Franchise management software · Australia & New Zealand
Gorilla Dash was founded in Australia, and it runs franchise networks across every state, territory and both sides of the Tasman: brand-controlled location websites, a franchise CRM, marketing every franchisee can localise, an intranet and training library, network reporting and benchmarking, and the disclosure, marketing-fund and consent records the Franchising Code of Conduct and the Spam Act expect you to keep.
Franchise management software is the system a franchisor uses to run the network once locations are open: the websites and enquiry forms that bring customers in, the CRM that tracks them, the marketing that head office builds and franchisees send, the reporting that pulls sales from every location into one view, the intranet, training and support desk that keep the field on brand, and the records that show a regulator or a franchisee what was done and when. In Australia and New Zealand the same list applies, but the details are local. A network here spans three mainland time zones and up to five once daylight saving splits the eastern states, eight state and territory public-holiday calendars, two currencies and two goods-and-services tax rates, and a franchise regulator in Canberra with civil penalties behind it.
The Australian Franchising Code of Conduct is the piece most software built overseas has never heard of. It requires a disclosure document, a fourteen-day disclosure period before a prospective franchisee signs or pays, a cooling-off period after signing, an annual update of the disclosure document, a profile on the public Franchise Disclosure Register and, for any network that runs a marketing fund, an annual audited statement of the fund’s receipts and expenses given to every contributing franchisee. Franchisor software for this market has to hold those documents and dates on the franchisee record, not in a shared drive, and it has to produce the marketing-fund statement from real campaign spend rather than a spreadsheet reconstructed each June.
New Zealand has no franchise-specific statute, which makes it easy to under-prepare. Franchisors there answer to the Fair Trading Act for anything said in the sales process, the Privacy Act 2020 for customer data, the Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act for every marketing email and text, and the Franchise Association of New Zealand code of practice if they are members. The practical requirement is the same as across the Tasman: keep the record of what a candidate was shown, what a customer consented to and what each location sent, and be able to produce it. This page walks through each part of the category — franchise CRM, operations, reporting, marketing, intranet, training, development, benchmarking and compliance — with the Australian and New Zealand specifics, then explains how Gorilla Dash covers them from one login per location.
Buyers search for these thirteen terms separately and vendors sell them as separate products. In Gorilla Dash they are modules on one database, so a customer, a location and a sale mean the same thing in the CRM, the marketing, the reporting and the intranet.
The whole platform: websites, CRM, marketing, operations, reporting and communications for every location, run by head office and used by each franchisee with one login — priced per location so a forty-site network in regional Queensland pays for forty, not for seats.
Franchise management softwareBrand control at the top, local autonomy below: head office sets the templates, pricing rules, permissions and the organisation chart of states, regions and master franchisees; each location edits only what it is allowed to. The structure mirrors how Australian networks are actually organised, state by state.
See the featureThe support desk between head office and the field, the knowledge base, the resource library, the event calendar with state public holidays respected, approved suppliers and a network store — the operations manual made into a working system rather than a PDF.
Franchise operations softwareEvery enquiry from a website, form, tracked phone number or partner lands in one pipeline and is routed to the right location by postcode, suburb or drawn territory. Head office sees the whole funnel; each franchisee works only their own leads. Unlimited users per location.
Franchise CRMOne record per franchisee: their locations, users, agreement dates, disclosure history, support tickets, training completion and benchmark position. The franchisee’s own view is a simple dashboard for their location, not the head-office console with things hidden.
The franchisee’s viewA brand-controlled website for every location, each with its own suburb pages, opening hours in the location’s time zone, Google Business Profile links and enquiry forms, managed from head office and hosted on a global CDN so a customer in Perth and a customer in Christchurch both load a local page fast.
See the featureSales pulled from each location’s point of sale or accounting system into one network view, in Australian or New Zealand dollars, with GST handled consistently, compared week on week, state on state and against the network. Role-scoped, so a state manager sees their state and a franchisee sees their location.
Franchise reporting softwareDisclosure documents issued from the candidate record with the fourteen-day disclosure period counting down, the cooling-off period after signature, the annual disclosure update date, the Franchise Disclosure Register renewal and the marketing-fund statement due date — each a dated item on the record with the evidence attached, not a reminder in someone’s calendar.
Disclosure trackingEmail, SMS, social posts and promotions built once by head office and localised by each franchisee within the brand rules, with consent recorded per person, sender identification on every message, an unsubscribe that works within the required window and a suppression list every location shares.
Franchise marketing softwareBrand assets, price lists, supplier catalogues, the operations manual and head-office announcements in one place every franchisee can search, with versions, permissions by state or region and a record of who has downloaded what — the intranet a network in three time zones needs so nothing waits for Sydney to wake up.
See the featureCourses with completion tracking, a searchable knowledge base and induction paths for new franchisees and their staff, so a new site in Hobart trains to the same standard as the flagship in Melbourne and head office can see who has finished what before opening day.
