Franchise Owners
You bought a proven brand. The books, the taxes, and the financial management are still yours to handle.
You Bought a System, Not an Accountant
Franchisors sell a proven business model. You get the brand, the training manual, the supply chain, and the marketing playbook. What you don’t get is someone to manage your financial records. That part falls entirely on you.
A lot of franchise owners come from corporate backgrounds or other careers where finance was someone else’s department. They were drawn to the franchise model because it offered structure and support. But the P&L management, the cash flow, the payroll, the tax obligations, and the royalty accounting are all yours to figure out. It’s more complicated than most people expect before they sign the franchise agreement.
Who This Covers
Who This Covers
Fast food and quick service restaurants, fitness centers, cleaning and home service franchises, retail franchise locations, automotive service franchises. Any owner operating under a franchise agreement in the Tampa Bay area and South Shore.
The Gap Nobody Mentions
The Gap Nobody Mentions
The franchisor tracks your gross sales for royalty calculations. Your bank tracks deposits. Your POS system tracks transactions. These numbers rarely line up on their own without someone deliberately reconciling them every month. That gap is where money gets lost.
Royalties Come Off the Top
Franchise fees are calculated on gross sales. Not profit. Not after expenses. Gross. A 6% royalty and a 2% marketing fund contribution means 8 cents of every dollar goes back to the franchisor before you pay rent, labor, supplies, or yourself. On a $60,000 month in sales, that is $4,800 gone before you touch anything else.
Add rent, labor running 28 to 35 percent, cost of goods, insurance, and utilities, and you start to understand why the actual owner take-home is a fraction of what the top line suggests. Many franchise owners don’t have a clear picture of what their business actually produces after all the layers are stripped away. We build that picture for you.
Fee Tracking
Fee Tracking
Royalties, marketing fund contributions, technology fees, required vendor premiums. We track each franchise-related cost separately so you can see exactly what the franchise relationship costs you every month. These are real expenses that deserve their own line items, not a single lump buried in general overhead.
True Margin Visibility
True Margin Visibility
After franchise fees, cost of goods, labor, rent, and operating overhead, what is left? We build monthly reporting that shows your actual operating margin. You stop looking at gross sales as a measure of success and start managing based on what the business actually keeps.
Multiple Locations, Multiple Problems
Opening a second or third location is the natural next step for franchise owners. The franchisor encourages it. Your development agreement might even require it on a specific timeline. But adding units without clean financial data from the first one is how owners end up stretched thin and unable to pinpoint what went wrong.
Each location needs its own set of books. Revenue, expenses, labor, and inventory tracked separately. Without that separation, a profitable location quietly subsidizes a struggling one. The owner never sees the problem because the consolidated bank balance looks fine. Then cash runs short across the board and it is too late for easy fixes.
Per-Location Reporting
Per-Location Reporting
Separate profit and loss statements for each unit. Same chart of accounts, same categorization, so you can compare locations side by side. You will know which store is carrying its weight and which one needs attention before the problem becomes serious.
Expansion Planning
Expansion Planning
The next location needs its own financial justification beyond the franchisor’s pro forma projections. We help you build realistic forecasts based on actual performance from your existing units. The decision to sign another lease and hire another team is grounded in real numbers, not optimism.
Audits, Taxes, and Good Standing
Franchisors audit their franchisees. They compare your reported sales against POS data, bank deposits, and sometimes your tax returns. Discrepancies raise flags. In serious cases, they trigger default notices or termination clauses in the franchise agreement. Clean, organized books are not just good practice. They protect your investment in the franchise itself.
Tax planning for franchise owners has its own set of considerations. Startup cost amortization, equipment depreciation, leasehold improvements, payroll for hourly workers with varying schedules, and the interplay between your personal and business returns all need proper handling. Getting this right from the beginning saves real money and avoids problems that are expensive to fix later.
Franchisor Audit Readiness
Franchisor Audit Readiness
Your books match your POS reports and your bank deposits. When the franchisor requests documentation or conducts a review, everything is organized and consistent. No scrambling to reconcile months of transactions at the last minute.
Tax Planning and Preparation
Tax Planning and Preparation
Franchise fees, startup costs, equipment purchases, leasehold improvements. We handle these correctly on your returns and make sure you are taking advantage of every deduction available. Quarterly estimates are set so April is predictable. If you operate through multiple entities, we coordinate across all of them.
Tampa Bay's Small Business CPA Firm
First Step:
A Short Conversation
Tell us about your business and where you need support. We'll walk through your situation, answer your questions, and give you a clear quote.
