For franchise networks
Every site’s numbers, read as one network.
Visory runs bookkeeping, payroll, accounts payable and accounts receivable for Australian franchise networks and multi-site franchisees, with a dedicated team and Delphi AI under their oversight. Once a month, Visory Insights compares the sites and shows where to act next.
- A marketing fund kept in its own ledger, levies in and spend by category, so the annual statement and its audit are drawn from the books, not rebuilt.
- Every company-owned outlet’s pay run owned by a named Payroll Officer and checked by Delphi AI on the Fast Food Award before it is paid, with super inside seven business days.
- Every site compared every month, on sales, royalties, and debtor days, briefed by your Business Performance Partner with one move to make.
Who this is for
Built for franchisors who run the network and some of the sites.
If your month runs on franchisee sales reports, a royalty run, a marketing fund, and pay runs in your own outlets, this is the finance function for it.
- Franchisors and master franchisees with roughly 5 to 60 outlets, many in quick-service food, some of them company-owned.
- Roughly $750k to $20m in head-office revenue, led by a CEO or founder who answers for the whole network.
- Income from royalties, marketing levies, franchise fees, and company-owned outlet sales, each billed and banked its own way.
- Company-owned outlets on the Fast Food Industry Award, with casuals, juniors, and late-night and weekend rosters.
Anywhere in Australia. Networks that span several states work with the same team, on the same monthly rhythm.
The pressure
Four rules set your month. The Code and the Fair Work Act set them.
A franchisor answers for more than its own books: the fund franchisees pay into, the disclosure every prospect reads, and pay runs in outlets it does not own. The finance function is where that is kept straight, or found out later.
The fund needs books of its own.
Levies in, spend by category, and your own outlets’ contributions have to be visible all year, or the statement gets rebuilt from bank statements in the four months after year-end.
Where franchisees must pay into a marketing or other specific purpose fund, the fund sits in a separate account and is spent only on disclosed or legitimate purposes and reasonable administration and audit costs. An annual financial statement is prepared within four months of the financial year’s end and audited unless 75% of contributing franchisees vote not to, and each franchisee gets a copy within 30 days. A franchisor’s own outlets contribute on the same basis as franchisees.
Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes, Franchising) Regulations 2024, sections 31 and 61; in force from 1 April 2025.Year-end has a deadline a prospect will read.
The books have to close cleanly, and early enough, for the solvency statement your directors sign and the financial reports behind it.
A franchisor that signed two or more franchise agreements in the last financial year, or plans to sign another, updates its disclosure document within four months of the year starting. The document carries a director-signed statement of solvency and financial reports for the last two completed financial years, unless the solvency statement is backed by an independent audit.
Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes, Franchising) Regulations 2024, section 21 and Schedule 1, item 21; in force from 1 April 2025.Network payroll is head office’s risk too.
A court weighs the arrangements you had for checking franchisees’ compliance, so the signals a site is under strain have to reach head office every month, not after a complaint.
A franchisor with a significant degree of influence or control over a franchisee’s affairs is a responsible franchisor entity. It contravenes the Act when a franchisee breaches the National Employment Standards, an award, or pay slip and record-keeping rules, and the franchisor knew or could reasonably be expected to have known that the breach, or one like it, was likely. Reasonable steps taken beforehand to prevent it are a defence.
Fair Work Act 2009, sections 558A and 558B, inserted by the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Act 2017; in force from 27 October 2017.Every rostered hour has a price set outside the business.
In your own outlets the pay run has to be right each week, and the same award is the yardstick for every franchisee’s pay run in the network.
The award covers taking orders for, preparing, and selling take-away meals, snacks, and drinks. It sets a three-hour minimum engagement for casual and part-time employees, junior rates by age, a 25% casual loading, and penalty rates for late nights, weekends, and public holidays. Minimum rates rise every 1 July with the Annual Wage Review.
Fast Food Industry Award 2020 (MA000003); Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review, effective each 1 July.Every instrument named here is listed with its effective date at the foot of this page.
Could you show a franchisee today what the marketing fund took in and spent? A senior member of the Visory team can show you on your own numbers, before anything is agreed.
Book a discovery callWhat we run for franchise networks
From accurate processing to leadership confidence.
