Opening one costs $73k–$1.1M.
Item 7 · 1 open unit
That range is the franchisor’s own, straight out of the disclosure document. What is masked below is the rest of the analysis — and the capital check that follows measures your cash against that opening range.
12 sections · 69 cited figures · 3 operational tripwires · 10 diligence questions
Everything below is in the report. Every figure is cited to an FDD Item and page, and labelled with where the number came from. The labels are free. The numbers are what you are buying.
Franchise Edge automates franchise diligence. We read the franchisor’s own Franchise Disclosure Document — the filing a franchisor is legally required to hand you at least 14 days before you sign anything or pay anything — and run the work that takes a buyer weeks by hand: every disclosed cost, the unit economics behind the headline, the full fee stack, and what happened to the units that opened before you.
Your analysis is ready. The framework is below — every section, every cited figure, every question, exactly as it appears in the report.
An FDD runs to 23 numbered Items and a few hundred pages. Four of them do most of the work in this report:
Every figure in the report is cited to its Item and page, so you can check any of it against the document yourself.
Questions before you buy? jason@foundersplinko.com — a person, not a ticket queue.
Against the total investment the franchisor discloses in Item 7. What it means for your loan, your coverage ratio and your payback is locked.
Item 7, as the franchisor states it. 11 line items.
What the deal asks of you, against what you told us you have.
13 rungs, monthly, from disclosed revenue down to what the operator actually keeps. Every rung is labelled with where its number came from.
The loan this unit would need, and whether the unit can carry it.
5 separate charges in the agreement. Most buyers find four.
No percentage royalty disclosed — confirm in Items 5–6 how this brand charges (some take a markup on required purchases rather than a sales royalty).
This franchisor makes no earnings claim
Item 19 is optional, and this franchisor chose to leave it out. That silence is itself a disclosure, and it binds them: under the FTC Franchise Rule a franchisor that publishes no financial performance representation may not give you sales, revenue or profit figures anywhere else either — not on a call, not at discovery day, not through a broker. Every other number in this report still holds. This one has no source, so we have not invented one.
Item 20 lists the franchisees in the system and the ones who left, with contact details. Those owners may tell you what their units make. The franchisor may not — and a seller who offers you a figure anyway has just handed you your first finding.
12 Items located and parsed. Every figure above cites one of them.
3 things this document cannot settle, and how to settle them.
4 findings from the audited statements.
3 clauses that change what you signed up for. 2 are rated high.
Item 20, year-end.
1 outlets is this record's reconstruction of the starting count, worked back from the year-end total and the year's openings and closures rather than read from Item 20 Table 1. Every rate below is a share of that starting count, not of today's. Check the reconstruction against Table 1 in your own copy.
Item 17 — how long you are in, what ends the agreement, what it takes to sell the business, and what you are still bound by after you leave.
10 questions, grouped for operators running a unit today, operators who left last year.
2 executives, with tenure and prior operating history.
12 sections · 69 cited figures · instant access
Unlock the full report — $199One report, one brand, instant access. Not a subscription.
Get our free Playbook — the 90-day checklist, cost worksheets, and location math the pros use, in plain English.
No spam. The Playbook, then occasional notes as you go. Unsubscribe anytime. This email is not the report.