Best FP&A software for multi-location businesses and franchises (2026)

Multi-location and franchise finance teams need per-location P&Ls that roll up without a monthly spreadsheet stitch, so the shortlist is the tools that read the location, class or entity dimension straight from the ERP and let you compare sites against each other and against plan. For most operators running locations in QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct, NetSuite or Business Central, that means a spreadsheet-native platform such as Aleph or Cube; PlanGuru and Jirav suit smaller groups that want a packaged app, and Centage suits budget-first mid-market groups.

Before you compare tools, decide which buyer you are. A franchisor and an operator of many company-owned sites need different models. The franchisor's revenue is royalties and fees from hundreds of franchisees it doesn't own; the operator's revenue is every till in every store it runs. The tools overlap, but the questions you ask them shouldn't.

Bottom line: Pick the tool that builds every location's P&L from the ERP's own location or entity structure, compares locations on one chart of accounts, and models new-location ramp and royalties. Aleph is our pick when finance wants that in Excel or Google Sheets on live data; PlanGuru and Jirav fit smaller groups that prefer a packaged app.

Franchisor or multi-unit operator: which one are you?

They're different buyers with different models, so start here.

Franchisors earn royalties, technology and marketing fees, and initial franchise fees from franchisees they don't own. Their planning model starts with system-wide sales by unit, because royalty revenue is a percentage of it, and adds openings, closures and development pipeline. They need unit-level performance data they can trust, partly to manage the system and partly because anything they publish as a financial performance representation in Item 19 of the franchise disclosure document has to be supportable. The FTC Franchise Rule sets out the 23 items that disclosure document has to cover.

Multi-unit operators run the locations themselves, whether as a franchisee with 15 restaurants or a retailer with 40 company-owned stores. Their model is a P&L per location: sales, cost of goods, labor, rent, royalties paid if they're a franchisee, and four-wall profit. They need fast comparisons across sites and a credible model for every new opening.

Plenty of businesses are both. A franchisor with company-owned units runs the operator model for its own stores and the franchisor model for the system. The market is large: the International Franchise Association's 2026 Franchising Economic Outlook projects US franchise establishments growing from 832,521 to 845,000 this year.

What multi-location FP&A software has to do

Six capabilities separate a multi-location tool from one that just consolidates:

1. Per-location P&Ls from the ERP's own structure. Locations usually live as a location or class dimension, a department, or a separate legal entity (often a separate QuickBooks Online company per unit). The tool should read whichever you use, without a re-map every month.
2. One chart of accounts across every location. If each unit's books were set up differently, the tool has to map them to one structure, or no comparison means anything.
3. Comparable-location (same-store) analysis. A consistent definition of which locations count as comparable, applied the same way every period.
4. New-location ramp modeling. Pre-opening costs, a ramp curve to maturity, capex and payback, so expansion decisions rest on your own cohort data.
5. Royalties and management fees. As revenue for a franchisor, as a cost line on every unit P&L for a franchisee, and allocated corporate overhead for an operator.
6. Operational data next to the GL. Point-of-sale, payroll and labor hours, so labor as a percentage of sales can be checked by location while the month is still open.

How to measure same-store performance

Same-store (or comparable-location) sales compare only the locations that were open and trading normally in both periods, so growth from new openings doesn't flatter the trend. The definition is a policy choice, and the most important rule is to keep it fixed:

• Maturity threshold. A location usually becomes comparable after a set period of trading, commonly 12 to 18 months. Pick one and apply it to every location.
• Exclusions. Decide what happens to closed, relocated, remodeled or temporarily shut locations, and write it down.
• Calendar. Compare like days. Retail and restaurant groups often use a 4-5-4 or 52/53-week calendar so a month always has the same number of weekends.
• Same measure everywhere. Comparable sales, transactions and average ticket, by location, with the same cut-off for every site.

Then look beyond the average. A group whose comps grow 3% may have a third of its locations shrinking. The useful report ranks every comparable location on sales, labor percentage and four-wall margin, and flags the outliers.

How to model a new location's ramp

Build the model from your own history, not a single growth rate. Take the locations opened in the last few years, line them up by month since opening, and use the average curve as the ramp for the next one.

A worked example. Say a mature location earns $15,000 a month in four-wall EBITDA (location-level profit before corporate overhead), new locations reach maturity in six months, and the ramp runs 40%, 55%, 70%, 80%, 90% and 100% of mature profit. The first six months earn $65,250. If the total investment is $310,000 (capex plus pre-opening costs), the remaining $244,750 takes about 16 more months at $15,000, so payback lands at roughly 22 months.

Change one input and the answer moves. A two-month slower ramp or a 10% lower mature margin pushes payback out by several months, which is exactly the sensitivity a board should see before approving the next five openings. Our guide to scenario planning software covers running those cases side by side.