Visory Insights leads. The basics underneath it make it trustworthy and free your team for the work that matters, run by a dedicated team with Delphi AI under their oversight.Flat monthly fee. No hourly billing.
- 1 Accurate processing Bookkeeping and payroll done right, every month.
- 2 Clean, reliable data The foundation that makes reporting defensible.
- 3 Meaningful insights Cash, margin, and the year ahead, explained.
- 4 Leadership confidence You present numbers you trust. The plan gets backed.
Visory Insights
Sales, royalties, and debtor days compared site by site once a month, with one move to make. A named partner who knows how a network’s numbers fit together and walks you through yours before year-end does.
See how Visory Insights works- Monthly plain-English report
- Structured session with your leadership team
- Twelve-month forward view of cash
- A named Business Performance Partner
The basics underneath it
Bookkeeping
Head office, the marketing fund, and each company-owned outlet kept in their own ledgers, with bank feeds matched daily and one close timetable.
Explore bookkeepingPayroll
Fast Food Award pay runs for your own outlets, from junior rates to weekend penalties, with Single Touch Payroll and super inside seven business days.
See how payroll runsAccounts payable
Supplier bills for head office, the fund, and each outlet captured, coded to the right ledger, and paid when you say so.
See accounts payableAccounts receivable
Royalties, marketing levies, and franchise fees invoiced from franchisee sales reports and followed up in your name.
See accounts receivableEach franchisee’s own books and payroll stay with that franchisee. Visory runs head office, the marketing fund, and the outlets you own, and reads the sales your franchisees report. A franchisee can engage Visory separately as its own customer. The fund’s audit stays with your auditor.
Visory Insights for franchise networks
One insight, start to finish, on a network’s numbers.
Reports tell you what happened. Visory Insights tells you what it means, and what to do about it. Here is one month for Tallowood Burger Co, a fictional quick-service franchisor with 20 franchised outlets, four of its own, and about $2.2m a year in royalties and marketing levies.
Network sales are on budget. The gap is collection. $66k of royalties and levies is past terms, owed by six franchisees.
Hold the six franchisees past terms to the weekly direct debit their franchise agreements already provide for, and book a site review with the two furthest behind. Late royalties are often the first sign of a site under cash pressure. The direct debit notices and both site packs are prepared for your session.
≈ +$66k in cash
Prepared by Delphi AI, briefed by your Business Performance Partner, in plain English, in a structured session, monthly or quarterly. No guesswork.
- Monthly plain-English report
- Structured insight sessions
- Every site compared on sales, royalties, and debtor days
See this on your own numbers. A discovery call is a conversation about your network, your outlets, and what you want the monthly read to tell you.
Book a discovery callFits your stack
Works with the tools you already use.
Your ledger and your payroll stay where they are. Visory connects to them and keeps the data flowing every day, so your team and Delphi are working from current numbers.
Accounting and books
Where your ledger and reporting live.
Payroll and people
Pay runs, Single Touch Payroll reporting, and the people behind them.
-
-
Xero Payroll
Point of sale, sales reports, and rostering
Franchisee sales reports and your point-of-sale exports feed the royalty run, and bank feeds are matched daily. Your point of sale, rostering tool, and franchise management system stay where they are.
Resources for franchise networks
Content written for franchise networks by the expert teams at Visory.
Common questions
Straight answers for franchise networks.
The questions franchisors ask before they hand Visory the finance function. The general ones are on the common questions page.
Do you run our franchisees’ books as well?
Not as part of your scope. Visory runs head office, the marketing fund, and the outlets you own, and reads the sales your franchisees report for the royalty run. Each franchisee’s books and payroll stay with that franchisee. A franchisee can engage Visory directly, as its own customer with its own scope and fee.
How should a franchise marketing fund be accounted for?
As its own set of books. Under the Franchising Code of Conduct the fund sits in a separate account, is spent only on disclosed or legitimate purposes and reasonable administration and audit costs, and gets an annual financial statement within four months of year-end, audited unless 75% of contributing franchisees vote not to. Your own outlets contribute on the same basis as franchisees. Visory keeps the fund in its own ledger, codes every levy and every spend by category, and has the statement’s figures ready for your auditor. This is general information, not legal advice.
