Best Franchise Management Software of 2024: The Top 6

The best way to get a project done faster is to start sooner.

Franchises are complex businesses. Managing a franchise is not as simple as copying and pasting operations between outlets and letting others handle the difficult tasks. In markets with high competition and higher customer expectations, franchises must streamline their franchise management using modern tools and operate at the highest standards and efficiency.

In this blog, we have identified six of the best franchise management software to help you manage your business more effectively. You will also learn about the key features you should look for in your franchise management software to help you manage operations, support, visibility, and more.

Must-Have Features of Good Franchise Management Software

With the market for franchise management software growing at a CAGR of 9.58% (2022–2027), it is tough to identify truly capable software from the crowd. You can use the following features as your beacons—must-have features to be considered among the best franchise management software:

Onboarding

Consider the time it takes to shortlist and onboard new franchisees. Onboarding is an excellent way to set the ground rules for your franchisees from the start, which is why you should look for software with a convenient onboarding mechanism.

Inventory Management

It is important to keep stock of your inventory to achieve your goals of higher sales and revenue growth. An inventory management feature is a necessity, especially in the F&B business that deals with perishables. Look for software that provides high-end inventory management.

Contract Management

Contract management involves monitoring all your franchisee contracts to ensure compliance with terms and adherence to SLAs. Look for software that abstracts contract data and provides key insights (like important dates, compliance, etc.).

CRM

If you have a string of franchises across cities, it will help to have an integrated CRM in your franchise management software. This way, you can consolidate customer data in one place and quickly access key customer patterns.

Here is our larger guide on the top franchise management software features you must look for.

6 Best Franchise Management Software of 2024

Here are the top six franchise management software worth exploring in 2024:

1. Hubler

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G2 Rating: 4.5/5 (10+ reviews)

Hubler is an industry-leading franchise management software that helps you double your franchisee performance with automation, management tools, and AP/AR features. You can use this software for FOFO, FOCO, COCO, and COFO models with full visibility into your franchising chains.

Some of its key features include:

• Onboarding: Complete vendor onboarding through a mobile app.
• Vendor eKYC: Leverage integrated eKYC verification, eliminating the need for outsourcing to a third-party verification agency.
• Contracting: Easily manage and maintain complex contracts and tiers for different types of franchisees.
• Compliance tracking: Use configurable compliance modules to track franchise compliance with local and business requirements.
• Accounts receivable: Automate AR calculations according to individual contract terms for each franchisee.
• PoS integration: Integrate with most point of sale (PoS) software for automating a variety of analytics and reporting.
• Financial reporting: Generate reports for depreciation, assets, fees, licenses, operating leases, and much more.

You can speed up your franchisee onboarding and verification process by as much as 30% with Hubler, even while enhancing operational efficiency across all your franchisees.

2. VipeCloud

G2 Rating: 4.7/5 (31 reviews)

VipeCloud is actually a growth management software that provides you with all-in-one features for managing your business. It is mainly focused on the CRM, with tools like sign-up forms, pipeline manager, and email marketing.

Some of the key features include:

• Communication: Leverage automated sign-up forms, emails, and text marketing to your franchising benefit.
• Organization: Organize your sales pipelines with out-of-the-box sales CRM, featuring contact scoring and a scheduler.
• Integration: Easily integrate 3rd party apps like your email, calendars, QuickBooks, and social platforms.
• Automation: Set up AutoResponders, email series, and more with minimal data entry requirements.

VipeCloud provides other important capabilities, such as lead nurturing, automated meeting bookings, and more. The price starts at $25 for the Plus edition, as of July 2024.

3. EngageBay CRM

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G2 Rating: 4.6/5 (313 reviews)

EngageBay CRM is another CRM tool that can greatly augment your franchise management operations with key tools like all-in-one marketing, sales, and service modules. The software is free for up to 15 users.

Some of its key features include:

• CRM: Unlimited contact storage with key functionalities like contact and deal management, sales automation, and appointment scheduling.
• Marketing automation: Automate forms and landing pages, email sequences, and build your own email templates using this feature.
• Helpdesk software: automate and manage tickets effectively, and leverage different views for better clarity.
• Live chat software: Provide instant support with customized chat forms, shortcuts, and notifications.

EngageBay CRM offers integrations to AWS, Stripe, Mandrill, Xero, etc. Price starts at $12.74 for an All-in-one suite, as of July 2024.

4. Jolt

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G2 Rating: 4.4/5 (116 reviews)

Jolt is an operations management software designed for deskless or remote teams. Using this software, you can easily track compliances, tasks, efficiency, and more from a single app interface. It is ideal for restaurants and the food industry.

Some of its key features include:

• Jolt Lists: Create task management lists to communicate team goals and output expectations to all staff members.
• Jolt Sensors: Monitor food temperature remotely with intelligent sensors, helping keep your food inventory safe.
• Jolt Labelling System: Leverage the Date Code labeling system to speed up the printing process of expiration and other labels for food products.
• Jolt Employee Scheduling: Assign shift schedules to your staff with fewer errors and a user-friendly interface.

5. Jobber

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G2 Rating: 4.5/5 (255 reviews)

Jobber is an excellent business management tool for small teams. Jobber allows you to quote, schedule, send invoices, market, and get paid on a single platform.

Some of its key features include:

• Business operations: Easily manage quotes and follow-ups, credit card processing, reporting, and more. Leverage AI tools to improve workflows.
• Customer service: Manage online bookings, customer communications, job forms, and receipt printing.
• Job management: Manage your clients, schedule and dispatch your teams at the right time, and run daily operations from your mobile app.

Jobber also provides you with add-ons like customer reviews and campaigns to boost business operations. The price starts at $69 for the Core package, as of July 2024.

6. Marketing 360

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G2 Rating: 3.4/5 (55 reviews)

Marketing 360 is yet another franchise software that intends to help grow and scale marketing. It is ideal for small businesses to use to grow their operations.

Some of the key features include:

• Industry-specific marketing: Industry-specific marketing programs help tailor your campaigns according to need. You get access to marketing teams to help you.
• Online store: Drag and drop builder helps you build your own online store easily, without knowing code.
• Payments: Accept and manage online payments on your store with Marketing 360 Card Reader and Mobile App.
• Business management: Leverage the point-of-sale app to manage your customers, inventory, and more.

You can also use this software to send automated emails and nurture your leads using text messages.

Wrapping Up

As you can see from the available options, most software specialize in a particular area of franchise management. You can also mash together your own software suite by picking and choosing SaaS for different functions. You'd then have to figure out how they all integrate with each other and how to manage differing data access levels and hierarchies.

However, the overall operations and management of your franchise chain can be a whole lot simpler and better by using software that consolidates operations on one platform.

For example, marketing is better off as a separate solution because of the constant changes spam and deliverability guidelines. You need specialized software to keep your email marketing engine running. Tools like Instantly, Mailchimp are the best bet to ensure your emails get delivered. This is not true for the other pieces of the franchise software stack.

In any case, as much as possible, consolidate the rest of your franchise management needs with a unfied software for CRM, operations, and store management.

Hubler's franchise management software integrates all operations and franchise financials, from onboarding to report generation, into a single interface. Get 100% visibility into your chain