Planning Franchise Record Keeping in Australia

When you franchise an existing Australian business, informal filing habits can become a legal and operational weakness. Documents scattered across inboxes make it difficult to establish what was sent, received or agreed. Before inviting applications, build a record-keeping system that supports your obligations and helps everyone in your franchise community work from reliable information.

Understand what the Code requires

Australia’s Franchising Code of Conduct is a mandatory code prescribed under the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. The current Code commenced on 1 April 2025, with transitional arrangements affecting which provisions apply to particular agreements. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) oversees compliance.

Record keeping is a legal obligation, not simply good administration. Under the Code, franchisors must retain written material that the Code requires or allows a franchisee or prospective franchisee to give them. Government guidance states that these records must be kept for six years from when they were created. The Code also requires retention of documents relied on to support statements or claims in the disclosure document.

Ask your franchise lawyer to identify the precise records your business must retain and the applicable retention periods. Do not assume that keeping the signed franchise agreement alone satisfies your obligations.

Separate mandatory retention from your broader business filing policy. Tax, employment, privacy and other legal requirements may affect how long particular records should be held and how they should be protected. Six years should not become an automatic destruction date for every document in the business.

Create a file structure before accepting enquiries

Give every prospective franchisee a unique reference when substantive discussions begin. Use that reference consistently across correspondence, document storage and any recruitment system. If the applicant proceeds, carry it into the ongoing franchise relationship rather than starting an unrelated file.

A practical structure can include:

• Identity and contacts: the applicant, proposed franchisee entity, authorised representatives and relevant contact details.
• Documents issued: exact copies of information statements, disclosure documents, proposed agreements and accompanying material.
• Documents received: statements, acknowledgements, requests, notices and other written material provided by the applicant or franchisee.
• Executed documents: signed agreements, schedules, variations and related approvals.
• Ongoing correspondence: formal requests, responses and records of significant decisions.

Keep a separate central library for approved templates and the evidence supporting disclosure statements. Link each franchisee file to the relevant historical versions without allowing later updates to overwrite them.

For example, updating your standard agreement should not change the copy retained for an earlier applicant. That applicant’s file needs to show the actual document they received, not whichever version is current today.

Record the event as well as the document

A saved PDF establishes its contents, but it may not establish when it was sent or who received it. Pair important documents with a simple event log containing the sender, recipient, date, document version, delivery method and available delivery evidence.

Retain original emails and attachments where appropriate. For electronic signing, preserve the completed document and associated audit trail rather than relying indefinitely on access to a signing platform. A delivery or signing record is useful evidence, but it does not replace checking whether the legal requirements for that step were met.

Capture incoming material with equal care. A written request sent to an operations manager should not disappear into a personal inbox because the compliance administrator was not copied in. Establish one internal route for forwarding and filing formal communications.

After a significant telephone conversation, make a dated factual note identifying participants, issues discussed and agreed actions. Where appropriate, confirm the discussion in writing. Clearly distinguish your own notes from statements actually supplied or approved by the franchisee; never present an internal summary as their acknowledgement.

Assign responsibility and test retrieval

Appoint a named person to maintain the filing system, with a deputy for absences. Staff handling recruitment, operations and finance should know what must be passed to that person and how quickly.

Use access controls appropriate to the information involved. Franchise files can contain personal and financial details, so avoid unrestricted shared folders. Arrange backups and test restoration. Before changing software providers, check that documents, attachments and audit histories can be exported in usable formats.

Periodically select a file and ask a colleague to reconstruct its chronology without help from the original account manager. Can they find the signed agreement, identify the disclosure version and locate a written request and response? Investigate gaps while memories and records are still available.

Practical takeaway: Before recruiting your first franchisee, have your lawyer check a retention schedule, assign a records owner and test one complete sample file. A dependable record is one you can retrieve and explain, not merely one you remember saving.