Use these when a prospect mentions a specific tool. Don't disparage — position. The goal is to be additive, not competitive. Start with the SBONet card — it's the most important conversation for Wendy's operators.
vs. Status Quo — SBONet Reports Only (Most Important)
SBONet tells you the number. Topline tells you what to do about it.
This is the conversation you'll have most often with Wendy's operators. They're not using R365 or Crunchtime — they're using SBONet and a spreadsheet and a Monday call. They have the data. What they're missing is the intelligence layer that turns it into action. This is the most winnable sales conversation because the problem is universal, the solution is specific, and you can prove it in 30 days free.
SBONet has all the data — SOS, labor, TPMH, void rate, QCD. Topline reads that data and does three things SBONet was never designed to do: it writes a plain-English narrative about what's happening, it prescribes specific actions for each GM, and it tracks whether your DMs followed through. Same data. Completely different output.
- Ask: "When your SOS is at 340s, what does your GM get from SBONet that tells them what to do differently today?"
- Ask: "How do you know on Thursday if a DM commitment from Monday's call actually happened?"
- Ask: "How many hours does your ops team spend each week pulling, formatting, and emailing reports from SBONet?"
- Offer: "We connect to SBONet in 15 minutes. I'll show you what your own data looks like through Topline — free, 30 days, no commitment."
vs. Restaurant365
They need accounting. You give them intelligence.
Prospects who already have R365 are using it as their financial system of record. They're not wrong to — R365 is excellent at that. The gap is that R365 tells you what happened to your P&L. Topline tells you what's happening in your stores right now and what your GMs should do about it.
R365 is your accounting system. Topline is your intelligence layer. They're completely complementary — Topline works on top of whatever back-office you already have.
- Ask: "When your labor is 3 points over budget, does R365 tell you which employee is driving the OT?"
- Ask: "When your void rate spikes, does R365 send you a GM Action Card?"
vs. Crunchtime
They know the number. You know the story behind it.
Crunchtime users know their food cost. They may even know it's off this week. What they don't have is a plain-English explanation of why — and a prescribed action their GM can take today to fix it. Topline is the narrative layer that makes the number actionable.
Crunchtime tells you your food cost is off. Topline tells you why it's off, which store it's in, and what your GM needs to do about it today — automatically.
- Ask: "When your food cost variance report comes in — what does your GM actually do with it?"
- Ask: "Does anything track whether they followed through?"
vs. HotSchedules / Fourth
They schedule the labor. You track whether it worked.
HotSchedules is genuinely great at what it does. Operators who use it can build sophisticated demand-based schedules. But a schedule is just a plan — Topline is what tells you whether the labor you scheduled is running to budget mid-week, and prescribes action before the week closes.
Use HotSchedules to build the schedule. Use Topline to know if your labor is actually running to budget — and get prescribed actions when it isn't.
- Ask: "If one of your stores is trending 4 points over budget on Wednesday, do you know about it?"
- Ask: "Does anything flag OT concentration before it happens?"
vs. Zenput
They track the tasks humans log. You generate the tasks from data.
Zenput depends entirely on human input. If a GM doesn't log it, it doesn't exist. Topline reads your POS data automatically and surfaces what needs to be done — no manual logging, no compliance theater, no tasks that are completed on paper but not in reality.
Zenput manages tasks your team manually logs. Topline automatically reads your POS data and generates the tasks for you — zero manual input required.
- Ask: "How confident are you that checklist completions in Zenput reflect what actually happened in the store?"
- Ask: "What happens when a GM is too busy to log their tasks that week?"
vs. Placer.ai
They show you external traffic. You show them what's happening inside their four walls.
Placer.ai is useful for site selection, trade area analysis, and competitive benchmarking. It's not an operational tool — it doesn't see inside the store. Topline and Placer.ai solve fundamentally different problems. Most operators using Placer are large groups with dedicated analytics staff. If they're considering Placer and Topline, they probably need both — but Topline pays for itself in Year 1 on operational efficiency alone.
Placer.ai shows you external traffic patterns. Topline shows you what's happening inside your four walls — and what to do about it. If you want to know where your customers are coming from, use Placer. If you want to know why your drive-thru is slow, use Topline.
- Ask: "Does Placer.ai help you when your void rate spikes or your OT is out of control?"
- Offer: "Topline pays for itself in Year 1 through operational savings alone — before any revenue upside."