Automated royalty collection
Each franchisee authorises their bank account once. Every week or month the royalty statement becomes the debit amount, the franchisee is notified, the pull runs by ACH, direct debit or pre-authorised debit on the due date, returns are retried and chased, and every payment is matched to its statement — so collecting royalties stops being a job and becomes a schedule.
Automated royalty collection is the movement of the money a franchisee owes the franchisor — royalties, marketing-fund contributions and recurring fees — from the franchisee’s bank account to the franchisor’s, on a schedule, without an invoice being sent, a transfer being made or a cheque being posted. In the United States it runs on ACH debits; in Australia on BECS direct debit; in Canada on pre-authorised debit; in the United Kingdom and Europe on Bacs and SEPA direct debit. The franchisee gives a standing authorisation once, the franchisor debits the amount due each period, and the scheme rules govern the notice, the timing and what happens when a debit fails.
Most franchisors already know why they want it. Chasing royalties is the least popular job in the finance team; a network of two hundred locations paying by transfer means two hundred remittances to match, a tail of late payers every month, and a relationship conversation every time a field manager has to raise money with a franchisee. Debiting on schedule removes the tail, the matching and most of the conversations. What has held networks back is the plumbing: getting authorisations, holding bank details safely, computing a variable amount every period, giving the notice the scheme requires, handling returns properly, and reconciling it all.
In Gorilla Dash the plumbing is already there. The platform collects network-store orders and membership payments by ACH and direct debit through its payment rails, and the royalty statement is computed each period from the sales the platform holds. Automated royalty collection joins the two: the statement is the debit, the franchisee’s stored authorisation is the mandate, and the schedule does the rest. This page sets out how a collection cycle runs, what the software has to handle, the rails by country, and how Gorilla Dash builds it into the franchise ERP.
Bank-debit schemes have their own rules on authorisation, advance notice, timing and disputes, and your franchise agreement has to permit the debit. Gorilla Dash runs the collections you schedule through regulated payment providers under the mandates your franchisees sign; confirm the authorisation wording and notice periods for your country with your payments provider and counsel.
Set up once per franchisee, then repeated every period without anyone at head office starting it.
From their own dashboard the franchisee adds a bank account and accepts the debit authorisation for their scheme — an ACH authorisation, a direct debit request, a pre-authorised debit agreement. Micro-deposit or instant verification confirms the account. Bank details are held by the payment provider, never in Gorilla Dash.
Each period the royalty statement is computed from the location’s reported sales under its agreement’s structure. Once finance has cleared the exceptions and issued it, the total due is the scheduled debit amount, with the due date from the agreement.
The franchisee receives the statement and a notice of the amount and date of the debit ahead of the pull, within the notice period the scheme and the agreement require. A query raised before the due date can hold the debit; silence means it proceeds.
On the due date the debit is submitted through the payment provider for every location due that day, in the location’s currency and scheme. Settlement follows the scheme’s timing — typically one to three business days — and the payment is marked settled when the funds are confirmed.
A return — insufficient funds, a closed account, a revoked authorisation — is recorded against the statement with its reason code. The retry and reminder cycle configured by head office runs: a retry after a set number of days, a reminder to the franchisee, then escalation to the territory manager and finance with the account flagged.
Every settled debit is matched to its statement automatically. What is owed, paid, pending, returned and disputed is a live report per location and for the network, with the export the accounting system needs and the ageing the CFO wants.
A debit that runs is the easy part. The software has to handle everything around it — authorisation, notice, failure, dispute and reconciliation — for every franchisee, every period, in every country the network operates in.
Franchisees add and verify a bank account and accept the scheme’s authorisation from their own dashboard, replace it when they change banks, and see the mandate on file. Head office sees who has authorised, who has not and who is on a card or invoice instead.
The debit amount is the period’s statement total — royalty, funds and fees — not a fixed figure. It changes with sales every period, and the statement is the notice of what will be taken and why.
Collection frequency and due day set per agreement or per group of locations, with the debit submitted on the due date in the location’s timezone and the scheme’s cut-off honoured.
Automatic notice of the amount and date within the period the scheme and agreement require. A franchisee query or a finance decision can hold an individual debit before the due date, with the reason and the approver recorded.
Every return recorded with its scheme reason code; a configurable retry after a set number of days; reminders to the franchisee by email and SMS; escalation to the territory manager and finance; and the location flagged on the reports while it is in arrears.
