What Top Franchise Brands Do Differently - And How to Catch Up

Franchise operators have access to more data than ever. The difference between high performers and everyone else? They're intentional about which metrics matter and how they use them.

Across high-performing franchise systems, leaders focus on a set of financial metrics that consistently indicate unit health and scalability. These metrics go beyond top-line sales to reveal how efficiently a business operates, how resilient it is to cost pressure, and which trends are driving success.

Top performing systems prioritize:

• Sales trends, not just totals
• COGS as a controllable margin driver
• Labor efficiency, not just spend
• Cash-on-cash return and fixed charge coverage as signals of financial sustainability

What separates fast-growing franchise brands is their ability to consistently use data to benchmark key P&L metrics across units, markets and peers.

Want to see how your financial reporting practices compare to top-performing brands? Take our 7-minute survey for exclusive early access to industry insights.

When 'Good Enough' Data Costs You Millions

Here's what most franchise systems won't admit: just over half collect accurate financials from 80% or more of their franchisees. The rest? They're making decisions with incomplete or unreliable data.

The impact is real. One franchise brand with 1,000+ locations recently discovered its third-party financial tool couldn't process submissions from nearly half its franchisees. Other stores were blocked from submitting P&Ls entirely — for years.

When they fixed the problem, the difference was immediate: 100% of submissions were validated within minutes instead of days. More importantly, they could finally benchmark key metrics — sales, COGS, labor, EBITDA — across their entire system.

Which Metrics Actually Move the Needle?

Most operators track sales, COGS and labor. But without benchmarking against peer groups — top performers, similar markets, system averages — they’re missing critical context.

Is a COGS problem isolated to one location or systemic across a region? Which labor improvements will actually move the needle on profitability?

When key metrics are organized in a single dashboard and benchmarked against defined peer groups, patterns emerge quickly. Operators can see which locations outperform on COGS or labor efficiency, where cost-saving opportunities deliver the highest financial return, how individual stores compare to best-in-group performers and which challenges are isolated versus systemic.

Benchmarking transforms financial reporting from a compliance exercise into a performance tool. For fast-growing brands, it’s about clarity. Operators and franchisors gain shared visibility into what's working and where to focus action.

From Visibility to Measurable Impact

Franchise systems with consistent, comparable financial data can identify cost leakage earlier, reduce waste and improve margins by 4% or more by revealing hidden cost-saving opportunities that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Find Out Where You Stand

metiRi® by Revenue Management Solutions and Franchise Update Media are surveying franchise operators nationwide to benchmark the state of financial reporting across the industry.

Participate in the survey by February 24 and receive exclusive access to survey insights, early results before public release, and visibility into how your practices compare to high performers.

The brands winning today aren't just collecting more data—they're using it differently. Find out if you're tracking what top performers track.

Take the 7-minute survey now →

Franchise operators only. Survey closes February 24, 2026.

SPONSORED BY:
Revenue Management Solutions
metiRi® by Revenue Management Solutions helps franchise brands collect, validate and analyze P&L data. Used by 80,000+ locations worldwide, its AI-powered platform delivers financial visibility to improve unit economics and profitability by up to 4%. Learn More