Granite vs spreadsheets for franchise royalty billing.
A spreadsheet is a flexible place to model a royalty and track a small network. The team also has to maintain its formulas, sharing, versions, links to the source reports, and the list of who still owes what.
Keep spreadsheets for modelling and small, well-controlled processes. Move to Granite when chasing reports, keeping franchise-specific rules straight and following up on payments take more time than the billing itself.
How spreadsheets and Granite handle the work.
| Topic | Spreadsheets | Granite |
|---|---|---|
| Collecting reports | Reports arrive by email; someone checks which franchises are missing. | Franchisees upload into their period; reminders go out automatically and missing reports are listed. |
| Calculating royalties | Formulas you build and maintain, with each exception handled by hand. | Rules with effective dates and franchise-specific terms, previewed before invoicing. |
| Getting paid | Invoices and payment tracking live in separate files and inboxes. | Invoices with card payment links, late fees under your policy, and one follow-up queue. |
| History | Depends on file versions and the team’s discipline. | An activity history of changes, and invoices that are corrected with credits, not rewritten. |
This compares ways of working, not a specific spreadsheet product. Reviewed September 14, 2026.
Questions to ask before you choose.
- Which formulas and reference files must be updated every period, and by whom?
- Could a new teammate tell which reports are missing and who is following up?
- How do we know a follow-up actually resolved the unpaid invoice?
Test Granite against your real reports and royalty terms.
Bring a recent sales report and your royalty terms. We will walk through the calculation, the invoice and the payment with you.