What franchise bookkeeping costs
Updated 16 October 2026
The short answer
Outsourced franchise bookkeeping is usually priced per location per month. At Averan, the Monthly Close is priced per location, and the price per location is lower from three locations. Controller work, which adds forecasting, budgets and a monthly review, is also priced per location. Setup is a fixed fee set by the number of locations, and it includes your first month.
What moves the price
- The number of locations, legal entities and bank accounts.
- The number of states with payroll or sales tax filings.
- Whether the point-of-sale system exports cleanly or has to be keyed in.
- Memberships, gift cards and deposits that need tracking as deferred revenue.
- How far behind the books are when the work starts. Cleanup is priced separately as a fixed project.
Outsourced against in house
A full-time staff bookkeeper costs a salary plus payroll taxes, benefits, software and the time to supervise and cover for absences. For one to five locations, an outsourced team usually costs less and brings a controller and CFO behind the bookkeeper. Hiring in house starts to make sense once a group is large enough to keep a full-time accountant busy, and many groups keep an outside firm for the close and review even then.
What you should get for the money
- Books closed by an agreed date every month.
- A profit and loss for each location.
- Royalties and the ad fund reconciled to the franchisor’s statement.
- A named person who answers your questions.
Talk to Averan
Tell us how your business runs today, and we will walk you through what working together would look like.
Questions
Why price per location?
Owners think in locations, and the work grows with each one. It lets you see the cost of the next location before you open it.
Is cleanup included?
No. Cleanup of books that are behind or wrong is quoted as a fixed project and ends when the books are current.