Which field to use when updating opening dates:
FranConnect stores two different opening dates for a location, and which one you update depends on where the location is in its lifecycle. If you are correcting dates in bulk for locations that are already open, you only need to update one of them.
The short answer
For locations that are Active, update Open Date on the Center Info tab. That is the field FranConnect treats as the official actual opening date, and it is the one that feeds:
- Royalty and Sales summary reports
- Task dependencies in Playbooks
- The REST API
You do not need to update Expected Opening Date to match. Leaving it as it is will not cause any inconsistency in your reporting or workflows.
Why there are two fields:
Expected Opening Date (on the Real Estate & Development and Agreement tabs) is the forward-looking, projected date. It is used while a location is still In Development.
Open Date (on Center Info) is the actual date the location opened.
The relationship between them changes when the location goes live:
| Location stage | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| In Development | The two fields stay in sync. Updating one updates the other. |
| Becomes Active | The system copies the current Expected Opening Date into Open Date as a starting point. |
| Active | The two fields are independent. Updating Open Date will not change Expected Opening Date, and the reverse is also true. |
Because all Active-stage logic reads from Open Date, that is the only field that needs to be correct once a location is open.
Should you ever update both?
Only if you want it for your own historical record — for example, if you like to compare what was originally projected against what actually happened in a custom report. Updating Expected Opening Date on an Active location has no functional effect on the system.