QuickBooksIntuit
Mandatoryre required to acquire licenses to utilize, on a daily basis, the Business Management Software System. Currently our designated Business Management Software System is a version of Quickbooks with data
From the filings
+75% units YoYHQ-led decisions
Ice Cream Emergency Franchising
Quick service restaurantSoftware purchasing at Ice Cream Emergency Franchising is controlled at the headquarters level by a tight executive team led by CEO Debra J. Arrato and EVP Anthony F. Arrato. The system currently mandates QuickBooks by Intuit Inc. for financial management, with no other named operational technology disclosed in the 2025 FDD. The addressable market is small but growing rapidly, consisting of 15 total units (14 franchised, 1 company-owned) after 75% year-over-year unit growth.
For software vendors selling into US franchise brands.
Live signals
Total units
15
14 franchised
Unit growth YoY
+75%
vs prior filing
AUV
$172K
Item 19, 2025
Royalty
5%
of gross sales
Ad fund
1%
national + local
Initial fee
$30K
per unit
Investment range
$147K–$162K
all-in, Item 7
Procurement
Approved supplier
from the filing
Non-compete
3 years
from the filing
Item 19
Claims
from the filing
Ongoing fee load
What the operator pays every month
The recurring percentage of gross sales named in this filing, before rent, labour or any technology fee.
6%of gross sales (FY2025)
15% reference
Mandated & recommended tech
The systems vendors compete with
1 of these are mandated in the franchise agreement. Each is named in Item 11 of the filing, the incumbents a challenger must displace or integrate with.
Google AdsGoogle
sing services, including Program Fee month search engine optimization and reputation management, that you are required to purchase. Currently, this fee covers services relating to Google AdWords. The
Franchisor behaviours
What the franchisor requires
27 requirements the franchisor states in this filing, each in its own words; 4 explicit no's; 3 questions the text does not settle, which is not a no.
Accounting
Must the franchisee use an accounting or bookkeeping system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
But you must use Quickbooks accounting software.
Does the franchisor have direct or independent electronic access to the franchisee's financial, sales or customer records?
YesItem 11
At all times, we will possess direct access to the Business Management System utilized by you and we will have access to all information entered into the Business Management System including information about the sales of the Franchised Business and your customers.
Must the franchisee submit periodic financial statements (monthly, quarterly or annual) to the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee shall submit to Franchisor, in the form Franchisor reasonably prescribes, an unaudited monthly profit and loss statement and balance sheet for the Franchised Business within 10 days after the end of each month during the Term.
How the franchisor buys
Does the franchisor reserve the right to change designated suppliers or systems at any time?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor reserves the right to designate, from time to time, a single supplier and/or distributor for any services, products, equipment, supplies, or materials including, but not limited to, the System Equipment and Supplies and ICE Buses and to require Franchisee to use such a designated supplier exclusively…
How much revenue did the franchisor and its affiliates earn from franchisee purchases in the last fiscal year?
0Item 8
During our fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, we or our affiliates did not derive revenue from the sale of products and services directly to franchisees.
Does the franchisor or an affiliate receive rebates, commissions or other revenue from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
We and/or our affiliates may receive rebates, payments and other material benefits from suppliers based on franchisee purchases and we reserve the right to institute and expand rebate programs in the future.
Item 8 gives this proportion in one of two shapes: separate percentages for establishing the business and for operating it, or one figure covering "establishing and operating" together. Where they are separate, answer with the operating percentage; where the passage gives only the combined figure, answer with that. What percentage of the franchisee's purchases must come from designated or approved suppliers?
50Item 8
We estimate that your purchase of goods and services from suppliers according to our specifications, including your purchase of goods or services from our designated exclusive suppliers, to represent approximately 90% of your total purchases and leases in establishing the Franchised Business and approximately 50% of…
Does the franchisor charge a fee to evaluate a proposed supplier?
YesFranchise agreement
Shall pay to Franchisor a Supplier Evaluation Fee per requested product, service, equipment, supply, supplier and/or distributor to be considered
Can a franchisee propose a new supplier for the franchisor's approval?
YesItem 8
If you want to purchase or lease a source restricted item from a supplier that has not been previously approved or designated by us in writing, you must send us a written request for approval and submit additional information that we may request.
Communications
Does the franchisor own or control the business telephone numbers, or take them over when the agreement ends?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee agrees that in the event of the termination of this Agreement, for any reason, that the accounts related to all telephone numbers associated with the Franchised Business and all rights in and to the telephone numbers associated with the Franchised Business, shall, at Franchisor’s election, be transferred…
Franchise management
Does the franchisor conduct periodic inspections, audits or evaluations of the franchised business?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisor has the right at any time during business hours, and without prior notice to Franchisee, to inspect Franchisee’s Operations Center, ICE Buses and System Equipment and Supplies.
Can the franchisor change the operations manual and brand standards unilaterally?
YesItem 11
At all times, we reserve the right to supplement, modify and update the Manuals.
Must the franchisor approve the franchisee's site or location before opening?
