ClearlyKept provides specialized accounting and fractional CFO services for franchise businesses — from single-unit operators to multi-location groups and emerging franchisors.
You're managing the operational demands of your locations and the reporting expectations of your franchisor at the same time. Most accounting firms are built for one or the other. We understand both sides of the franchise relationship from direct operational experience.
Our founder, Ashley Love, served as the first CFO of Clean Juice and Controller at Driven Brands, one of the largest automotive franchise companies in the world. We currently support several multi-unit franchisees and franchisors, and that hands-on operational experience is the framework behind every engagement we run.
Franchise businesses deal with a distinct set of financial pressures that generic bookkeepers simply aren't equipped to handle.
Managing one location's books is manageable. Managing five or fifteen is a fundamentally different discipline. You need unit-level P&Ls for benchmarking and a consolidated view that captures the full picture of the portfolio.
We build accounting systems that give you both layers simultaneously: individual location reporting and consolidated financials, structured to grow with you as you add units.
As a franchisor, you are responsible for calculating royalties and marketing fund contributions, billing or withdrawing those amounts from franchisees, and producing system-level financial reporting. Errors in this process create friction with franchisees and can have downstream implications for FDD accuracy and brand credibility.
We build royalty calculation and reporting workflows into our engagements with franchisors, ensuring accurate billing, clean fund accounting, and reliable data that flows correctly into your system-level financials and FDD disclosures.
Opening a new location is one of the most capital-intensive decisions a franchisee makes. Construction costs, equipment financing, pre-opening inventory, and initial staffing all compete for cash before the unit generates a single dollar of revenue.
We help you model the full capital picture before you sign a lease. Our cash flow forecasting and scenario modeling are designed specifically for franchise expansion, so you know your liquidity six months from now, not just today.
If you're a franchisor or aspiring to become one, Item 21 of your FDD requires audited or reviewed financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. Getting this wrong can delay your registration or disqualify you from selling franchises in registration states entirely.
Ashley's background includes audit experience with Deloitte, where financial statement accuracy and GAAP compliance were foundational disciplines. We apply that same rigor to FDD-related financial preparation.
Franchisors rely on accurate, consistent franchisee financial data to support Item 19 financial performance representations in their FDD. When franchisee books are inconsistent or unreliable, the franchisor's ability to present credible, defensible performance data is compromised.
We partner with franchisors to provide a palatable, professionally managed accounting solution for franchisees — giving franchisors confidence that the data feeding their FDD Item 19 is clean, consistent, and audit-ready. We have active relationships with franchisors in this capacity.
The service-based nature of most franchise concepts means labor is your largest variable cost and one of the hardest to control. High hourly turnover creates payroll complexity: frequent new hires, varying hours, fluctuating overtime, and tip or commission reconciliations.
We build labor cost tracking into your financial reporting so you can see exactly what payroll is doing to your unit economics, and catch variance before it compounds over a quarter.
We handle your monthly close, bank reconciliations, and chart of accounts maintenance using a franchise-specific account structure that makes unit-level and consolidated reporting possible without extra work.
What's includedManagement dashboards that benchmark location performance, surface underperformers early, and give lenders and investors clean, organized financials when needed.
Rolling forecasts and scenario models calibrated to your franchise system's cost structure, including royalty obligations, marketing fund contributions, and location-level fixed costs.
We work with single-unit operators, multi-location groups, and emerging franchisors who need both the precision and the strategic perspective to grow their system well.
