Introduction

AIQ allows Franchisors (Supplier (Vendor)) and Franchisees (Customer) to interact with each other and manage their Product and Product Pricing. 

For example, the Franchisor can:

• Maintain a Catalogue of Franchise Products centrally for distribution to Franchisees, allowing orders and deliveries to flow easily between the two. 
• Control pricing centrally. 
• Access the Franchisee Accountancy systems directly to perform Group Consolidation of entities (Franchise and Franchisee Companies), in addition to Profit, Sales, and Purchase Analysis comparisons.  

Franchisor Setup 

Contact your system provider to receive the following:

• Practice/Franchise Administrator privileges. 
• Training in company setup. As a Franchisor, you need to set up your own company in the system, and then set up and maintain each of your Franchise Companies. You can do this yourself or with the assistance of your system provider.
• Training in the management of your own Company and your Franchisee Companies, including, setting up users in both Franchisor and Franchisee companies with the appropriate privileges and access options for menus and reports.

See:

Setting up and Administering Group and Entity Users‍ 

How do I Set Up a New Company or Corporate Entity?‍ 

Setting up a Franchisor Company

This example deals with a straightforward relationship between a Franchise Holder and multiple Single Unit Franchisees.
 

Step One: Set up the Franchisor

Set up the company as detailed in How do I Set Up a New Company or Corporate Entity? 

During setup, tick Franchise in the Settings tab.

Alternatively, after setup, go to Setup > Company Details & Settings. 

In the Settings tab, tick Franchise and click Save.

Only do this for the Franchise Company. Do not do it for the Franchisee Companies. 

Setting up Franchisee Companies

Follow the instructions detailed in How do I Set Up a New Company or Corporate Entity? for each franchisee company.

During the Company Setup – Creation process, you create the following:

• The Franchisee Company ID to identify that Franchisee as a Customer in your Franchisor Company.  
• The Franchisor Company ID to identify the Supplier (Vendor) in the Franchisee Companies.  

All the companies can have multiple Customers and Suppliers (Vendors). 

Any Franchisee companies you set up will appear in your Franchise Administration group portal. From here you can log into any of the Franchisee Companies.

Setting up Franchisors and Franchisees Using Templates

Setting up and copying new companies with a template is useful if you have multiple Franchisee Companies. You can set up your initial (or prototype) Company as a template, with defaults such as Franchise, and an Item Catalogue. When creating Franchisee Companies, you can replicate the Supplier and Item Catalogue details to each company.
 

Nominating Franchisees as Customers and the Franchise as a Supplier (Vendor)

Step One: Set the Customer Defaults to Franchise

1. From the group portal, log into one of the franchisee companies.
2. Go to Setup > Default Settings > Customer Defaults.
3. Click Open.
   
   
    
4. Set the defaults. Tick Franchise to automatically flag all subsequent Customers in the Sales System as a Franchisee. For other non-franchisee Customers you might want to set up later, you can deselect it now or during the new Customer setup process.
   
   
    
5. Click Process.
6. Repeat the process for each of your franchisee companies.

Step Two: Add Franchisees as Customers to the Franchisor Company

1. From the group portal, log into the franchisor company.
2. Go to Sales > Customer > New Customer. 
3. In the Account Details tab, enter the Franchisee’s Company ID in the Code field.
   
   
    
4. In the Settings tab, tick Franchisee. 
   
   
    
5. Click Save.
6. Repeat the process for each of your franchisee companies.

Step Three: Set the Supplier (Vendor) Account as a Franchisor Company

Setting up the Franchise Inventory Catalogue

The Franchisor’s Stock/Inventory Items are held centrally and then released to Franchisees upon ordering. The Stock/Inventory facility does not prevent either Franchisor or Franchisee from holding other items in their Inventory Management system. This part of the Catalogue refers only to those products classified as controlled Items for distribution to Franchisees.  

Step One: Set up Item Codes

1. Log into the franchisor company.
2. Go to Setup > Codes Maintenance and set up Item Groups, Item Sub-Groups, Item Locations, and Item Sub-Locations

Use groups and sub-groups if you have:

• A mixture of Franchise Products and Non-Franchise Items.
• A mixture of Franchise Customers or Suppliers and Non-franchise Customers or Suppliers (Vendors), 

For example, in Items, you could use the Sub-Group to separate them. Or in the case of Customers and Suppliers (Vendors), you could use the Customer or Supplier (Vendor) Group field or the Sales Representative field. This lets you produce separate Sales Analyses reports for Franchise and non-Franchise related Products or Customers.

Step Two: Set up Item Inventory

1. Go to Items > Product Items > New Product Item.
2. Set up each of the Products that you will be controlling and distributing to your Franchisees, as follows:

General tab: 

Enter the Standard Price which is the Franchisor’s Selling Price per unit and the Franchisor’s Trade Price. At Invoice stage, you can override this Price and offer Discounts. Tick Issue Warning If User Tries Sell Below Margin? to produce a warning at Invoicing if the combination of these price overrides and discounts results in an overall price less than the Average Cost plus Margin amount.

Inventory tab:

Complete the Default Location and Sub Location.

Defaults tab: 

Tick Franchise for each item. Add Tax Code, Item Group and Item Sub Group details. The GL Defaults are the system defaults, but you can override them:
 

See:

Inventory/Stock Management System: Codes and Defaults 

  How do I use Code Maintenance to Control the Behaviour of the System?‍ 

Downloading the Catalogue to Franchisees

1. Log into the Franchisor Account.
2. Go to Setup > Default Settings > Item Defaults > Open. Here you will see the Default Settings for every item that you set up in your Catalogue.  
3. Tick Franchise.
4. Click Franchise Transfer to transfer each of these flagged products to each of the Franchisee Customer Companies.
   
   

When the Franchisee Companies open their Inventory System, they will then see the Franchise Catalogue Items as part of their own Inventory Master Records. 
 

Franchisees can modify prices in the Item Master Record, but cannot modify Last Cost, Average Cost and Margin.
 

Franchisee Orders from the Franchisor Catalogue 

1. Log into a Franchisee Company from the group portal.
2. Go to Purchases > Orders > New Order. 
3. In the Supplier field, enter the Franchisor ID and complete the Order Details.
4. Click Save.
   
   

See:

How does Sales Order Entry Work? 

How does the Purchase Ordering System Work? 

Multi-Unit Franchisees

In this example, London West is a Regional Franchise Holder (a Sub-Franchisor) with several Franchisees under it. It is also a Franchisee as it is under the Franchise Owner.

To set up a Regional Franchisor:

1. Log into the Regional Franchisor.
2. Go to Setup > Company Details & Settings.
3. In the Settings tab, tick Franchise.
4. Click Save.
    

Franchise Reports and Consolidation

Reporting

Franchisee Companies should use the standard:

• Sales Analyses Reports
• Customer Reports
• Supplier (Vendor) Reports
• Item Reports. 

The Excel Add-in provides facilities to develop further Sales Analyses (and other) Reports to your requirements.

Multi-Company Consolidation allows for further reporting, including overall Sales and Purchase analyses.  

Dimensions

As a Franchisor, to gain maximum benefit from these analysis reports, ensure that each of your Franchisees has been set up with all the relevant analysis codes in their Customer Master record such as Customer Group, or Region.

Franchisees should code their Customers and Items to get maximum benefit from their Sales Analyses Reports.

See:

How does Multi-Company Consolidation Work?