EXPERTADVICE
I know a lot of franchisors have a common accounting system and service in place throughout their estates. We’re nowhere near getting there. How do we do it?
Franchisors are increasingly enjoying the benefi ts of appointing a sole accountant to handle the accounts and payroll for all their franchisees. It’s extremely valuable to have a professional service delivered by someone who understands franchising using a common accounting platform – particularly using the cloud (but remember, not all cloud systems facilitate head offi ce data mining). The problem of how to tackle implementation is a common one; something I have experienced many times and so I have identifi ed a clear route map. It’s not such a problem for a new franchise,
NEIL FOSTER
Neil Foster is the director of sales at EKW Group, the expert franchise accountants. With 28 years’ service behind him, Neil has vast experience delivering integrated accounting, payroll and business consultancy services to franchised estates.
where the provisions can be written straight into the franchise agreement, but what happens to a mature franchise with franchisees at varying stages of their agreements? Ideally, once a supplier is chosen, a ‘friendly’ franchisee should be selected to allow the accountant a ring-fenced environment to understand the document fl ow, design the reporting output and develop imports or
interfaces wherever possible in order to minimise bookkeeping effort and maximise accuracy.
Next, plan a launch that communicates the facility to your franchisees and it usually follows that a signifi cant part of the network will take up the service readily, especially if they are currently experiencing dissatisfaction. As the take-up increases, franchisees will
hear recommendations from their peers and the franchisor can encourage others to follow, particularly where a franchisee wants some form of temporary fi nancial support. Around this time, it’s a good idea to rewrite the fi nance compliance clauses so that all new agreements or renewals are mandated. Invariably, there is a core of, maybe, fi ve per cent of the estate that resists the scheme and there is usually a remarkable correlation between these franchisees and the list of non- performing franchisees being considered for termination. n
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fnews@vmgl.com Franchisor News | 15
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