The Franchise Sales Document Library is an org-wide tracker for the legal and sales documents your organization sends to franchise prospects — Franchise Disclosure Documents (FDDs), NDAs, franchise agreements, territory maps, financial disclosures, and applications. It lives at Franchise development → Documents for your org (`/app/franchise-sales/[orgId]/documents`), inside the Franchise Sales CRM. This is a franchisor/HQ-level view: it's part of the +CRM/Franchise Sales add-on and shows every document across every prospect in your sales pipeline, not documents belonging to any one shop.
This is a different feature from the HQ Document Hub. The Document Hub pushes operational documents — SOPs, training materials, brand assets — out to shops you already operate. This library is upstream of that: it tracks legal paperwork sent to prospects who haven't become franchisees yet, as part of closing them through your sales pipeline. Once a prospect converts into a live shop, ongoing document distribution to them moves to the Document Hub; this library's job ends at "franchise agreement signed."
What's on this page
At the top, four stat cards summarize the whole org: total documents sent, documents signed (with a completion percentage), how many FDDs have gone out, and how many franchise agreements have been signed. Below that, if any prospect has an FDD delivered but not yet signed and its 14-day review window is closing within 7 days (or has already expired), a compliance card lists them — name, company, FDD delivered/expires dates, and a countdown badge that turns red at 2 days or less. Clicking a row takes you to that prospect's record.
Below the compliance card is a filter bar (search by prospect or document name, filter by document type, filter by status — All status / Sent (open) / Signed) and the full document table: document label, prospect, type badge, sent date, signature status, and row actions.
Sending a document for signature
For any unsent document, use Send for signature in that row. This routes the document to the prospect through DocuSign, using the email address on file for that prospect — if the prospect has no email, the send is blocked until you add one. The recipient is always resolved from the document's own prospect record, so there's no way to accidentally send one prospect's document to another. Once sent, the row shows an e-signature status badge (Sent for signature / Viewed / Signed / Declined / Voided, all "via DocuSign") and the row action changes to Refresh status, which polls DocuSign for the current envelope state. If e-signature delivery isn't fully set up yet, sending still works in demo mode so you can try the flow, but it doesn't reach a real recipient.
Marking a document signed manually
For documents signed outside the platform — wet-ink signature, mailed in — use Mark signed on that row instead of routing it through DocuSign. This is a one-way action: once a document is marked signed, it can't be re-stamped by clicking again. For a Franchise Agreement specifically, this is where the FDD 14-day review requirement is enforced (see below) — for every other document type, there's no such gate.
The FDD 14-day review window
Federal law (the FTC Franchise Rule, 16 CFR Part 436) requires an FDD be delivered at least 14 calendar days before a franchise agreement is signed or any payment is accepted. The library tracks this per prospect: delivering an FDD stamps a delivered date and an expiration date exactly 14 days later. Any attempt to mark a Franchise Agreement document signed — manually, or via a DocuSign status refresh that comes back signed — checks that window first. Manually marking one signed is hard-blocked with an explanation if the FDD hasn't been delivered yet, or the 14 days haven't elapsed. A DocuSign poll that reports a signature completed early can't be un-signed, so it's recorded, but flagged as a compliance violation in the activity log instead of a normal signed event.
The "FDD review windows expiring soon" card on this page exists to catch prospects before that clock runs out — use it to follow up while there's still time to close before the window (or the prospect's attention) lapses.
Filtering and finding a document
Use the search box to find a document by its label or by the prospect's name or company. The type dropdown filters to a single document type (FDD, NDA, Franchise Agmt, Territory map, Financials, Application, Other); the status dropdown narrows to open (sent, not yet signed) or signed documents. The count in the top-right of the filter bar shows how many rows match out of the org total.
Things to know
- This is an HQ/franchisor-level feature, gated behind the +CRM/Franchise Sales add-on — it's not something an individual shop owner sees as part of running their own location.
- Viewing the library and refreshing e-signature status is open to any org member with access to the Franchise Sales CRM, including a read-only role. An admin can restrict a specific member's access to the CRM module entirely.
- Sending a document for signature and marking one signed manually both require ORG_OWNER or ORG_ADMIN, and can be further restricted per-person via the "Manage franchise agreements" permission.
- New documents are added from the prospect's own record, not from this library page — this page is the aggregate tracking view across every prospect.
- The FDD 14-day review-window check only applies to the Franchise Agreement document type; other document types have no such gate on being marked signed.
- A document marked signed can't be re-stamped — attempting to mark an already-signed document signed again returns an error rather than overwriting the signed date.
Frequently asked questions
Q: How is this different from the HQ Document Hub?
A: The HQ Document Hub pushes operational documents — SOPs, training materials, brand assets — out to shops you already operate. The Franchise Sales Document Library is upstream of that: it lives inside your Franchise Sales CRM and tracks the legal paperwork (FDDs, NDAs, franchise agreements, applications) you send to prospects who haven't become franchisees yet. Different audience (prospects, not shops), different document types (legal/sales, not operational), and different tracking (sent/viewed/signed and the FTC review window, not version history).
Q: Who can send a document for signature or mark one signed?
A: Only ORG_OWNER or ORG_ADMIN. An org admin can further restrict this per-person using the "Manage franchise agreements" permission (Permission Manager → Franchise operations) — so a specific admin can be excluded from executing legal documents even though their role would normally allow it. Any org member with access to the Franchise Sales CRM, including a read-only role, can view the library and use "Refresh status."
Q: Can I upload a new document from this page?
A: Not directly. This page is the org-wide tracking view. Documents are added from the individual prospect's own record; once added there, they show up in this library automatically. If the library is empty, that's the prompt you'll see.
Q: What happens if I try to mark a Franchise Agreement signed before the FDD's 14-day window is up?
A: It's blocked. The FTC Franchise Rule (16 CFR Part 436) requires the FDD be delivered at least 14 calendar days before a franchise agreement can be executed. If the FDD hasn't been delivered yet, or has been delivered but the 14 days haven't elapsed, "Mark signed" returns an error explaining why instead of completing.
Q: What if DocuSign reports a Franchise Agreement was signed early anyway?
A: The signature still gets recorded — the system can't undo a signature the prospect already executed outside the platform's own gate — but it's logged as a compliance violation rather than a normal signed event, so it surfaces distinctly rather than reading as a clean, compliant signature.
Q: Do I need DocuSign connected to use e-signature?
A: No. Until e-signature delivery is fully set up, "Send for signature" still works using a demo envelope so you can see the flow end-to-end, but it won't reach a real inbox. The manual "Mark signed" option is always available regardless, for documents signed outside the system (wet-ink or mailed in).