Can you invoice royalties and marketing levies from franchisee sales?
Yes. Each period, your Bookkeeper runs the royalty and levy run: Delphi AI prepares it from franchisee sales reports or point-of-sale exports and checks every variance against the last period, and you approve it before anything is issued. Invoices go out in your name, direct debits are matched as they land, and late payers are followed up on a cadence you agree.
Is a franchisor liable for a franchisee’s underpayments?
It can be. Under section 558B of the Fair Work Act, a franchisor with a significant degree of influence or control over a franchisee’s affairs can be liable for the franchisee’s breaches of awards, the National Employment Standards, and pay slip and record-keeping rules, if it knew or could reasonably be expected to have known they were likely and had not taken reasonable steps to prevent them. What counts as reasonable steps is a question for your lawyers. On the finance side, Visory Insights puts the signals head office already holds, such as late royalties and falling sales by site, in front of you every month.
Can you run Fast Food Award payroll for our company-owned outlets?
Yes. A Payroll Officer runs every pay cycle on the Fast Food Industry Award: classifications by level, junior rates by age, the casual loading, three-hour minimum engagements, and late-night, weekend, and public holiday penalties. Delphi AI prepares and checks the run from your rostering data, your Payroll Officer oversees it, you approve it, and it is paid, reported through Single Touch Payroll, and the super sent within seven business days of payday.
What does the annual disclosure update need from the books?
A franchisor still signing franchisees updates its disclosure document within four months of each financial year starting, with a statement of solvency signed by a director and financial reports for the last two completed financial years, unless the solvency statement is backed by an independent audit. Visory closes the year on the timetable that deadline needs and keeps the ledgers ready for the reports and the statement your directors sign. The document itself stays with your lawyers.
We own several outlets as a franchisee. Is this for us?
Yes, as your own customer. Visory runs the books, payroll, and payables for each outlet you own, with the royalties and levies you pay coded by site, and Visory Insights compares your outlets once a month. For quick-service operators, the hospitality groups page goes deeper on award payroll and margin by venue.
See Visory for hospitality groups Do you work with our point of sale and franchise software?
Yes, whichever you run. Sales reports and point-of-sale exports feed the royalty run, rostering tools push approved shifts into your payroll system, and Visory runs the ledgers from your accounting system. Your point of sale, rostering, and franchise management system all stay where they are.
How much does Visory cost?
Visory charges one flat monthly fee for the scope we agree. No timesheets, no hourly billing, no surprises. The fee reflects the services you take and the volume of work in your network, from the number of outlets and pay runs to the royalty invoices and bills each month, so you know the monthly cost before you start.
See how pricing worksGeneral information for franchise networks, not financial or tax advice.
Getting started
Start with clarity, not a contract.
Three steps, in whatever rhythm suits you. Each one is useful on its own.
-
Book a discovery call
An obligation-free conversation about your network, your outlets, and what you want the numbers to tell you.
Obligation-free -
Get your free financial health check
A senior member of the Visory team analyses your financials and shows where your finance function can improve. See the clarity before you commit to anything.
Free · your own numbers -
See how Visory works in practice
A walkthrough of the finance function and Insights working together on a network like yours. If it fits, we agree a flat monthly scope.
Flat monthly fee
Get started
Know every site’s numbers before year-end asks for them.
Start with a discovery call. Then a senior member of the Visory team analyses your numbers, free of charge, and shows you where the finance function can improve.
Sources (4) · rules last checked 8 October 2026
- Franchising Code of Conduct: Competition and Consumer (Industry Codes, Franchising) Regulations 2024 (F2024L01605), section 21 and Schedule 1, item 21 (disclosure update and financial details), and sections 31 and 61 (specific purpose funds), in force from 1 April 2025.
- Fair Work Act 2009, sections 558A and 558B, responsible franchisor entities, inserted by the Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Act 2017, in force from 27 October 2017; Fair Work Ombudsman, franchisor responsibility guidance.
- Fast Food Industry Award 2020 (MA000003); Fair Work Commission, Annual Wage Review, effective each 1 July.
- Australian Taxation Office, Payday Super: contributions received within seven business days of payday, effective 1 July 2026.