McDonald's, Oldham Road, Manchester.
McDonald's is one well known organization that operates using franchises.
A franchise is a contract that grants a business the right to operate using the name and products of an established brand. A franchisor will develop the brand, produce goods and develop marketing campaigns for its products. A franchisee will then purchase the rights to sell the franchisor's products in a given area and benefit from the franchisor's marketing efforts. The franchisor makes money by selling rights to franchisees, while the franchisee profits by selling directly to customers. A common industry that uses franchising is fast food.
A license is similar to a franchise, in that it grants someone the right to legally use someone else's intellectual property or gooda. This license will contain terms that will define how the purchaser can use the product and whether she can share it. A common example of a license a business might purchase is for software.
Valuing Franchises and Licenses
How a franchise is recorded on a balance sheet depends on the conditions of the contract. If a franchisee makes periodic payments to the franchisor over the contract's term, the franchisee does not record a franchise asset. Instead, the franchisee records a franchise expense when she pays the franchise fee.
If the contract requires that a lump sum be paid up front to secure the franchise rights for several years, the franchisee would record a franchise asset on its balance sheet. Therefore, the value of the franchise asset equals what it cost to acquire.
The same rules apply to a license. If a business must pay licensing fees on a monthly or on an annual basis that coincides with the end of the business's fiscal year, the business does not record a license asset. The fees that the business paid for those licenses are included as an expense. If the license is for multiple years or accounting periods and is acquired by paying an initial fee, the license is recorded as an asset on the balance sheet and its value equals what it cost to acquire the license.
Amortizing Franchises and Licenses
Amortizing is a term that only applies if there is a franchise or license asset. Amortization is the process of writing off the cost of an asset over its useful life. Useful life is the amount of time that a business can generate revenues from the asset. For a franchise, the useful life is generally the length of the franchise contract. The useful life of a license is how long it grants the holder the exclusive right to use the underlying product.
The amortization rate is calculated by dividing the initial value of the asset by its useful life. Depending on when the balance sheet is issued, the useful life is presented as a number of months, quarters, or years. Every accounting period, the value of the asset is decreased by the amortization rate. The business also records an expense equal to the amortization rate every accounting period.