Friday afternoon with the franchise spreadsheet
Your instructors are self-employed and work under your school's name. Each pays a weekly franchise fee. Some lease a dual-controlled car from you and pay a car charge on top. Pupils pay some blocks through the school website, so the school holds money that belongs to instructors. Other pupils pay instructors directly in the car.
Every Friday the office works out, for each instructor, what the school collected on their behalf, what they owe in fees and car charges, and the difference. One instructor was on holiday for a week, and your agreement gives a reduced fee for that. Another had a week off with the car in the garage. Both query their statements.
Why the numbers are hard to agree
- Each instructor may be on different terms, depending on when they joined.
- Fees change for holidays, sickness or a car off the road, under your agreement.
- Pupil money collected by the school has to be allocated to the right instructor's lessons.
- Pupils change instructor mid-block, and the money has to follow.
- Instructors see their own diary, not the school's records of payments.
- Payments between school and instructor are made by bank transfer and matched by hand.
Two businesses are sharing money, and each keeps its own records. Disagreement is built in.
What it costs the relationship
Instructors are your business. A franchisee who feels their statement is wrong, or who cannot understand it, starts to wonder whether the franchise is worth it. Office time goes on explaining statements line by line. Mistakes in either direction are awkward to correct. And the owner cannot easily see the real income per instructor after fees, which matters when setting fees or recruiting.
The instructor statement we build
- Each instructor's terms are held as rules: weekly fee, car charge, what happens during holidays, sickness or when the car is off the road, and the dates the terms apply from.
- Holidays and car downtime are logged in the diary, so fee adjustments follow from what happened.
- Pupil payments collected by the school are allocated to the instructor who taught the lessons, including when a pupil changes instructor part way through a block.
- Each week, a statement is produced for each instructor: money collected on their behalf, fees and charges, adjustments with reasons, and the net amount due either way.
- Instructors see their statement on their phone and can query a line, which goes to the office with the line attached.
- Payments in both directions are recorded against the statement, and the running balance is always visible.
- The owner sees fees, charges and money passed through per instructor, and statements can be exported to your accounts package, such as Xero.
| Statement line | Source |
|---|---|
| Pupil payments collected by the school | Payment records, allocated by lessons taught |
| Franchise fee | Instructor's terms |
| Car charge | Instructor's terms and car record |
| Holiday or downtime adjustment | Diary entries and your terms |
| Payments made | Bank transfers recorded |
The terms themselves come from your franchise agreements. How instructors treat their own income for tax is a matter for them and their advisers.
Statements nobody needs to argue about
On Friday the statements are ready without anyone building them. Instructors check theirs on their phones, and a question about one line gets an answer with the evidence attached. Transfers are made against a figure both sides can see. The owner has a clear view of what each franchise brings in, which is useful the next time fees are reviewed.
Does your franchise admin look like this?
- Weekly franchise balances are worked out in a spreadsheet.
- Instructors are on different terms and nobody remembers which.
- Holiday and car downtime adjustments are argued over.
- Pupil money collected by the school is hard to allocate.
- Instructors query their statements regularly.