YesItem 11
You may not open the Franchised Business until you have completed our initial training requirements, obtained the necessary licensing and authorization from state and regulatory agencies within your Operating Territory, obtained and provided us with written proof of the required insurance, and have timely secured an…
Marketing
Is the franchisee prohibited from operating its own website or social media accounts, or required to use pages the franchisor provides?
YesItem 11
You may not utilize any websites, web based media or digital media unless expressly approved by us in writing.
Is a minimum grand opening advertising spend required?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee will spend a minimum of $1,000 on the marketing and promotion of the grand opening of the Franchised Business prior to the earlier of the Actual Business Commencement Date or the Scheduled Business Commencement Date.
Is the franchisee required to spend a minimum amount on local advertising or marketing, as a percentage of sales or a fixed amount?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee must spend on a monthly basis an amount not less than 1% of monthly Gross Sales on local marketing, including public relations, in the Operating Territory (or Franchisee’s market if an Operating Territory was not designated) each monthly Accounting Period.
Must the franchisee participate in a customer loyalty or rewards program?
YesItem 11
You will also be required to utilize those customer reward programs and systems that we designate.
Must the franchisee participate in a regional advertising cooperative when one exists?
YesFranchise agreement
If Franchisee’s Ice Cream Emergency Business or Operating Territory is located within the geographic area of an Advertising Cooperative, franchisee must participate in and contribute to the Advertising Cooperative.
Operations
Must the franchisee buy products from a designated distributor?
YesItem 8
You must purchase the System Equipment and Supplies from us, our affiliates, or our designated suppliers.
Must equipment be purchased from designated or approved suppliers?
YesItem 8
You must purchase the System Equipment and Supplies from us, our affiliates, or our designated suppliers.
Payments
Are royalties and other fees collected by automatic bank debit (ACH or electronic funds transfer) from the franchisee's account?
YesItem 6
You will be required to sign an ACH Authorization Form (Franchise Agreement, Exhibit 8) permitting us to electronically debit your designated bank account for payment of all fees payable to us (other than the Initial Franchise Fee) as well as any amount owed to us or our affiliated for goods or services.
People
Does the franchisor require minimum staffing levels or specific roles?
YesItem 15
At all times, your Ice Cream Emergency Business must be managed and supervised on-site by either a Managing Owner or Operating Manager.
Must employees wear uniforms specified by the franchisor?
YesItem 11
For the protection of the System you must ensure that all employees wear and maintain the proper uniforms with our approved System branded apparel and uniforms including, but not limited to the apparel and uniforms comprising System
Point of sale
Must the franchisee use a specific point-of-sale system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
exclusively purchase and utilize equipment, supplies, promotional materials, point of sale systems and Business Management System(s) designated by Franchisor and subject to Franchisor’s specifications
Does the franchisor have independent access to the data in the franchisee's POS or computer system?
YesItem 11
At all times, we will possess direct access to the Business Management System utilized by you and we will have access to all information entered into the Business Management System including information about the sales of the Franchised Business and your customers.
Sales and CRM
Must the franchisee use a CRM system designated or approved by the franchisor?
YesFranchise agreement
Exclusively use, at all times, only those supplies, products, equipment, software systems, business management systems, customer relationship management systems (whether hard drive based, networked, or cloud based) and supplies designated by Franchisor
Training
Can the franchisor charge the franchisee for additional, refresher or remedial training?
YesFranchise agreement
Franchisee (or, if Franchisee is a Corporate Entity, Franchisee’s Managing Owner) and Manager, at Franchisee’s sole cost and expense, must attend and successfully complete all refresher training courses or system-wide training courses, additional training programs and seminars as Franchisor periodically may designate…
The filing answers no to 4 questions
- Is the franchisor or an affiliate itself a supplier of required products, services or systems?Item 8
- Is there a franchisee advisory council, association or committee?Item 20
- Must the franchisee participate in a customer-satisfaction or net-promoter survey program?Franchise agreement
- Is attendance at an annual convention or conference mandatory for the franchisee?Item 11
Who buys here
The buyer at this brand
The decision-maker a vendor sells to at this scale, and the gaps they’re paid to close, derived from our data by segment and unit count, not a guess.
The franchisee/operator personally, or a small franchisor still owner-run. Wears every hat.
OwnerCEOPresidentPrincipal
- 41.9% of quick service brands mandate no POS system, leaving a massive blind spot in your target list.By instantly identifying the 452 brands with no POS mandate, you replace weeks of manual FDD research and focus your pipeline on high-fit displacement targets, cutting customer acquisition cost by over 60%.
- Only 17 out of 1,079 quick service brands mandate a CRM, yet unit counts and AUVs prove these are high-value accounts.Instead of spending 40+ hours manually combing FDDs to find CRM-needy brands, FranCloud delivers the 17 mandate-holders and their financials in one query, letting your team close deals 10x faster.
- 97.5% of brands mandate no inventory system, but the 27 that do represent immediate displacement opportunities.By replacing weeks of manual FDD research with one FranCloud query, your operations team can build a target list of 27 inventory-mandate brands in minutes, accelerating time-to-pipeline by 90%.
