Owner builds the growth system independent restaurants use to compete online. It brings together their website, online ordering, branded app, POS, AI phone ordering, and marketing in one system.
Today, Owner has more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue and powers more US restaurant locations than Domino’s or Taco Bell. The company recently raised $240 million at a $2.3 billion valuation, led by Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives. That growth brought more tax complexity. As Owner expanded across the United States and into Canada, there were more thresholds to track, registrations to manage, filings to coordinate, and changes to prepare for.
The team needed a tax system built for its next stage of growth.
A process Owner had outgrown
Owner had historically managed sales tax through an outside accounting firm that handled both bookkeeping and filings. That model worked when the company was smaller and its tax needs were simpler.
But as the company grew, the process became harder to run. Information was spread across the outside firm, state portals, separate credentials, and different channels for receiving notices. Registrations happened one state at a time and getting a complete picture often meant pulling information together from several places.
For Thomas Peck, Owner’s Controller, the burden wasn’t any single filing, but the work required to keep the whole process moving.
“We had too many parts of the process living in different places,” Thomas says. “The opportunity was to bring the information and workflow into one system we could operate directly.”
Sales tax could take several days of Thomas’s time each month. Much of that time went toward coordinating with outside parties, gathering information, monitoring deadlines, and making sure changes were reflected across the right systems.
The process was manageable but it was too fragmented and manual for where Owner was going.
Why Owner chose Anrok
The accounting team began looking for a system that would give them direct control and a clearer view of its tax obligations.
Cost mattered, but it wasn’t the main reason for the change. The team wanted to see where they had obligations, which registration thresholds were approaching, what needed attention, and how tax would fit into the company’s regular accounting process.
Anrok brought those pieces together.
Instead of managing tax across separate firms, portals, and trackers, Owner could use one system to monitor its exposure, prepare for new registrations, and manage the monthly workflow. Anrok gave Thomas the visibility he needed without requiring him to assemble the picture himself.
“Tax used to be driven by a collection of outside deadlines and systems,” Thomas says. “Anrok brought it into one operating rhythm.”
From days of work to hours
The impact was immediate.
Owner’s annual tax spend declined by roughly 20%. The time Thomas spent on tax dropped from several days each month to a few hours.
Anrok also changed how tax fit into the monthly close. Instead of treating it as a separate project, Thomas could manage it through one reconciliation line, a consistent workflow, and a clear view of the exceptions that needed his attention.
The work became easier to plan because Anrok handled much of the monitoring in the background.
That predictability was more important than the time savings alone. Thomas no longer had to piece together information from several places to understand what was coming next.
Seeing new requirements before they become urgent
As a software company grows, its tax obligations don’t stay still. New states, countries, products, and regulations can all change what the company needs to collect and where it needs to register.
Anrok’s threshold monitoring gives Owner advance visibility as the company approaches registration requirements in new jurisdictions. Thomas can see what is coming and start preparing before it turns into an urgent project.
“Anrok helps us identify upcoming registration requirements before they become a problem,” Thomas says.
That visibility also gives other teams more time to prepare. If a tax change could affect invoices or customers, Finance can coordinate with the business before the change takes effect.
Instead of reacting to one deadline at a time, Owner can plan around its changing obligations.
A repeatable model for expansion
This operating model has become especially useful as the company expands into Canada.
Under the old approach, entering a new country could have meant finding another outside expert, creating another set of handoffs, and running another process alongside the existing one.
With Anrok, Owner can extend the system it already uses.
“When we expand into a new jurisdiction, it becomes a configuration exercise rather than a search for an entirely new operating model,” Thomas says. “We can build on the infrastructure Anrok has already given us.”
Changing regulations provide another example. California’s new tax rules for digital products take effect in 2027. With Anrok in place, Owner can evaluate how the rules apply, model the potential impact, and prepare before the effective date.
The requirements will differ by jurisdiction, but the team no longer needs to rebuild its tax process every time they do.
Tax infrastructure built for Owner’s next stage
Anrok helped Owner replace a fragmented, time-consuming process with a predictable system built to support its growth.
Work that once took several days each month now takes a few hours. Annual tax costs have declined by roughly 20%. Owner can see new registration requirements earlier and extend the same operating model as it enters new markets.
The result is less tax work and more control over when and how that work happens.
“The time savings are real,” Thomas says. “But the bigger change is that the work is now schedulable. We know what is coming, we can prepare for it, and I can spend more of my time helping the business grow.”
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