Franchise software

// The problem

A franchisor with locations across the country keeps its operations manual in a PDF, trains new franchisees by shadowing, and onboards each opening from a checklist in someone's inbox.

// What we would build

A portal and an iPhone and Android app for franchisees and their managers, designed around your brand from the first screen: the operations manual as searchable pages with versions and sign-off, short training courses with quizzes, an opening checklist for each new location, and announcements from head office. In English and French, for locations in Quebec. We design it with your brand team, not over the top of it.

// What is in it

// Stack

• Next.js
• React Native
• PostgreSQL
• Figma
• AWS Canada

// The problem

A franchisor's locations run three different POS systems, franchisees type their monthly sales into a spreadsheet, and head office spends the first week of every month checking figures before it can invoice royalties and marketing fund contributions.

// What we would build

An integration service that reads daily sales from each POS through its published API, a calculation of royalties and marketing fund contributions to the terms in your franchise agreements, statements each franchisee can see and question, and invoices posted to QuickBooks Online. We check your POS vendors' APIs before we quote. Your agreements and your accountant set the rules; we give no legal or tax advice.

// What is in it

// Stack

• Node.js
• PostgreSQL
• POS vendor APIs
• QuickBooks Online API
• OpenAPI
• AWS Canada

// The problem

Field consultants visit hundreds of locations with a paper checklist, type up scores at night, and the corrective actions they ask for are lost between visits.

// What we would build

An iPad app for field consultants that runs your brand standards audit item by item, with photos, scores and notes, even with no signal in the back of the store. Corrective actions go to the franchisee with a due date and come back with a photo when done, and head office sees scores by location, region and standard.

// What is in it

// Stack

• Swift for iPad
• Next.js
• PostgreSQL
• S3-compatible storage
• DigitalOcean Toronto

// The problem

Franchisees send hundreds of local flyers, posters and social posts a season for approval, and the marketing team checks logos, colours, required wording and offers by eye.

// What we would build

A submission portal where a small model, fine-tuned on your own approved and rejected pieces, flags likely problems before a person looks: an old logo, a missing line of required wording, an offer outside the national promotion. A person on your marketing team still approves every piece. We use a custom fine-tuned model because the task is narrow, the examples are yours, and it runs privately at low cost per check.

// What is in it

// Stack

• Fine-tuned open model
• vLLM
• Next.js
• PostgreSQL
• DigitalOcean GPU

// The problem

Head office's support line answers the same questions from franchisees and their staff all day, in English, French and Spanish, about equipment, recipes, procedures and systems.

// What we would build

A support centre with articles drawn from your operations manual and equipment guides, in English, French and Spanish, and an assistant that answers from them, cites the page and hands harder questions to your support team. We run an open-source model in your own cloud account, because the manual is confidential and stays out of anyone else's systems.

// What is in it

// Stack

• Llama or Mistral (open-source)
• vLLM
• PostgreSQL with pgvector
• Next.js
• Crowdin

// The problem

A franchisor's ordering intranet, built by a vendor that has since closed, takes franchisee orders for approved supplies and sends them to its distributor, runs on one ageing server, and nobody on staff can change it.

// What we would build

We start with an architecture review of the old system: what it does, where the data is, what is at risk. Then we rebuild ordering as a supported web system, connect it to your distributor by EDI, and move it to managed cloud hosting with monitoring, backups and updates. The review is a fixed first step; the build follows from what it finds.

// What is in it

// Stack

• Next.js
• PostgreSQL
• EDI 850/855
• Terraform
• AWS Canada

// The problem

A growing franchisor sends its franchise disclosure document to prospects through brokers and area developers, and tracks who received which version, and when, in a spreadsheet.

// What we would build

A portal that delivers each version of your disclosure document to a prospect, records the receipt they sign, and fingerprints the document, version and receipt on a small private ledger run by you and your area developers, so everyone holds the same record of what was delivered and when. An e-signature service's audit trail often does this job; the ledger helps when several parties deliver documents and each needs the same record. Timing rules are for your advisers; we build to the ones they set.

// What is in it

// Stack

• Next.js
• Hyperledger Besu (private, permissioned)
• PostgreSQL
• E-signature API
• DigitalOcean Toronto