See the featureFranchise-opportunity pages, tracked enquiry numbers, a candidate pipeline built for a months-long sale, discovery days on the calendar, disclosure inside the stage and territory reservation so the same suburb is never promised twice — then the signed candidate becomes the location the network runs.
Franchise development softwareEvery location ranked against the network and against peers of similar size, state and age on sales, leads, conversion, reviews and marketing activity, with the numbers coming from the same records the franchisee sees — the benchmark a franchisee trusts because they can trace it.
See the featureNone of these is exotic, but software designed for a single-time-zone, single-regulator market handles each of them badly. They are the questions to put to any vendor before the demo.
What is different here
The Franchising Code of Conduct is enforced by the ACCC with civil penalties for breaches of its disclosure, marketing-fund and good-faith provisions. The disclosure document must be updated within four months of the end of each financial year, the Franchise Disclosure Register profile renewed annually, and the marketing-fund statement prepared, audited unless the franchisees vote otherwise, and given to every contributor.
How Gorilla Dash handles it
Each obligation is a dated item on the franchisee or network record with its document attached, its due date visible on the head-office dashboard and the marketing-fund figures drawn from actual campaign spend in the platform, so the annual statement is a report rather than a reconstruction.
What is different here
Perth is two hours behind Sydney and three once daylight saving starts in the south-east but not in Queensland, Western Australia or the Northern Territory. Auckland is two hours ahead of Sydney again. A campaign scheduled for “9am” and a report for “yesterday” mean different things in each location, and every state has its own public holidays.
How Gorilla Dash handles it
Every location carries its own time zone and opening hours. Sends are scheduled in the location’s local time, reporting days close on the location’s clock, and the event calendar knows which state a holiday belongs to, so a Melbourne Cup Day promotion does not go to Brisbane.
What is different here
The Spam Act and New Zealand’s Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act require consent before a commercial message is sent, clear identification of the sender and an unsubscribe that is honoured promptly. Because each franchisee sends locally, one location’s mistake exposes the franchisor’s brand and, often, its marketing fund.
How Gorilla Dash handles it
Consent is recorded per person with its source and date, SMS consent is tracked separately from email, unsubscribes apply network-wide the moment they arrive, and every message carries the sending location’s identification. Head office can audit any location’s sends without asking for them.
What is different here
A trans-Tasman network reports in Australian and New Zealand dollars with GST at 10% and 15%, and the New Zealand locations usually run a different point of sale and accounting stack. Head office wants one league table; each country wants its own numbers to be right.
How Gorilla Dash handles it
Sales are stored per location in the currency they were taken in, with the GST treatment recorded, and rolled up with the conversion shown rather than hidden, so the network view and the country view both reconcile to what the location banked.
What is different here
Much of both countries is served by single locations covering enormous territories — a site in Dubbo, Townsville or Invercargill with no marketing staff and a franchisee who is also the technician. Local marketing either comes from head office ready to send or it does not happen.
How Gorilla Dash handles it
Head office builds the campaign, the automation and the review-request sequence once; each location gets it pre-localised with its own name, number, suburb pages and offer, and sends it with one click or lets the automation send it. The franchisee’s job is to run the location, not to become a marketer.
What is different here
Networks here run Xero or MYOB for the books, Square, Lightspeed or an industry point of sale at the counter and Google Business Profile for reviews — and a trans-Tasman network runs different mixes on each side.
How Gorilla Dash handles it
Point-of-sale and accounting connectors, Zapier, webhooks and an open API bring each location’s data into the same reporting without asking franchisees to change systems. Reviews from Google flow into reputation management per location.
The obligations a franchisor carries and where they live in the platform. The law column is a summary; take advice on the current text.
| Jurisdiction | What the franchisor has to do | Where it lives in Gorilla Dash |
|---|---|---|
| Australia — Franchising Code of Conduct | Give the disclosure document and the Code at least 14 days before signing or accepting a non-refundable payment; honour the cooling-off period; update the disclosure document within four months of financial year end; keep the Franchise Disclosure Register profile current; act in good faith. | Disclosure is a stage in the development pipeline: the document is issued from the candidate record, receipt is acknowledged, the 14 days count down on the candidate and the agreement step stays locked until it has run. Annual update and Register renewal are dated tasks on the network record. |
| Australia — marketing fund | Keep marketing-fund money in a separate account, prepare an annual statement of receipts and expenses within four months of financial year end, have it audited unless 75% of contributing franchisees vote not to, and give it to every franchisee who contributes. | Campaign spend, national promotions and shared costs are recorded against the fund as they happen, so the annual statement is generated from the platform and the audit trail shows each line’s source. |
| Australia — Spam Act and Privacy Act | Consent before commercial email or SMS, sender identification, a functional unsubscribe honoured within five business days; handle personal information under the Australian Privacy Principles and notify eligible data breaches. | Consent with source and date on every person, network-wide suppression, identification on every send and access controls with two-factor authentication and audit trails on the customer data itself. |
| New Zealand — Fair Trading Act and FANZ code | No franchise statute, but representations made in the sales process are actionable under the Fair Trading Act, and FANZ members must give a disclosure document and a cooling-off period under the association’s code of practice. | The same disclosure stage and dated record used for Australian candidates, so a New Zealand master franchisee or a trans-Tasman network keeps one process with the country’s document and waiting period set per candidate. |
| New Zealand — Unsolicited Electronic Messages Act and Privacy Act 2020 | Consent, accurate sender information and a functional unsubscribe on every commercial electronic message; personal information handled under the thirteen privacy principles with notifiable breach rules. | The consent and suppression records are the same across both countries, so a customer who unsubscribes from a Wellington location is suppressed for the whole network, and the breach-notification evidence is in the audit log. |
This page is general information for franchisors comparing software, not legal advice. The Australian Franchising Code of Conduct was rewritten with effect from 1 April 2025 and the Privacy Act is under continuing reform, so confirm current requirements with a franchise lawyer in Australia or New Zealand before relying on them. Gorilla Dash tracks documents, dates and consents; it does not draft legal text.
