You get paid at the moment of sale.
Franchise, restaurant, retail, and e-commerce. Thousands of small transactions, several processors, and margin that turns on a couple of points of cost of goods.
You will recognise this if…
- Deposits do not match sales, because fees came out first
- Inventory is counted, but shrink is never really explained
- You cannot compare one location against another with any confidence
- Sales tax is collected across places you are not certain you are registered
- Royalty, marketing, and tech fees are lumped into one line
Why the close is hard here
These are the four things that most often make the monthly close wrong here — and what has to be true for it to be right.
Gross sales never equal the deposit
Processor fees, chargebacks, tips, and platform commissions all come out before the money lands. Booking the deposit as revenue understates both sales and expense, and hides your real cost of accepting payment.
COGS is where the margin is decided
A point or two of food or product cost is the difference between a good year and a bad one. That requires COGS accurate monthly, not trued up at year end when it is too late to act.
Locations only compare if they are built the same
Unit-level P&Ls are only useful when every unit uses the same chart of accounts and the same allocation rules. Otherwise you are comparing bookkeeping habits, not performance.
Franchise fees are several different things
Royalty, national marketing, local marketing, and technology fees behave differently and are negotiated differently. One combined line tells you nothing.
What we do about it
- Daily sales reconciled from the POS through processor fees to the bank
- COGS and inventory maintained monthly, with shrink identified
- Unit- and location-level P&Ls built on one consistent structure
- Franchise fee categories separated and tracked
- Sales tax liability tracked by jurisdiction
Covered here: Franchise operators → · All industries →
Questions we get asked
Can you reconcile our POS to the bank?
Yes. Daily sales are traced from the point-of-sale system through processor fees and holdbacks to the deposit, so gross sales and the cost of accepting payment are both visible.
Do you maintain inventory?
We maintain the accounting for it — COGS, valuation, and identifying shrink from your counts. Physical counts stay with your team.
Can you compare our locations?
That is the point of a consistent chart of accounts across units. Where units have drifted apart, standardising them is the first step.
Do you handle sales tax filing?
We track the liability by jurisdiction so you know what is owed and where. Filing stays with your CPA or a sales tax specialist.
Not sure this is you?
Most owners sit across two of these. A short conversation sorts out which parts actually apply.
Talk to a finance pro →