In the franchised catering sector, administrative management is no minor matter. Between supplier invoices arriving every week, bank account monitoring, expense approvals and payments to be made, each recurring task ends up taking up a considerable amount of time — especially when managing multiple outlets. When all this workflow is still handled via Excel, the workload quickly becomes disproportionate to the actual value added.

A Starbucks franchisee has shared his experience of switching from managing administrative tasks using spreadsheets to the Azopio platform. The result is clear: the administrative workforce has been halved, and there has been a thorough reorganisation of internal roles. Here’s what this real-life case study teaches us — and why it resonates with any admin manager in a franchise or multi-site network.

When the administrative management of a franchise is still done using Excel

For a multi-site catering franchise, the administrative burden is anything but an abstract concept. Supplier invoices — for raw materials, packaging, equipment and services — arrive constantly and via various channels. Bank accounts must be monitored across several accounts, sometimes for each individual outlet. Expense approvals involve several people: the manager, the finance director and the external accountant. And payments must be made on time to maintain good relationships with suppliers and avoid late payment charges.

In this context, Excel quickly reaches its limits. Data entry is manual. Bank reconciliation is carried out manually, line by line. Approvals are sent back and forth via email, with attachments circulating between inboxes. Payments require data to be re-entered into the banking interface. Each task is simple in isolation — but taken together, they create a volume of administrative work that ties up a significant proportion of the workforce.

This is exactly the starting point described by this Starbucks franchisee: ‘too much time spent on data entry’, with the direct consequence of a larger administrative workforce than necessary. The problem is neither the person nor the tools — it is the gap between what Excel can do and what the operational reality of a franchise demands.

The turning point: a recommendation that really hit the mark

It was through a recommendation that this franchisee discovered Azopio. This is an interesting sign in itself: in a sector where the choice of an administrative tool depends as much on perceived reliability as on functionality, word of mouth often remains the most trusted source of information.

Three factors convinced him to take the plunge:

• The ease of use, which enabled a quick start without the need for extensive training;
• The platform’s clarity, which is essential when several people need to work with the same data on a daily basis;
• Integrated cash-on-delivery payments, which eliminate the need for time-consuming re-entry between the tracking tool and the banking interface.

What is striking is that these three criteria do not relate to technical capabilities but to the user experience. They reflect the reality of an admin manager who doesn’t have time to attend a two-week training course, who wants a clear overview of the status of each case, and who refuses to waste time retyping IBANs into a banking interface.

The 4 features that made all the difference

When asked which features he uses most, this Starbucks franchisee names four — and the order is just as important as the content.

Automated document submission

Rather than entering each invoice manually, documents are uploaded to Azopio — via photo, email or drag-and-drop — and intelligent recognition extracts the accounting data: supplier, amount, VAT and date. For a franchisee who receives dozens of supplier invoices every week, the time saved is immediate and cumulative. This approach to document management, integrated with pre-accounting, is one of the cornerstones of a tool like Azopio; find out more here.

Bank reconciliation

Every bank transaction is automatically matched with the corresponding invoice or expense claim. Whereas Excel required manual reconciliation, Azopio offers an automated reconciliation process that ensures only genuine disputed cases are flagged. For a franchise with several active accounts, this provides consolidated visibility in real time rather than a monthly reconciliation exercise. Find out more about bank reconciliation.

The validation workflow

Approval workflows — who approves what, in what order, and from what amount — are set up once and for all within the platform. No more back-and-forth emails with attachments. Each stakeholder approves directly within the tool, with full traceability. For a franchise model where the manager, finance director and external accountant work together, the process becomes seamless and auditable approval workflow.

Payment initiation

Invoices can be paid directly from Azopio, without leaving the platform and without having to re-enter bank details in the bank’s interface. This ‘payment initiation’ feature is one of the reasons this franchisee cites for choosing Azopio — and it’s probably one of the most tangible time-savings in day-to-day operations.

These four features share a common characteristic: each one eliminates a specific manual task. Taken individually, they save a few minutes. Combined and repeated over the course of a year, they free up the equivalent of half a full-time post — a figure confirmed by this franchisee.

The result: the administrative workforce halved

“Administrative staff halved”
— Starbucks franchisee, head of administration

The main benefit cited by this Starbucks franchisee is clear: the administrative workforce has been halved thanks to the time saved on each repetitive task. But the value of this feedback goes beyond the figures. What has taken place internally goes beyond mere time savings.

The time saved has enabled a redistribution of tasks internally, leading to better coordination between the administrative and finance departments. In other words: the same staff now focus on tasks with higher added value — analysis, monitoring and management — rather than on data entry and reconciliation. This qualitative aspect is often underestimated when discussing time savings: it is not simply a matter of ‘doing the same thing in less time’, but of ‘doing something else with that time’.

When it comes to ease of use, this franchisee awards the top score — 5 out of 5. This sends a strong message, given that the main barrier to adopting a new tool, in an already busy administrative environment, remains the fear of the learning curve.

What this feedback tells us about the franchised catering sector

This Starbucks franchisee’s case is not an isolated one. It illustrates a tension inherent in any multi-site franchise model: the administrative burden increases in proportion to the number of outlets, whilst the value added per administrative task remains constant. Once a certain threshold is reached, Excel can no longer cope — not because it is inherently unsuitable, but because it does not automate anything.

In the short term, the situation is set to become more challenging with the introduction of the electronic invoicing reform. From September 2026, all VAT-registered businesses in France will be required to be able to receive electronic invoices via an Approved Platform (PA). A franchisee who still manages their supplier invoices manually will face a twofold challenge: processing any remaining paper invoices AND integrating incoming electronic invoices in a standardised format (Factur-X, UBL, CII).

A pre-accounting tool with native support for electronic receipt processing addresses both challenges within the same interface. As Azopio is itself registered as an Approved Platform by the DGFiP, the transition from current management practices to compliance with the 2026 regulations can be achieved without having to switch tools or migrate data.

Whether you’re a restaurant franchisee, a manager of a multi-site business or an administrative manager within a network, the question is no longer ‘should we move away from Excel?’ but ‘when should we do so’ — and which tool can support the transition to electronic invoicing at the same time.