Accountants for Franchise Businesses
At Approved Accounting, we have a wealth of experience in looking after franchise businesses, both acting for the franchisee and also supporting the franchisor.
We have an especially strong track record and expertise in building strong but simple systems for franchise models, so ensure ease of use for the franchisee, consistency of information for the franchisor, producing timely and accurate information for all parties. We have experience of using API integrations and other technology-led solutions to create bespoke systems to cater for particular situations.
Key features of a good franchise accounting system:
- Simplicity
- Efficient capture of data (digital wherever possible)
- Automation where possible
- Consistency
- Controls to minimise errors
- Clear and consistent reporting framework
- Key Performance Indicators identified (and acted upon)
Talk to us about your franchise business
Franchise Accounting Case Study
We have looked after several hundred franchisees for a national home delivery company for many years. During this time, we have been a leading member of the franchisor’s panel of accountants who look after their franchisees.
We co-ordinate their services and systems to provide a consistent accounting and reporting framework designed to be simple for the franchisees. We provide data in a format the franchisor can easily consolidate, aggregate and analyse in order to make strategic and policy decisions for their franchise operations.
Making Tax Digital System Development
In the last few years, a significant challenge was presented in the form of the Making Tax Digital system for VAT reporting. The system being used for accounting prior to MTD was not built in a way that would comply with the new rules, so Approved Accounting were asked to design and build a new system on behalf of the franchisor and the other panel accountants.
What was involved in the franchise accounting service
- Working with the franchisor and the invoice software provider to identify the key data required for the new system.
- Facilitating an electronic export of that data to be commissioned, providing key data for around 500 franchisees every week in a consolidated data source.
- Building a database, linked via API to Xero companies for each individual franchise business.
- Developing automatic links to import the weekly data for each franchisee to their own Xero licence each week (including sales and purchase invoices, payment data, journals for specific items, etc).
- Controls to minimise errors
- Building error/exception checking controls and notifications into the system.
- Creating the appropriate chart of accounts in Xero and a batch of reports designed specifically for this type of business, and in a format to be easy to understand for the franchisee, but also provide the franchisor with the KPIs required for monitoring purposes.
- Extensive beta testing to ensure robustness before roll-out to the whole franchise group.
- Writing user manuals and how-to guides for the other accountants to use, presenting the system to them in a workshop and providing training and support to ensure all users were able to operate the system efficiently, even without prior Xero knowledge or technical expertise.
We can make your franchise finances run like clockwork
This was an extremely successful project which worked exactly as we had planned and was well-received by everyone who used it. We feel it demonstrates what we can do with a very specific set of requirements and in this case an outdated system in need of updating.
Not all projects will require such a fundamental re-think as this one, but whatever the needs of your franchise business, we’re confident we can help you design and implement the pre-requisites of a reliable, efficient and consistent system to make your franchise operation run like clockwork!
Contact us today for more information on how we can help your franchise business
On top of our franchise-specific experience, our other accounting services will give you everything else you need, such as tax planning, growth and expansion advice, all the usual compliance services and much more!
