Background
Founded in 2002, Freddy’s is a national frozen custard and burger chain with 25 owned stores and more than 350 franchised stores. Amidst rapid growth of the business, CFO Bill Valentas had become frustrated with the limitations of the company’s generic small business accounting software. “Sage just wasn’t sustainable for what we were trying to do,” Valentas noted. He started looking for a new accounting system to support more locations.
Needs
Restaurant-Specific
When Valentas was introduced to Restaurant365, he was drawn to the team and the flexibility of the system. He quickly understood how switching to a restaurant-specific accounting software solution would be worth the investment, saving him time and resources as Freddy’s grew.
“All of our restaurants are separate legal businesses, and with a typical accounting program, we were constantly logging in and out of different entities doing multiple journal entries for a single invoice. With Restaurant365 we can see across our whole business and charge things intercompany. Just that function alone saves us multiple days of reconciliation every period,” noted Valentas.
Analytics Over Tasks
With fewer manual tasks each day and period, the CFO’s team has been able to redirect its time to do more advanced analytical thinking. “Before Restaurant365 we were working around the clock just trying to get everything done each period,” said Valentas. “Now, we’re really looking at what’s going on and looking ahead so we’re catching things that shouldn’t happen. With fewer manual tasks we’re able to reconcile every two to three days rather than once per period, so we’re always watching our cash. It makes a huge difference to the health of our business overall.”
Results
Restaurant365 has exceeded the CFO’s expectations for support amidst Freddy’s rapid growth. With the system up and running, they have opened 13 new owned stores without scaling the internal accounting team. With so much success internally, Valentas has recommended it to the company’s franchisees as well — improving Freddy’s operations nationwide.
If you’d like to achieve the types of results that Freddy’s has enjoyed since switching to Restaurant365, schedule a demo.
