The finance problem in a franchise network
A franchise network is a collection of separate legal entities operating under one brand. Each franchisee runs its own books, and the franchisor needs to see across all of them: how each site performs, how the network is tracking, and where cash is tight. Royalty calculations, intercompany charges and a shared chart of accounts all add complexity that a single-business accounting tool was never built for.
Most franchisors end up collecting reports from each franchisee and rebuilding a network view in a spreadsheet. The figures are old by the time they are assembled, intercompany transactions are hard to eliminate cleanly, and comparing franchisees fairly is a manual exercise repeated every period.
Multi-entity consolidation software for franchises has to combine those entities automatically, eliminate intercompany transactions and present a current network view. Cohiva Crunch is built for it.
What Crunch does for franchises
Crunch is a full-stack ERP with AI financial intelligence, aimed at finance teams consolidating across multiple entities. For a franchise network that means:
- Multi-entity consolidation, combining franchisee entities into one set of accounts with intercompany eliminations and a shared chart of accounts.
- Real-time profit and loss, so each franchisee and the network are visible now, not at period end.
- 13-week cash forecasting across the entities you consolidate.
- Natural language querying of the financial data, so a franchisor can ask a question of the numbers in plain words.
A shared chart of accounts is what makes franchisee comparison meaningful: when every entity reports against the same structure, like is compared with like.
One data layer across the network
Crunch is part of an integrated suite, and franchises gain when the whole platform shares one data layer. Where franchisees run Complex for operations, transaction data flows into Crunch for finance, and Culture feeds labour cost. Franchise disclosure and agreements are handled by Sign, and brand-compliant marketing by Campaign, all on one identity.
For a franchisor, that means a network view assembled from live data rather than rekeyed from franchisee reports.
Why consolidation matters here
Consolidation is the defining finance challenge of a franchise. Each franchisee is its own entity, and the franchisor's job is to see the whole. Single-ledger tools cannot do this without manual workarounds. Crunch is built for multi-entity consolidation from the start, which is why it fits a franchise network rather than a single business.
Where this sits in your operation
Crunch is the finance layer of an integrated platform for franchises. The solutions for franchises page shows the full bundle, including franchise disclosure e-signatures and brand-compliant marketing.
For the product detail, Explore Crunch.
What good looks like day to day
A connected finance layer changes how a franchisor runs the network, rather than only how it reports on it. The franchisor opens a network view and sees each franchisee's performance on a shared chart of accounts, so like is compared with like, without collecting a report from each site and rebuilding the picture by hand. Intercompany charges and royalty flows are handled within the consolidation rather than reconciled separately every period.
Because the figures are current, the franchisor can act on them. A franchisee whose margins are slipping shows up while there is still time to support them, not at year end. The 13-week cash forecast across the entities flags where the network is tight before it becomes a problem. Questions about how a region or a cohort of franchisees is tracking can be asked in plain words against live data. For a growing network, that turns consolidation from a slow, manual close into an ongoing view of how the whole brand is performing and where attention is needed.
Who it is for
Crunch suits franchisors and multi-entity operators that need to consolidate many franchisee entities into one set of accounts, compare sites on a shared chart of accounts, and see network performance and cash on current data rather than a manually assembled spreadsheet.