Franchise support
A franchise brand and each of its locations run on CrewBarn, each location in its own account. The franchisor sees the whole network, works out royalties, and can step in to help when a franchise says yes.
The intro, in words
One brand, every location its own
This is franchise support in CrewBarn. A brand and each of its locations run on CrewBarn, each location in its own account.
Harlow and Finch has sold its first franchise, in Lakeview, to a new owner named Rosa. Let's follow it from day one.
A new location: Lakeview, set up in one form
CrewBarn has switched on franchise features for Dana's account, so she has a Franchise Dashboard. She presses Add franchise.
She types the franchise name, Harlow and Finch Lakeview, which is locked once it's created, a web address slug, and Rosa's name and email.
She presses Create plus invite owner. Lakeview is created as its own company, under Harlow and Finch.
A new location: Her business stays hers
Rosa gets an email: your CrewBarn account for Harlow and Finch Lakeview is ready. She follows the link and sets her own password.
From here, Lakeview runs its own CrewBarn: its own customers, jobs, crew, books and settings. Dana's account sits above it, and doesn't run it.
The network: The whole network, at a glance
A month later, Dana opens the Franchise Dashboard. Across the top: franchises active out of total, revenue this month, jobs this month, and customers across the network.
Below, a line for each location with its sales, jobs and customers. Revenue here means money in, payments received, the way the main dashboard counts it.
The network: What each location owes
Under Royalties, Dana sets the default: a base fee of five hundred dollars, a royalty of six percent, on gross sales, meaning invoices issued. She presses Save default.
CrewBarn works out each location's sales for the period, the fee and what it owes, and the total owed this period.
The network: Invoiced, or collected
If the franchise agreement says royalties are paid on money actually received, Dana switches On to Collected, paid, and saves again.
Then sales means the payments collected in the period, and every location's figure changes to match.
The network: No spreadsheets at month end
So the network's numbers and the royalties are worked out from what each location actually did, and nobody emails a spreadsheet at month end.
Support access: Looking is read-only
Rosa calls: her price book is a mess. Dana finds Lakeview on the dashboard and presses Open.
She's now looking at Lakeview's CrewBarn, with a banner across the top: Viewing franchise, Harlow and Finch Lakeview, read-only.
When she tries to fix a price, CrewBarn says no: you are viewing this franchise read-only. Request support access to make changes.
Support access: She asks first
Dana goes back to the dashboard and presses Request access on Lakeview's line. It reads Request sent.
Rosa's phone buzzes: support access request. She also gets an email from her franchisor, with a Review and respond link.
Support access: Rosa decides, and for how long
Rosa opens Franchise access. Under Requests: your franchisor is requesting support access.
Only an owner or admin can say yes. She picks how long, twenty-four hours, three days or a week, chooses three days, and presses Approve.
Support access: Fixed, on the record
Dana opens Lakeview again. The banner turns to Support mode, editing enabled until Friday at two.
She fixes the price book. Every change she makes is recorded in Lakeview's Audit Log, along with the fact that it was the franchisor who made it.
Support access: Rosa can end it any time
That afternoon the prices are right. Under Active access, Rosa sees Harlow and Finch has support access, and presses End access now.
Dana is shut out straight away. If she opens Lakeview again, it's read-only.
Support access: A no, or the clock runs out
If Rosa had pressed Decline, Dana would stay read-only, and could only look.
And if Rosa never ends it, the access runs out on its own at the time she chose, and Lakeview is read-only to Dana again.
Support access: Help that's asked for
So Rosa got help the same day, without sharing a password, and she can see everything that was done and stop it whenever she likes.
The whole picture: Added, rolled up, helped
That's franchise support: a location added with one form, its owner invited, and the network and royalties worked out on one dashboard.
And help on the location's terms: look read-only, ask, approve for a set time, every change on the record, and End access now, or a decline, or the clock running out.
Franchise support: One brand, each its own
One brand, and every location running its own business.
CrewBarn is in beta, and free for life for trades that help test it.
Each franchise runs its own account
Every franchise location runs its own CrewBarn: its own customers, jobs, crew, books and settings. That keeps each owner's business theirs. The franchisor's account sits above them, with franchise features turned on for it by CrewBarn.
The franchisor's dashboard
The franchise dashboard rolls up the network: totals across every franchise, and a card for each one. Revenue there means money in, payments received, the same way the main dashboard counts it. Adding a franchise is done from the same page, by people with permission to manage franchises.
The network view reads each franchise's figures without opening their account to the franchisor. It only ever reads the franchises that belong to that franchisor.
Royalties
Set a default fee schedule, a base amount plus a percentage of sales, and override it for any franchise that has a different deal. Choose whether sales means payments collected in the period or invoices issued in it. CrewBarn works out what each franchise owes for the period.
Support access the franchise controls
When the franchisor wants to step into a franchise's account to help, it asks. The request shows up for the franchise's owner or admin, who picks how long the franchisor can stay and approves, or declines. Everything the franchisor does while inside shows up in the franchise's audit log, and the franchise can end access at any time.
Sharing work and data
The partner API lets franchises and subcontractors share jobs, visits and photos with systems they're connected to. A partner you've invited asks for access, you approve it, and you can see everything they've pulled and revoke them straight away.
Territories split an area by county and ZIP code, with dispatchers for each, so a franchise covering several counties can hand each one to the right people.
How it works
- CrewBarn turns on franchise features for the franchisor's account.
- The franchisor adds its franchises; each runs its own CrewBarn.
- Set the royalty fee schedule, with overrides where a deal differs.
- Read network totals and royalties on the franchise dashboard.
- Ask for support access when a franchise needs help; they approve it.