Two assessments. Different buyers, different failure modes, different math. Pick the one that describes you.
How it works
Three stages, however deep you want to go. Nothing is gated and nothing is saved — you can stop after the first section and still get something useful.
1
Pick your track
Franchisee or franchisor. The two paths ask different questions because the failure modes are different.
2
Work the sections
Each one scores independently and finishes with a read. Jump between them freely — nothing has to be done in order.
3
Take the output
Print or save the whole thing as a PDF. Optionally have the benchmark templates emailed to you at the end.
What to have on hand. You can complete the readiness sections from memory. For the numbers — unit economics, cash, and Item 19 comparison — it helps to have your trailing-12-month P&L, your current cash position and near-term payables, and the Item 19 pages of your FDD. Estimates are fine; this is directional.
Twenty-two areas across five groups. Items are weighted — a lapsed payroll tax deposit is not the same problem as a missing dashboard. Four items are hard stops: score 1 or 2 on any of them and your band is capped regardless of total.
1 = weak · 3 = functional but limited · 5 = strong and decision-ready
Area
Score
Weighted score
0 / 100
Not scored
0 of 22 answered
Item 19 Benchmark
The most useful number a franchisee owns is the gap between their unit and the system. Pull your brand's current FDD Item 19 — the Financial Performance Representation — and enter the system figures alongside yours. If your FDD has no Item 19, that absence is itself a finding.
Comparing yourself to a system-wide average that includes flagship corporate units will flatter or punish you unfairly. Where the FDD breaks out cohorts, use the one that matches your unit's age, format, and market type.
Metric
Your unit
Item 19 figure
Variance
Position vs. system
—
Enter your figures alongside the Item 19 numbers to see where the gap sits.
Item 19 disclosure quality
How the representation is written matters as much as what it says.
Unit Economics
Mature-state math plus the two things that actually sink franchise deals: the ramp period before you hit mature volume, and seasonality inside the year. Payback is computed on the ramped cash curve, not a straight line.
Investment
Total investment
$0
Cash-on-cash is computed on equity, not total project cost. If left at zero it defaults to total investment.
Mature monthly operations
Ramp & seasonality
Ramp interpolates linearly from opening to mature volume. Fixed costs — rent, debt service, and the fixed share of labor — do not ramp. That gap is where undercapitalized operators fail.
Mature state, monthly
Gross profit
$0
Labor cost
$0
Royalty
$0
Marketing fee
$0
Rent + other opex
$0
Store-level EBITDA
$0
EBITDA margin
—
Debt service
$0
Less owner G&A / mgmt
$0
Owner earnings, monthly
$0
Returns & risk
Monthly break-even sales
—
Break-even vs. mature sales
—
DSCR at mature volume
—
Cumulative cash burn during ramp
$0
Working capital reserve
$0
Reserve covers burn?
—
Payback period (ramped)
—
Payback (straight-line, for contrast)
—
Cash-on-cash, mature year
—
Slow-ramp downside
Your expansion checklist asks whether you've modeled a slower ramp. This is that model: mature volume lands 20% below plan and takes 50% longer to get there.
Downside mature monthly sales
$0
Downside months to mature
—
Downside store-level EBITDA
$0
Downside DSCR
—
Downside cumulative burn
$0
Downside payback
—
13-Week Cash Forecast
Enter week 1 beginning cash. Each week carries forward. The tool flags the week you go negative and the lowest point you touch — lenders ask about the trough, not the ending balance.
The floor is the balance below which you cannot make payroll or vendor terms comfortably. Most operators discover this number the hard way.
Week
Beginning
Sales receipts
Payroll
Rent
Vendors
Royalties
Marketing
Sales tax
Payroll tax
Debt
Owner draw
Ending
Ending cash, week 13
$0
Expansion Gates
Sixteen gates across five groups. Four are hard stops — a "no" on any of them means wait, regardless of how many others you clear. Everything else is a gap to close, not a veto.
Area
Question
Answer
Gates cleared
0 / 16
Not scored
0 of 16 answered
Your results
Want this sent to you?
You've worked through the diagnostic — the numbers above are yours and were never transmitted anywhere. If it's useful, we'll email you a copy of the benchmark templates behind it, plus the Item 19 teardown for your brand if we've published one.
System Metrics
You know these numbers. A vibe check undersells what your Item 20 table and development schedule already tell you. Enter the figures and the tool scores them against the ranges that separate healthy systems from ones about to have a validation problem.
Unit counts, trailing 12 months
Sales & development
System health score
0 / 100
Not scored
Derived metric
Your system
Healthy range
Read
Royalty & Fund Health
Royalty AR aging is the earliest reliable signal of franchisee distress. It moves months before closures do, and long before it appears in your P&L.
Royalty receivable aging
Marketing fund
Collection & fund health
0 / 100
Metric
Value
Healthy range
Read
Qualitative Signals
The things numbers don't capture yet. These are leading indicators — by the time they show up in closure rates, the fix is expensive.
Strong signals
0 / 10
Your results
Want this sent to you?
You've worked through the diagnostic — the numbers above are yours and were never transmitted anywhere. If it's useful, we'll email you a copy of the benchmark templates behind it, plus the Item 19 teardown for your brand if we've published one.
