Candidate Coach: AI-Powered Candidate Engagement and Qualification in FranConnect Sales
Candidate Coach is the AI built into FranConnect Sales, purpose-built for franchise development. It carries each inbound candidate inquiry from first touch to a booked discovery call by engaging candidates within seconds, answering early questions from your brand-approved materials, qualifying against the criteria you configure, and booking the discovery call on your developer’s calendar.
With Candidate Coach handling the earliest, most time-sensitive stage of the funnel, development teams can spend more time on the consultative path to franchise ownership — application, disclosure, validation, and Discovery Day.
What’s New
Instant Candidate Engagement: Respond to inbound inquiries within seconds through two-way SMS, including after-hours and weekend inquiries.
Brand-Approved Conversations: Answer early candidate questions using approved brand materials, helping ensure consistent and accurate responses.
Configurable Qualification: Qualify candidates based on the criteria your brand defines, such as financial readiness, territory, and overall fit.
Multi-Brand Support: Configure Candidate Coach independently for each brand in a franchise portfolio, including conversation workflow, qualification logic, tone, and agent instructions.
Custom Follow-Up Cadences: Define follow-up timing using flexible intervals, such as days, hours, or combined timing, and customize SMS message copy for each step in the sequence.
Calendar Scheduling: Book discovery calls directly on your franchise developer’s Outlook or Google calendar.
Native Sales Record Visibility: Capture every Candidate Coach conversation on the same candidate record your team already uses in FranConnect Sales.
Get Started
Contact your FranConnect account team to enable Candidate Coach for your brand.
Once enabled, your implementation team will configure your brand-approved materials, qualification criteria, follow-up cadence, SMS message copy, and developer calendar connection.
For multi-brand organizations, each brand can be configured independently to support its own candidate journey.
Projects: Standardized Lifecycle Project Tracking for Franchise Operations
FranConnect Projects gives operations teams a standardized way to manage franchise lifecycle work directly in FranConnect. Teams can run openings, remodels, relocations, conversions, transfers, and closures using configurable checklists with milestones, tasks, assigned roles, due dates, and status tracking.
Because each project is tied to the unit record, teams can manage project activity alongside the franchise data they already rely on, including agreement details, key dates, royalty history, and unit history. Operations leaders get one view of where projects stand across the network, while franchisees can follow the progress of their own unit.
What’s Included
Configurable Lifecycle Project Checklists: Each project type, including openings, remodels, relocations, conversions, transfers, and closures, can start from a standard checklist of milestones, tasks, and due dates that teams configure once and reuse.
Milestone and Task Tracking: Track each project’s milestones, related tasks, assigned roles, due dates, and current status in one place.
Role-Based Assignment: Assign work to the responsible internal role, such as an NSO project manager, field consultant, legal team member, operations leader, or another franchisor team.
Franchisee Unit View: Give franchisees visibility into their own unit’s progress, including upcoming milestones and outstanding tasks.
Native to FranConnect: Keep every project connected to the same unit record your team already uses for agreement, royalty, and history.
Get Started
Available now for FranConnect customers. Contact your FranConnect account team to enable FranConnect Projects for your brand.
Training & Development (World Manager) is Now Available in the FranConnect App
Franchisees and frontline employees can now access Training & Development (World Manager) directly inside the FranConnect app — no second app required. By combining Hub and T&D in a single experience, franchise networks can keep their teams connected, trained, and informed from one place, with one login. The unified Activity Page, push notifications, and seamless navigation mean less friction for frontline users and no configuration changes required for admins.
What's New
- T&D Embedded in the FranConnect App: Training & Development (World Manager) now appears directly in the FranConnect app left navigation alongside Hub, FranBuzz, Library, and Spaces — no second app or second login required.
- Unified Activity Page: The Activity Page now only surfaces modules with active notifications, replacing the previous Activity Stream that showed all modules regardless of activity. Applies to all FranConnect app users.
- Single Sign-On Across Hub & T&D: A single login covers both FranConnect and T&D with no re-authentication required.
- T&D Push Notifications with Deep Links: T&D push notifications are now delivered through the FranConnect app, with deep links that navigate directly to the relevant course or task.
- Notification Settings: Users can manage T&D notification preferences independently under Settings in the left navigation.
