Comparison
Multi-store POS reporting vs franchise software: what each actually does
Your POS already shows revenue by location. This page is about the six things it does not do, which products do them, and when you genuinely do not need a second system.
In short
POS-native dashboards from Clover, Toast, Square and Lightspeed report sales across their own locations well and cost nothing extra. They stop at sales. Franchise software such as Stores360 adds brand-standard audits, royalty invoicing, acknowledged announcements and an immutable audit log across mixed-POS estates, from $87 per store per month.
Capability by capability
Every “partial” says what is and is not covered. Other vendors’ prices are linked, not quoted, so you always see the current figure.
| Product | Reads sales across locations | Mixed-POS estates | Brand-standard audits with photos | Royalty invoicing | Announcement acknowledgement | Immutable audit log | Price basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clover DashboardPOS-native dashboards | YesEvery Clover merchant location, live. | NoClover locations only. | No | No | No | PartialEmployee and till activity at the location; no head-office change record. | Per device, per plan — see Clover pricing |
| Toast | YesEvery restaurant in the Toast group, live. | NoToast restaurants only. | No | No | No | PartialTill and menu change history per restaurant; no cross-brand record of head-office actions. | Per location, per plan — see Toast pricing |
| Square Dashboard | YesEvery Square location on the account, live. | NoSquare locations only. | No | No | No | PartialAccount activity log; not a record of operational decisions across a franchise network. | Per location, per plan, plus processing — see Square pricing |
| Lightspeed | YesEvery Lightspeed outlet on the account. | NoLightspeed outlets only. | No | No | No | PartialRegister and inventory history; no head-office change record. | Per location, per plan — see Lightspeed pricing |
| Looker StudioGeneric BI | PartialOnly through connectors or exports you build and maintain for each POS. | PartialPossible once you have modelled every POS export to one schema yourself. | No | PartialA calculation you write; no invoice, no statement, no dispute trail. | No | No | Free tier and a paid Pro tier — see Looker Studio |
| Power BI | PartialOnly through connectors or exports you build and maintain for each POS. | PartialPossible once you have modelled every POS export to one schema yourself. | No | PartialA calculation you write; no invoice, no statement, no dispute trail. | No | No | Per user, per plan — see Power BI pricing |
| FranchiseSoftFranchise suites | PartialSales reported or imported by franchisees for royalty purposes; confirm POS coverage for your estate. | PartialDepends on what each franchisee can report or import. | YesField audit and inspection module. | YesRoyalty management is a core module. | PartialIntranet and messaging; confirm whether receipt is recorded per location. | PartialModule-level history; confirm whether it is tamper-evident. | On request |
| KORONA POS | YesEvery KORONA-equipped store, live — it is the POS. | NoKORONA stores only. | No | PartialFranchise royalty reporting; invoicing is done outside the product. | No | PartialTill and inventory history; no head-office change record. | Per terminal, per plan — see KORONA pricing |
| Stores360Stores360 | PartialClover and Toast read live through their APIs today. Square is planned; other POS systems on request. | YesClover and Toast stores shown side by side on one dashboard. | YesChecklists on a phone with photo evidence, scores and automatic corrective actions. | YesPolicies applied to POS-derived sales; period billing runs; per-location invoices. | YesEvery announcement records who received and acknowledged it, by location. | YesImmutable record of consequential actions by head office and operators. | From $87 per store, per month, no per-user fees |
Yes — in the product as sold Partial — see note No — not a feature of the product
When the POS dashboard is enough
If every location runs the same POS, you do not charge royalties, you do not audit stores against a standard, and nobody has ever asked you to prove who was told what and when, your POS dashboard is the right tool and this page should save you a subscription. Multi-location revenue, item mix, labour and hourly patterns are all there, and the vendor keeps it current for free.
- One POS across every location, and no plan to change it
- Company-owned stores, so there is no royalty and no franchisee to reconcile with
- Standards are enforced by visiting, not by evidence a third party could read
- No lender, buyer or franchisee has asked for a record of decisions
When it is not
The moment the estate is not uniform — two POS brands after an acquisition, a franchisee who chose their own till, a car wash and a laundromat under one owner — the POS dashboard shows you a fraction of the business and asks you to rebuild the rest in a spreadsheet. The same happens the first time a royalty is disputed, an audit failure has to be proven, or a franchisee says the announcement never reached them.
- Sales from more than one POS brand that have to be read together, on one trading-day definition
- Royalties computed from actual sales and invoiced, with the working visible to both sides
- Audits with photo evidence, scores and corrective actions that close
- Announcements that record receipt and acknowledgement per location
- A record of consequential changes that nobody can edit afterwards
The methods behind the table
Written to be useful whichever column you end up in.
How to track sales across multiple store locations
One comparable number per store per day — including the details that quietly break most multi-site sales reports.
How to connect a POS to head-office reporting
What a POS integration has to get right before head office should believe a single number it produces.
How to calculate and invoice franchise royalties
Turn the monthly royalty spreadsheet into a policy, a billing run and an invoice per location.
Frequently asked questions
Does Stores360 replace my POS?
No. Stores360 reads from the POS you already run and never changes anything at the till. Clover and Toast are read live through their APIs today; Square is planned. Your POS dashboard keeps working exactly as it does now.
My whole estate is on one POS. Why would I need anything else?
For sales reporting alone, you probably do not. The reasons operators on a single POS still adopt Stores360 are the things a POS does not do: audits with evidence, royalty invoicing from actual sales, announcements that record acknowledgement, and an audit log that survives staff turnover and disputes.
Can I get the same result with Looker Studio or Power BI?
For the sales picture, yes, if someone builds and maintains a connector or export pipeline for each POS and models them to one schema. For audits, royalty invoices, acknowledgements and an immutable log, no: those are workflows with evidence and records, not charts.
How do franchise suites like FranchiseSoft compare?
Franchise suites are broad: franchise sales CRM, training, intranet, royalties and audits in one product, usually priced on request. Stores360 is narrower and starts from the POS: sales read directly from each location rather than reported by the franchisee, with audits, royalties and records built on that. Mixed-POS estates under fifty stores are where it fits best.
What does "reads sales across locations" mean for mixed estates?
A Clover store and a Toast store appear on the same dashboard, on the same trading-day definition, and can be ranked against each other. A POS-native dashboard can only show its own locations; comparing across brands means exporting and reconciling by hand.
Is the table kept up to date?
It is reviewed when we change what Stores360 does and when a vendor we name changes a listed capability. Prices for other products are deliberately not stated — their pricing pages are linked so you always see the current figure.
Looking for a shortlist rather than a table? See the best franchise management software for small multi-location operators, or how each POS is read on integrations.
Running more than one POS?
Tell us which tills your stores run and how many locations there are. From $87 per store, per month, with setup and onboarding included.