Why you’re losing track of franchise royalty payments (and what to do about it)

03/18/2019

You started your franchise with the goal of growing your income exponentially through franchise royalty payments. The reality is: you’re now spending exponentially more time tracking and collecting these franchise royalty payments. Not quite what you envisioned? If you’re struggling to keep up with royalty payments, it’s important to figure out why so that you can take the necessary steps to improve processes.

Here are some common roadblocks that may be getting in the way of tracking and collecting your franchise royalty payments. 

You’re not getting real-time sales data

If you’re using a static spreadsheet to track royalties, you’re not getting the real-time sales data you need to create an accurate picture of your royalty income. Without real-time sales data, your royalties are based on the sales your franchises submit, when they submit them. You need a way to view real-time sales data so that you know the real status of your franchise royalties at any point in time.

You lack a central source of truth

A central spreadsheet with multiple editors is at risk for version control issues. In order to accurately apply and track adjustments to royalties, you need to make sure everyone is making updates to the latest data. You also need a way to manage collaborative editing so that you can maintain a central source of truth and see a log of changes made along the way.

Your payment process is complicated

When it comes to royalty payments, several incompatible systems often coexist within one organization. And these systems are often outdated. Have you noticed that accounting departments still seem overly dependent on the fax? To collect royalties efficiently, you’ll need to make the process as smooth as possible by reducing the steps to get paid.

You’re waiting for the cheque to arrive

Royalty payments aren’t “just another bill to be paid,” they are key to keeping your franchise running. The time spent waiting for the cheque to arrive is time that could be spent investing this money back in your business. So don’t wait, automate. Once verified and submitted, use automation to credit funds due from franchisees into your account.

You can’t confirm accuracy

Are you spending time reconciling your records? How would you know if there was an anomaly? Flags should be built into your royalty collection system for loss prevention and other anomalies. You should also have a verification system to prove that statements were sent out and received, so you can pull up the evidence when a franchisee says, “I didn’t get the statement.”

Remove the roadblocks to tracking and collecting franchise royalties with franchise management software. 

At Waterstreet, our FranchiZOR solution includes royalty management features to help franchises keep a central record of real-time sales data and automate the calculation and collection of royalty payments. To learn more about how FranchiZOR can help your franchise business track and collect royalty payments, check out our FranchiZOR solution page or book a demo to see it in action.