Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue IV, 2012 | Page 81

must be created from scratch. These are
not used in your daily affairs—for example, a franchise agreement abstract.
This is a very specific, highly customized
summary of key elements of a series of
current franchise agreements, including
current dates, historic renewals, expirations, pending renewals, actions required
for pending renewals, current parties to
the agreement, and current franchisor
version of the agreement, to name a few.
This is prepared in summary and tabular
form. It’s a significant amount of work to
prepare, requires access to digital data,
and must be 100 percent accurate. Add
in other examples such as lease abstracts,
facilities abstracts, POS system summaries, and you quickly see that access to
organized, up-to-date, accurate digital
data is paramount.
5) Commitment from your resource
team. Each professional needs to understand the necessity of meeting the
requirements within a specific, mutually
agreed-upon time frame. Flag the areas

and items that must be updated regularly
(period or monthly P&Ls) or occasionally
(store image level, key managers) versus
those that generally don’t change often
(leases, title insurance, environmental
reports). Document any issues (environmental issues at a site, for example) from
the governments and any third parties.
6) Execute the plan. Create and
populate your data room, and assign
your team to create a rhythm of updating data and information to your central
location. It is important to clearly let
your team know the pre