Hungry Howie’s, with nearly 500 stores in 18 states, is getting ready to implement a new AI-powered restaurant management platform across all franchised locations, the company announced.
A partnership with Restaurant365 is aimed at standardizing inventory management, scheduling, labor management and operational reporting across the Hungry Howie’s system. All new franchisees will have to adopt Restaurant365’s accounting platform as well.
The brand began implementing Restaurant365 in pilot stores in August 2025 before expanding the partnership systemwide as part of its broader strategy to modernize operations and better support franchise growth.
For large franchise systems, these platforms offer a way to compare food costs, labor trends and profitability across hundreds of stores in near-real time. That kind of visibility can give chains an advantage over independent operators, who may still be relying on separate POS reports, spreadsheets, manual inventory counts and bookkeeper-generated financials that arrive weeks after decisions need to be made.
Independent pizzerias don’t necessarily need the same level of integration as a 500-unit franchise brand. But the underlying challenge is the same: They do need faster answers to basic questions. Are food costs creeping up and by how much? Is labor running too high on slow nights? Which stores, menu items or shifts are dragging down profitability?
The large pizza chains are investing heavily in tools that answer those questions quickly.
The move also reflects a larger trend in restaurant technology: Major chains are trying to unify POS, labor, inventory and accounting data so operators can make decisions from a single source of truth. For franchise brands, that creates more consistent reporting across markets and can help corporate teams spot systemwide issues faster, from food-cost spikes to labor inefficiencies.
The competitive risk is that larger brands can better identify margin leaks, adjust labor models and benchmark performance across hundreds of locations while smaller shops are still waiting on monthly reports.
Hungry Howie’s will use the Restaurant364 platform for:
* Inventory management
- Inventory management
- Scheduling and labor management
- Store-level reporting
- Food-cost visibility
- Tracking profitability
- Accounting for new franchisees
- AP automation and multi-entity financial reporting
Dan McKay, Hungry Howie’s vice president of technology, said the pizza brand is “committed to giving our franchisees the tools they need to run smarter, more profitable operations. He added that Hungry Howie’s wants to provide “real-time visibility into inventory, labor, and food costs on one platform built specifically for restaurants.”
Hungry Howie’s hopes that will allow franchisees to spend less time on back-office administration and more time focusing on the guest experience.
Other chain restaurants using the platform include Taco Bell, Burger King and Jack in the Box.
