchases.
Results/Benefits
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Automatic daily bank account reconciliation.
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Numbers to backup our business decisions are available on a daily basis.
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Saved $5,000 a year on bookkeeping fees.
Introduction
At the dawn of a new millennium, in 2003 to be exact – the very first Which Wich® was born. Each and every Which Wich® location is filled with positive values and good Vibes—five official Vibes to be exact. Which Wich® Superior Sandwiches fans just can’t get enough of their simple, yet sophisticated ordering system that lets them create a sandwich to their liking, while experiencing the positivity and good vibes flowing out of all Which Wich® locations.
Restaurant management vs financial management
As with all franchises, we always had a group of under-performing units. So we purchased restaurant management software that allows us to run detailed reports comparing sales and expenses down to the menu item for all of our locations. Today at corporate, we have a 150 page daily report that was designed to help us with restaurant management. But, we never see the whole picture like our franchisees see. When approached, we usually find they need help with things that our reports do not highlight.
Our under-performing franchisees complained that they were not making enough money to cover rent or payroll. We were at a loss because we helped them pick their location and provided a site evaluation to ensure it was in line with our winning business model. We were surprised because our analytics showed strong sales.
“While we were targeting sales, our franchisees were targeting profit.”
Relying on a our management reports for menu selection, prep, and sourcing worked well, but that was not the solution for helping under-performing units. We found that our under-performing units had books that were either weeks behind, or non-existent.
POS Link, real-time accounting for franchises
A 5-unit franchisee decided to try POS Link to link their Aloha systems directly to one QuickBooks Online company. Daily sales transactions were captured by their Aloha system and was imported into QuickBooks each morning without a single mouse click. With adjusting journal entries for rent, they were given the ability to run their financial reports on a bi-weekly basis, breaking out all locations side-by-side on a single report, while using QuickBooks to determine their true cash balance, that is their cash balance after outstanding obligations.
“Now, I can see exactly which of my 5 locations needs my attention.”
Each morning the business owner woke, not just to a “POS snapshot”, but to a daily P&L containing the prior day’s sales as well as the expenses captured by the accounting system. And the data was imported on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays; the busier, more important days when the owner did not have the time to perform many data entry tasks. When online banking imports were added, the daily sales were matched to bank deposits providing confirmation of data accuracy.
Closing the communication loop
We discovered that our 150 page reports are vital to our success as a franchise; and proper accounting is vital to the success of our franchisees. With POS Link, Which Wich® franchisees have the bulk of the information they need to understand their financial position and their problem areas entered automatically. Additionally, their up-to-date books gives them time to plan ahead for a loan when they start to see their true cash position approach $0. After all, banks and investors read quarterly financial statements, not 150 page sales breakdowns.
“POS Link provides essential training without it being training.”