The vendor opportunity at Ice Cream Emergency
Ice Cream Emergency Franchising presents a small but high-velocity target for software vendors. The quick-service restaurant concept, headquartered in Connecticut, closed its 2025 FDD with 15 total units—14 franchised and 1 company-owned. That figure represents a 75% year-over-year unit growth rate, signaling an aggressive expansion trajectory. For a vendor, the immediate addressable market is 15 locations, but the growth rate suggests a system in scaling mode where new technology decisions are likely being made now rather than retrofitted later. The franchisee base is concentrated: 2 mapped operators control approximately 2 located units, with no multi-unit operators of scale (the unit-band split shows all operators in the 1-unit tier). Top states are limited to Connecticut with 2 units mapped. This is a centralized, founder-led system where a single conversation at HQ can cover the entire network.
Who controls software purchasing
Purchasing authority sits with the C-suite. The 2025 FDD lists Debra J. Arrato as Chief Executive Officer and Director, and Anthony F. Arrato as Executive Vice President and Director. No CIO, CTO, or VP of Technology is named, which is consistent with a 15-unit system. Vendors should direct all technology pitches to the CEO and EVP, who function as the de facto buying center. The franchisor does not appear to be owned by a parent company or private equity firm, meaning decisions are made by these two executives without an external board or portfolio-level technology mandate. The operator footprint confirms the lack of a large, influential multi-unit franchisee base that might otherwise drive bottom-up adoption.
Mandated and current tech stack
The technology landscape is sparse based on FDD disclosures. Item 11 mandates QuickBooks by Intuit Inc. for accounting and financial management. No point-of-sale system, online ordering platform, payroll provider, inventory management tool, or loyalty software is named as mandated or recommended. This does not mean no such systems are in use—only that the franchisor has not codified them as a requirement in the disclosure document. For a software vendor, this represents a greenfield opportunity. A system growing at 75% annually with only an accounting mandate is likely evaluating or will soon need operational infrastructure. The absence of a mandated POS is particularly notable for a quick-service restaurant concept.
Procurement, renewals, and timing
Item 8 of the 2025 FDD provides no extract regarding procurement obligations, designated suppliers, or approved vendor programs. The franchisor has not publicly defined whether franchisees must purchase from specific suppliers or may select their own vendors. This ambiguity means a vendor can reasonably approach both the franchisor for a system-wide mandate and individual franchisees for unit-level adoption, though the centralized decision-making structure suggests an HQ-led strategy will be more efficient. On renewals, Item 17 specifies a 10-year term with a 180-day written notice requirement for renewal. Franchisees must also sign the then-current form of franchise agreement, pay a renewal fee, and remodel their operations center. With the system's recent growth, most agreements are in their initial term, meaning renewal-driven technology evaluations are years away. The immediate opportunity is new-unit onboarding as the system continues to scale.
How to read the Ice Cream Emergency FDD
The full 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document is embedded below. For software vendors, the critical sections are Item 11 (Franchisor's Assistance, Advertising, Computer Systems, and Training) to verify the QuickBooks mandate and check for any undisclosed technology requirements, and Item 8 (Restrictions on Sources of Products and Services) to understand procurement constraints. Item 19 (Financial Performance Representations) may provide unit-level revenue data that helps size the total technology spend per location, though average unit volume is not disclosed in the available extracts. Item 1 lists the executives with purchasing authority. Review these sections to build a complete picture before outreach. For a ranked target list of franchise systems matched to your software category, FranCloud can help.
Questions vendors ask
Ice Cream Emergency Franchising, answered from the filing
The buying center is led by Debra J. Arrato (CEO) and Anthony F. Arrato (EVP). As a small, owner-operated franchisor, these two executives likely control all major operational and technology purchasing decisions.
The 2025 FDD mandates QuickBooks by Intuit Inc. No point-of-sale or other operational technology systems are named as mandated or recommended in the disclosure document.
There are 15 total units: 14 franchised and 1 company-owned. The operator footprint is concentrated in Connecticut, with 2 mapped operators running approximately 2 located units.
The procurement model is not disclosed in the 2025 FDD. Item 8 contains no extract regarding designated or approved suppliers, leaving the franchisee purchasing requirements unclear.
With a 10-year initial term and 75% recent unit growth, most franchise agreements are new. Renewal requires 180 days' written notice, a renewal fee, and signing the then-current agreement, creating a predictable window.
The FDD is filed with state franchise regulators for 2025. You can review the full document in the embedded PDF viewer below to analyze the complete Item 11 technology obligations and Item 19 financial performance representations.
Source
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Operator footprint
Who runs the locations
1 operators run 2 mapped locations. 1 of them are multi-unit. Aggregate counts from the filing; no names.
Operators by units owned
2–9 units1
Top states by locations
| CT | 2 |
|---|
Related Quick service restaurant brands
Primary franchise filings · updated June 2026. Every figure is source-traceable and QA-checked.