Not every franchisee will authorise a debit on day one. Card on file and invoice with a payment link run on the same statement and schedule, so the network can move to bank debits location by location.
A brand collecting in US dollars by ACH, Australian dollars by direct debit and Canadian dollars by pre-authorised debit runs one schedule with each location on its own scheme and currency, and reports in the franchisor’s reporting currency.
Settled payments matched to statements automatically, pending and returned debits shown as such, and the export for the accounting system with the royalty, each fund and each fee on its own account.
Bank account details are captured and stored by the regulated payment provider; Gorilla Dash holds a token and the last digits. Access to collection controls is role-based and every action — hold, retry, refund, mandate change — is logged.
What the franchisee authorises, how long settlement takes and what a failed debit looks like differs by scheme. Gorilla Dash runs each through its payment provider; the timings below are typical and your provider confirms the detail.
| Country | Scheme | What the franchisee signs | Typical settlement | When a debit fails |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | ACH debit | An ACH debit authorisation, with advance notice of variable amounts | 1–3 business days | A return with a reason code — insufficient funds, account closed, authorisation revoked — and a limited retry window |
| Australia | BECS direct debit | A direct debit request and service agreement | 1–3 business days | A dishonour with a reason; retries and reminders under the service agreement |
| Canada | Pre-authorised debit (PAD) | A PAD agreement with the notice period it specifies | 1–3 business days | A return with a reason code; the payor’s dispute rights follow the PAD rules |
| United Kingdom | Bacs direct debit | A direct debit instruction under the Direct Debit Guarantee | 3 business days | An unpaid or indemnity claim; advance notice is required for each collection |
| Europe | SEPA direct debit | A SEPA mandate | 2–5 business days | A rejection, return or refund request within the scheme’s windows |
The network, the figures and the two returns are illustrative; the sequence is how the cycle is designed to run once franchisees have authorised their accounts.
Onboarding
The franchisee
A new franchisee, in the same dashboard where they set up their location’s website and POS connection, adds their trading account, accepts the direct debit authorisation and verifies the account. Head office sees them join the 168 locations on bank debit; nine remain on card and three on invoice.
2nd of the month
Finance
Finance clears the period’s exceptions and issues the statements. Each franchisee receives their statement and a notice that the total will be debited on the 10th. One franchisee queries a tier calculation before the due date; finance holds their debit, answers the query from the transactions behind the statement, and releases it two days later.
10th of the month
The platform
On the due date 168 debits are submitted through the payment provider in three currencies across three schemes. Nobody at head office starts it. Card payments run at the same time; the three invoiced locations receive their payment links.
12th to 14th of the month
The platform
By the 14th, 166 debits have settled and are matched to their statements. Two return for insufficient funds. Each is retried after five days and the franchisees receive a reminder; one retry settles. The other returns again and is escalated to the territory manager, who already sees the location flagged in their weekly report.
Month-end
The CFO
The month closes with 179 of 180 locations settled, one in arrears with an agreed payment plan recorded on its account, and the accounting export posted with royalty, national fund, regional co-op and technology fees on their own accounts. The finance team spent their time on one conversation instead of forty.
The visible cost is the finance time. The larger cost is what late royalties do to cash flow and to the relationship between head office and the field.
The problem
A third of the network pays on time, a third pays when reminded, and the rest pay when a field manager raises it in person. Royalty income arrives over six weeks instead of on a date, and the forecast is a guess.
What good looks like
The debit runs on the due date for every authorised location. The tail shrinks to the returns, which are retried and chased automatically, and royalty income lands on a date the CFO can plan around.
The problem
Transfers arrive with references that are wrong, partial or missing. Finance spends the first week of every month matching payments to invoices by amount and guesswork, and the aged-debtors report is never quite right.
What good looks like
Every debit is created from a statement, so it settles against that statement. There is nothing to match by hand, and the outstanding report is correct the moment settlement is confirmed.
The problem
The territory manager’s store visit, meant to be about sales and coaching, opens with an overdue royalty. The relationship the brand relies on for compliance and growth is spent on collections.
What good looks like
Collection is a schedule the platform runs and a reminder cycle the platform sends. The territory manager is told when a location is in arrears and why, and the visit stays about the business.
The problem
Franchisee bank details collected on a form, stored in a spreadsheet and emailed to whoever runs the debit file. One mistake is a data breach; one departure is a security review.
What good looks like
Franchisees enter their own details into the regulated payment provider’s form. Gorilla Dash stores a token and the last digits, controls who can schedule or hold a debit, and logs every action.
