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Learn to read a franchise filing.
Every US franchise files a disclosure document — the one place it has to tell the truth. These guides show you how to read it: the startup costs, the revenue claims, the fees, and the technology a brand requires. Every figure comes from the filings, and every guide links to the live brand pages it draws on.
What is a Franchise Disclosure Document?
The 23-item filing every US franchisor must hand you before you sign — and how to read it in an hour.
Read the guide →Item 7How to read the Item 7 startup-cost table
Why the initial-investment range runs so wide, what the low end really assumes, and what the table leaves out.
Read the guide →Item 19What is AUV — and when does it mislead?
Average unit volume measures sales, not profit. Where the number comes from and how the average can flatter.
Read the guide →Items 5 & 6Franchise royalty and ad fund fees, explained
The one-time fee, the ongoing royalty, the ad fund — and the smaller Item 6 charges that stack on top.
Read the guide →Item 11What Item 11 reveals about a brand's required tech
Whether a system mandates its software or leaves it to franchisees — and why both readers of an FDD should care.
Read the guide →The directorySee the filings put to work
Every brand page shows the Item 7 range, the Item 19 AUV, the royalty and ad fund, and the tech posture — pulled straight from the latest filing.
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