Earnings figures are the franchisor's own Item 19 disclosures, reported verbatim. We never recompute or project them. Not investment, legal, tax, or financial advice.
How we use Item 19 earnings data
When a franchisor discloses financial performance, we treat it as theirs, because it is. Here is exactly what we do and do not do with it.
What Item 19 is
Item 19 of the Franchise Disclosure Document is the only place a franchisor may make a financial performance representation. About 40% of franchisors choose to disclose nothing there at all. When one does, the figures are the franchisor's own, presented on the franchisor's terms, with the franchisor's disclaimers.
What we do
- We report Item 19 figures verbatim, word for word, as the franchisor wrote them.
- We attribute them clearly to the franchisor and the FDD they came from.
- We keep their disclaimers intact, including any statements about who achieved the results and who did not.
- We show them alongside the Transparency Score, clearly framed as the franchisor's disclosure, never inside the grade.
What we never do
- Average, re-rank, or recompute the figures.
- Project or extrapolate them forward into any forecast.
- Roll them into the score or let them move any factor.
- Imply a level or range of sales, income, or profit you might earn.
- Generate an earnings number of our own. If a figure appears, the franchisor wrote it.
Historical disclosures only
If a franchisor discloses its own historical unit counts or system data, we may present those historical numbers as theirs, labeled and with their disclaimers. We never add a trend line, never extrapolate forward, and never turn a historical disclosure into a projection. Historical reporting is not a forecast.
Why we are this strict
Two reasons. First, honesty: nobody can predict your individual results from a franchisor's selective disclosure, so we will not pretend to. Second, the law: under the FTC Franchise Rule, any statement that asserts or implies a level of actual or potential sales, income, or profit, outside a franchisor's own Item 19, is a prohibited financial performance representation. We stay well clear of that line by design.