Royalties, management fees and allocated overhead

How these land depends on which side you're on:

• Franchisor revenue. Royalties are usually a percentage of each franchisee's sales, so model system-wide sales by unit and apply the rate. Under ASC 606, sales-based royalties are generally recognized as the franchisee's sales happen, which keeps the forecast and the books aligned.
• Franchisee cost. Royalties and marketing fund contributions are a cost line on every unit P&L, calculated off that unit's sales. Model them as a rate, not a fixed amount, or every sales scenario understates them.
• Operator overhead. Regional managers, the corporate office, shared marketing and technology all need spreading across locations to see fully loaded profit. Our guide to automating cost allocations covers choosing drivers and keeping allocated location P&Ls auditable.

How the main multi-location FP&A tools compare

The biggest difference is where the location structure comes from: read from the ERP, or rebuilt in the tool. Here's how they compare, based on each vendor's own pages as of October 2026:

The best FP&A software for multi-location businesses and franchises in 2026

1. Aleph: location P&Ls on live data, in your spreadsheets

Aleph connects natively to each location's books, whether every unit is its own QuickBooks Online company, a subsidiary or department in NetSuite, or a dimension in Sage Intacct or Business Central, and maps them into one structure. Finance works with every location's P&L in Excel, Google Sheets or web dashboards, with drill-down to the transaction, and the roll-up refreshes after every close.

Parachute Home, which grew from an online brand to 26 retail locations, used to export 26 store P&Ls plus department reports every month, a day to a day and a half of work. With Aleph that reporting takes about 20 minutes, and the retail team monitors store performance on self-serve dashboards during the month.

Considerations: Aleph reads the location structure your ERP already has, so locations need to be set up consistently there (one chart of accounts, one location dimension or one entity per unit). It's a planning and reporting layer, not a statutory consolidation engine, and it doesn't post elimination entries. Point-of-sale and payroll data come in through its connectors or anything with an API; check that your specific POS is covered. Pricing is quote-based, with a free trial.

2. Cube: governed comps across locations

Cube markets a multi-location package built on one governed chart of accounts with location as a dimension, comparable-store definitions shared across the group, labor as a percentage of sales by location, and a mapping agent that proposes how a new location's accounts map in, for finance to approve. It lists prebuilt connectors for QuickBooks, Sage Intacct and NetSuite, with point-of-sale and payroll systems connected through other methods. A strong fit for operators who want the model in Excel or Google Sheets.

3. PlanGuru: packaged planning for smaller franchise groups

PlanGuru markets franchise planning with unit-level and consolidated budget vs actual and cash flow, multi-entity consolidation for holding companies, and royalty changes and new openings as scenarios. It publishes its pricing, including a plan for multi-unit consolidations. A good fit for a small franchise group or multi-unit owner who wants a ready-made app rather than a custom model.

4. Jirav: driver-based templates

Jirav leads with driver-based templates and is common inside accounting and fractional-CFO firms, with published pricing. It suits smaller multi-location companies whose advisor already uses it. On NetSuite it maps only the Department dimension, which limits multi-subsidiary reporting.

5. Centage: budget-first planning

Centage brings budgeting-first depth, with GL-synced budget structure and personnel planning, and markets roll-ups across sites and entities with intercompany eliminations. It publishes entry pricing. A good fit when the annual budget, rather than continuous location analysis, is the main job.

6. Datarails (FinanceOS): consolidating location workbooks

Datarails suits groups whose location reporting already lives in Excel workbooks they want to keep, consolidating them behind an Excel front end.

7. Fathom: reporting across franchise networks

Fathom is built for accountants and advisors producing reports across many small entities, with consolidated reporting across up to 50 entities and published per-entity pricing. It's a reporting tool rather than a planning model, so it complements an FP&A tool rather than replacing one.

Restaurant and hospitality groups also look at industry suites that bundle accounting, operations and budgeting. They're worth comparing if you'd rather run the books and the plan in one vendor's system than keep your current ERP.

FP&A software vs franchise accounting software

Franchise accounting software keeps the books: each unit's ledger, royalty billing and the franchisor's own accounts. QuickBooks Online, Sage Intacct and NetSuite are the common choices, sometimes with industry add-ons. FP&A software sits on top of those books. It reads every unit's actuals, maps them to one structure, and adds the budget, forecast, location comparisons and expansion models the ledger can't hold.

You need both once you have more than a handful of locations. If every location is a separate QuickBooks company, our guide to consolidating multiple QuickBooks companies covers the options, and for locations organized as Intacct dimensions, see Sage Intacct to Excel with live data. When locations are separate legal entities with intercompany charges, our comparison of multi-entity consolidation software explains which tools post eliminations and which only roll up for management reporting.

How to choose

1. Decide which buyer you are: franchisor, operator or both. It sets which reports matter.
2. Check how your locations are set up in the ERP: dimension, class, department or entity. Ask each vendor to show your structure, not a sample company.
3. Fix the chart of accounts first if locations were set up inconsistently. No tool makes mismatched books comparable on its own.
4. Test a same-store report and a new-location model in the demo, on your own data.
5. Check POS and payroll coverage if labor percentage by location matters to you.

For mid-market groups weighing several tools at once, our guide to budgeting software for mid-market companies compares the wider field.

See every location's P&L on live data with Aleph

Connect each location's books, map them to one structure and compare every site against plan and against each other, refreshed after every close. Book a demo to see it on your own locations.