Analytics: Improved Dashboard Discovery and Viewing Experience
Analytics now makes it easier for teams to find, organize, and review the dashboards they rely on to monitor franchise performance. With Favorites, a dedicated New tab, full screen viewing, improved dashboard ordering, and easier navigation between dashboards, users can get to the right insights faster and review key metrics with fewer distractions.
What’s New
- Favorite Dashboards: Mark frequently used dashboards as Favorites for quicker access from a dedicated Favorites section at the top of the Analytics landing page and navigation panel. Favorites are saved by user and remain available across sessions and devices.
- New Dashboard Discovery: A new New tab highlights newly released dashboards, helping users quickly identify the latest analytics available to their brand.
- Full Screen Dashboard View: Open dashboards in full screen mode to maximize viewing space by hiding the header, side navigation, and non-essential page elements.
- Easier Dashboard Navigation: Move to other dashboards directly from the dashboard you are viewing, making it easier to compare related insights without returning to the catalog.
- Improved Catalog Organization: Dashboard order in the Analytics catalog has been updated to make dashboard discovery more intuitive.
Get Started
- Navigate to Analytics.
- To favorite a dashboard, select the Favorite option for the dashboard. Favorited dashboards will appear in the Favorites section at the top of the Analytics landing page and navigation panel.
- To view newly released dashboards, open the New tab on the Analytics page.
- To use full screen mode, open a dashboard and select the Full Screen option. Toggle out of full screen to return to the standard Analytics view.
- While viewing a dashboard, use the available dashboard navigation option to move directly to another dashboard.
Sales and Info Manager: Role-Based Email Visibility for Franchise Communications
Corporate teams now have greater control over who can view sensitive emails captured or uploaded in Sales and Info Manager. By assigning Accessibility Roles to emails, brands can protect confidential lead, franchisee, unit, and ownership communications while keeping access aligned with each user’s FranConnect role. This helps strengthen privacy, compliance, and data governance without changing existing email capture or upload workflows.
What’s New
- Role-Based Email Visibility: Control which FranConnect roles can view captured or uploaded emails.
- Visibility Controls During Upload: Select Accessibility Roles when manually uploading emails or performing bulk email uploads.
- Consistent Access Control Across Modules: Apply a common visibility model across Sales and Info Manager, including Lead, Entity, and Owner/Multi-Unit email records.
- Protected Activity and Contact History: Email visibility is enforced in Activity History and Contact History, helping ensure sensitive communications are only available to authorized users.
- Improved Multi-Unit Email Assignment: When configured, FranConnect can read the Unit ID from the email subject to help assign captured emails to the correct unit. If no Unit ID is included, the existing email assignment process will continue.
Get Started
- For Sales emails, navigate to Sales > Lead Management and open a Lead record. Capture or upload the email using the existing workflow, then select the appropriate Accessibility Role before saving.
- For Info Manager emails, navigate to Info Manager > Entity or Info Manager > Owner/Multi-Unit, open the applicable record, capture or upload the email, and select the appropriate Accessibility Role before saving.
- For multi-unit email capture, include the Unit ID in the email subject when configured so FranConnect can assign the email to the correct unit.
Sales and Info Manager: Secure Document Links in Workflow Emails
Workflow emails can now include secure document download links in Sales and Info Manager, making it easier for recipients to access documents tied to a workflow record. Teams can insert a Document keyword into Workflow Email or Send Email steps so recipients can download the specific document they need directly from the email, such as an agreement, application, compliance document, or other required file.
Note: This applies to fields configured with a document validation type. It does not apply to document fields added using the Add Document option in the Form Generator.
What’s New
- Document Keywords in Emails: Insert Document keywords into the email body or subject from the existing keyword list in Workflow Email and Send Email steps.
- Field-Based Keyword Organization: Document keywords appear under the relevant tab section in the keyword list, making it easier to select the correct document field for the workflow record.
- Secure Download Links: When the email is sent, the Document keyword is converted into a clickable link using the document name.
- Secure Recipient Access: Recipients can download the specific document from a secure, signed link without needing to log in to FranConnect by default.
- Time-Limited Document Access: Each download link is unique to the email, expires after a configurable time period, and cannot be reused after expiration.
Get Started
- Navigate to the applicable workflow in Sales or Info Manager and open a Workflow Email or Send Email step.