The problem
A debit file built by hand takes the wrong amount from a franchisee’s account with no warning. The franchisee disputes it with their bank, the scheme reverses it, and head office has a trust problem and a compliance problem at once.
What good looks like
The amount is the issued statement, the notice goes out automatically within the required period, and a query before the due date holds the debit. The franchisee is never surprised by what leaves their account.
The problem
A returned debit is an email from the bank that lands in a shared inbox. It is noticed a fortnight later, retried once by hand, and the location quietly runs two periods behind.
What good looks like
Returns are recorded against the statement with the reason code the moment they arrive, retried and chased on the configured cycle, and escalated with the location flagged until it is settled.
Collection is the last step of a process that already runs in the platform — sales in, royalty computed, statement issued — on payment rails the platform already uses for other money the network moves.
Gorilla Dash collects network-store orders and membership payments by ACH and direct debit through its payment providers today. Royalty collection uses the same mandates, the same providers and the same return handling.
The amount is computed from the sales the platform holds under each agreement’s structure, so there is no debit file to build and no figure to key. Change the statement and the debit changes with it.
The bank account, the authorisation and the statement history sit in the franchisee’s own dashboard beside their sales, so they can see what was taken, why, and what is coming.
A location in arrears is flagged in the territory manager’s weekly report and on the location’s record, next to the sales trend that usually explains it. Collection and coaching are the same conversation, in the right order.
Bank debit, card on file and invoice with a payment link all run on the same schedule and reconcile the same way, so a network can move from invoicing to debits location by location, agreement by agreement.
Settled, pending, returned and disputed per location and for the network, aged, with the accounting export posted by fund and fee — the royalty line the CFO reports is a reconciled fact, not an estimate.
Automated royalty collection debits the royalty, marketing-fund contributions and fees a franchisee owes each period directly from their bank account on the due date, under a standing authorisation they give once, instead of invoicing and waiting for a transfer. The amount is the period’s statement, the franchisee is notified in advance, returns are retried and chased, and every payment is reconciled to its statement automatically.
ACH debit in the United States, BECS direct debit in Australia, pre-authorised debit in Canada, Bacs direct debit in the United Kingdom and SEPA direct debit in Europe, each run through Gorilla Dash’s regulated payment providers. Card on file and invoice with a payment link are available as fallbacks on the same schedule, and a network can use different methods for different locations.
From their own dashboard they add a bank account, accept the authorisation for their scheme — an ACH authorisation, a direct debit request, a pre-authorised debit agreement — and verify the account by micro-deposit or instant verification. The mandate is stored with the payment provider and shown on their account; they can replace it when they change banks. Your franchise agreement also has to permit collection by debit, which counsel confirms.
The debit amount is the period’s statement total, computed from the location’s reported sales under its agreement, so it changes with sales. The statement doubles as the advance notice of the amount and date, sent within the period the scheme and agreement require. Fixed fees and variable royalties are collected in one debit.
The return is recorded against the statement with the scheme’s reason code — insufficient funds, closed account, authorisation revoked. The retry and reminder cycle head office configures then runs: a retry after a set number of days, reminders to the franchisee by email and SMS, and escalation to the territory manager and finance, with the location flagged on the reports until it is settled or a payment plan is recorded.
Yes. The statement and the notice go out ahead of the due date, and a query raised before it can hold that debit while finance answers from the transactions behind the statement. The hold, the reason and the release are logged. Silence means the debit proceeds as notified.
With the regulated payment provider. Franchisees enter their details into the provider’s own form; Gorilla Dash stores a token and the last digits of the account. Who can schedule, hold, retry or refund a debit is role-based, and every action is logged against the account.
Yes. Collection frequency and due day are set per agreement or per group of locations — weekly, fortnightly or monthly — and the royalty period closes on the same cycle from the live sales data. Networks that want cash flow closer to sales run weekly; networks with monthly agreements run monthly.
Every settled debit is matched to its statement automatically, so the outstanding, pending, returned and disputed positions per location are live. The accounting export posts royalty, each marketing fund and each fee to its own account, and the open API and Zapier cover integrations beyond the standard export.
Automated collection is part of the finance module with royalty management, offered alongside the Gorilla Dash base platform (USD $52 per location per month with unlimited team members). Bank-debit transaction fees are charged by the payment provider at their published rates. Talk to us and we will scope the module and the fees for your network.
Tell us which countries your franchisees bank in and we will walk through authorisation, the statement, the pull and a return — book a demo with our team.
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