Gorilla Dash was founded in Australia in 2016 and its Australasian team works in Sydney hours, so a franchisor in Adelaide or Auckland gets a project manager whose working day overlaps theirs, and support that is picked up by the Americas team overnight rather than parked until morning. Onboarding is run as a project: locations imported, territories drawn on the map, websites generated per location, the CRM and marketing connected, and each franchisee walked through their own dashboard.
The platform is priced per location with unlimited users, which suits the owner-operator shape of most Australian and New Zealand networks — a franchisee with two staff and a franchisee with twenty pay the same. Production infrastructure runs on Google Cloud in the United States with encryption in transit and at rest, daily cross-cloud backups and a web application firewall at the edge; if your network has a data-residency requirement, talk to us before you sign anything.
Disclosure tracking, territory mapping, royalty management and store-opening tracking are offered alongside the base platform for networks that want the whole franchise lifecycle on one record; the base platform on its own already replaces the CRM, email tool, review platform, intranet, support desk and reporting tool most networks here pay for separately. Book a demo in your own time zone and we will show you a network like yours.
Franchise management software for Australian franchise networks is one platform that runs every location’s website, CRM, marketing, reporting, intranet, training and support from head office, while keeping the records the Franchising Code of Conduct, the Spam Act and the Privacy Act expect a franchisor to be able to produce. Gorilla Dash is that platform, founded in Australia and priced per location.
It tracks it. The disclosure document is issued from the candidate’s record, the fourteen-day disclosure period counts down on the candidate, the agreement step stays locked until it has run, the cooling-off period is dated after signature, and the annual update and Franchise Disclosure Register renewal are dated tasks. Gorilla Dash does not draft the disclosure document itself — your franchise lawyer does that.
Yes, when the fund’s campaigns and shared costs are run through the platform. Spend is recorded against the fund as it happens, so the statement of receipts and expenses is generated from the record with each line traceable to its source, which is what the auditor asks for.
Yes. Each location carries its own country, currency, GST rate, time zone and consent rules, and the network view rolls them up with the conversion shown. A New Zealand master franchisee can be a branch of the organisation chart with its own reporting and permissions.
Consent is stored per person with its source and date, SMS consent separately from email, every send carries the sending location’s identification, and an unsubscribe suppresses the person across the whole network immediately. Head office can see any location’s send history without asking.
Point-of-sale and accounting connectors, Zapier, webhooks and an open API cover the common stacks — Xero and MYOB for the books, Square, Lightspeed and industry point-of-sale systems at the counter, Google Business Profile for reviews. Where a location runs something unusual, the API or a custom connector brings its data into the same reporting.
Production runs on Google Cloud in the United States, encrypted in transit and at rest, with daily backups replicated to a second cloud provider. Most Australian and New Zealand networks are comfortable with that under the Australian Privacy Principles and the New Zealand Privacy Act’s cross-border rules; if yours has a stricter residency requirement, talk to us before you commit.
Your project manager works in Australian and New Zealand hours, and the platform is supported around the clock by teams across three regions. Onboarding is run as a project with locations, territories, websites and integrations set up for you, and franchisees are trained on their own dashboards.
Per location per month with unlimited users, quoted in US dollars, with the disclosure, territory, royalty and store-opening modules offered alongside the base platform. See the pricing page for the current rate and ask us about billing in Australian or New Zealand dollars.
Yes. Per-location pricing means a network of five pays for five, and the platform replaces the separate CRM, email, review, intranet and reporting subscriptions an emerging franchisor would otherwise assemble. The structure — head office above, locations below — is the same one a two-hundred-site network uses, so nothing has to be rebuilt as the network grows.
Book a demo in your own time zone and we will walk through a network like yours — locations, territories, the Code obligations and the marketing every franchisee can send.
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