- In the email body or subject, open the keyword list and select the appropriate Document keyword from the relevant tab section.
- Preview the email to confirm the document name appears as a clickable download link, then save the workflow step.
Royalty Manager: Late Fees for Master Franchisee Invoices
Corporate finance and royalty teams can now configure late fees for Master Franchisee invoices, helping enforce payment timelines and improve consistency in revenue collection. When enabled, late fee rules can be added directly to Master Franchisee agreement versions, allowing overdue charges to be calculated automatically and displayed clearly on the Master Invoice.
What’s New
- Late Fee Support for Master Franchisees: Apply late fees to Master Franchisee invoices through agreement version setup.
- Admin-Controlled Setup: Enable the feature through Admin > Royalty Manager > Setup Preferences > Late Fees at Master Franchisee.
- Configurable Late Fee Rules: Define grace period and calculation type, including Percentage-based, Flat, or Rule-based late fees.
- Automated Invoice Calculation: Late fees are calculated based on the Master Invoice report period end date and only apply after the configured grace period.
- Clear Invoice Visibility: Late fees appear as a separate line item on the generated Master Invoice for better transparency.
- Agreement Version Support: When multiple agreement versions are associated with a Master Franchisee, late fees are calculated per version and summed on the final invoice.
Get Started
- Navigate to Admin > Royalty Manager > Setup Preferences > Late Fees at Master Franchisee and turn on Enable Late Fees for Master Franchisee.
- Once enabled, go to the applicable Master Franchisee Agreement Version setup and configure the Late Fees agreement item. Set the grace period and choose the calculation type: Percentage-based, Flat, or Rule-based.
- Corporate Users can then generate the Master Invoice. If the invoice is generated after the grace period, applicable late fees will be calculated and shown as a separate invoice line item.
Other Updates
Info Manager: Expanded API Access for People, Unit, and Ownership Data
Corporate and IT teams can now manage additional Info Manager data through API integrations, including People, Additional Contacts, Unit Summary, Employees, and Owners. This update helps brands keep FranConnect better aligned with connected systems, reduce manual updates, and maintain more accurate people, location, employee, and ownership information across the franchise network. Refer to the FranConnect API documentation at docs.franconnect.net for details on the expanded capabilities.
Info Manager: Search on Franchise ID or Owner Name from Store Summary Custom Views
Users can now access search within Store Summary Custom Views, bringing the same search experience available in the default Lifecycle View into personalized views. Corporate and field teams can search for units by Franchise ID or Owner Name while staying in their selected Custom View, making it easier to find location information without switching views or losing workflow context.
Royalty Manager: Financial Category Selection for Invoice Adjustments
Corporate finance teams can now tag invoice line item adjustments with a predefined Financial Category, such as Mitigation or Reconstruction, when the setting is enabled for Master and applicable Unit invoices. This gives brands clearer visibility into which revenue streams are affected by adjustments, improving royalty tracking, invoice review, and financial reporting. Corporate Administrators can enable this from Admin > Royalty Manager > Finance Setup Preferences; when disabled, the additional category dropdown will not appear on line item adjustments.
Royalty Manager: Standardized Labels for Ad Hoc Invoices
Ad hoc invoices can now use standardized labels to improve consistency and simplify invoice management. When enabled, the Label field appears as a dropdown with predefined values, reducing manual entry errors and helping teams categorize invoices more accurately. Labels remain tied to historical invoices even if a value is later removed, and users can update labels on unpaid or partially paid invoices. The Label field is also available on the ad hoc invoice summary page and in filters, making it easier to search, group, and review invoices by label. Label dropdown values are managed by FranConnect and can be updated through a support request.
Integrations: QuickBooks Reports API Compatibility Update
FranConnect has made a backend compatibility update to align with Intuit’s modernized QuickBooks financial reports service. This update helps maintain support for QuickBooks-related reporting and financial workflows, with no expected change to the FranConnect user experience or existing customer workflows. No action is required.
Sales: SMS Short Link Service Update
FranConnect now generates shortened SMS links using its own commfc.net domain, replacing the previous fcsms.net short link domain used in the Send SMS > Shorten Link flow in Leads. Users will continue using the same workflow to insert short links into SMS messages, with newly generated links now displayed using the FranConnect-managed short link service. This update helps maintain a consistent, reliable SMS link experience with no action required from users.