Creating a franchise manual for your Belgian business

Experienced staff in your existing business often know instinctively how things should be done. A new franchisee does not have that shared experience. An operations manual makes your way of working transferable without dictating every business decision. Within a franchise network, it provides the practical link between your brand promise, training and day-to-day operations. Here is how to build a manual that people actually use.

1. Define what must be consistent across all locations

Start with your customer promise, rather than a detailed table of contents. What should customers recognise at every location? Consider product quality, the welcome they receive, turnaround times, hygiene and complaint handling. Then translate those expectations into observable actions.

Distinguish between three types of requirements and guidance:

• Mandatory standards: essential for safety, legal compliance or a consistent franchise identity.
• Recommended practices: proven approaches that a franchisee may depart from with good reason.
• Local choices: decisions that remain with the independent business owner, within the agreed boundaries.

For example, recording a complaint may be mandatory, while internal staff scheduling remains a local choice. Also explain who may approve a departure from the standards and how that approval is recorded.

This prevents the founder’s personal preferences from quietly becoming binding rules. A useful manual protects the franchise concept while leaving enough room for independent entrepreneurship.

2. Write procedures that people can follow

Use the same structure for every procedure: purpose, person responsible, resources required, steps, checks and exceptions. State not only what needs to happen, but also what successful completion looks like.

For example, replace ‘check the delivery carefully’ with a specific instruction: compare the delivery against the purchase order, check quantities and visible damage, record discrepancies and report them through the agreed channel. Add product-specific checks where necessary, such as temperature checks for chilled food.

Start with the processes that carry the greatest risk or are repeated most often:

• opening and closing the premises;
• ordering, receiving and storing goods;
• carrying out and checking the core service or production process;
• handling complaints and incidents;
• using till systems and reports;
• applying brand and communications guidelines.

Ask an employee who did not write the instructions to use them. Find out where information is missing or ambiguous. This is a usability test of the instructions, not an assessment of the employee. Address recurring questions within the procedure itself.

3. Align the manual with Belgian law

Belgium has no separate law governing franchise agreements in their entirety. However, general contract law, competition law and rules on unfair terms between businesses apply, among other provisions. Pre-contractual disclosure for commercial cooperation agreements is governed by Book X, Title 2 of the Belgian Code of Economic Law (WER).

Under Article X.27 of the WER, the prospective franchisee must receive the draft agreement and the pre-contractual disclosure document at least one month before entering into the agreement. The manual does not replace these documents. Obligations with significant operational or financial consequences must not be hidden in the manual to circumvent disclosure requirements.

Ask a Belgian lawyer to establish how the manual should be incorporated into the contractual relationship. Specify which version applies, how the franchisee can access it and what happens if there are inconsistencies between documents. Avoid vague references to a document whose content has yet to be fully developed.

Have legally sensitive instructions reviewed as well. For example, a manual must not impose prohibited fixed or minimum resale prices. The franchisee remains an independent business owner. The European Code of Ethics for Franchising can guide responsible cooperation, but it is not Belgian law.

4. Protect know-how without making work harder

Not every employee needs access to all information. Separate day-to-day work instructions from confidential franchise know-how, such as specific preparation methods or internal purchasing terms. Grant access according to role and specify who manages it.

Labelling information ‘confidential’ is not enough to secure trade secret protection. Among other requirements, the information must be secret, have commercial value because it is secret and be protected by reasonable measures. These might include access controls, confidentiality agreements and disabling accounts when people leave.

Also include clear rules on brand use: approved image files, permitted applications, local communications and approvals. The manual describes how these rules are put into practice; the franchise agreement governs the right to use the brand and the limits of that right. Check separately that you hold the necessary trade mark rights.

5. Manage updates and support

Appoint one person to manage the manual, and give each version a date and a summary of changes. Make clear which amendments simply clarify existing instructions and which introduce new obligations. For substantial changes, you must take account of the agreement and any additional legal formalities that may apply.

Accompany new instructions with an explanation, a realistic implementation period and training where needed. Ask franchisees which sections are unclear and discuss recurring problems within the franchise network. An acknowledgement of receipt does not prove that someone understands a procedure.

Practical conclusion: start by writing the most important daily procedures, test them in practice and seek legal advice on their binding status. A concise, up-to-date manual is more valuable than a lengthy document that nobody uses.