Territory Mapping is a franchisor-facing feature for defining, claiming, and tracking the exclusive territories a franchise organization sells to prospects and awards to shops. It lives at HQ → Territory → Territory Mapping (`/app/hq/[orgId]/territory`) inside the HQ admin area, and it is built for franchisor/HQ staff — an individual shop owner does not see this page, and there is no shop-level equivalent. A related page, the Market Scorecard (`/app/hq/[orgId]/territory/scorecard`), sits one click away and ranks those territories for expansion decisions. Both pages are distinct from the state-level pipeline heatmap under Franchise Sales, which is a rollup of prospect interest, not actual territory records — this page is where the real, named territories with a status and a geography live.
Adding and defining a territory
From the Territory Mapping page, org admins can click Add territory to create a new one. Each territory gets a name, an optional two-letter state code, an optional free-text description, and an optional list of zip codes. You can also mark a territory as requiring a deposit before it can be reserved, and set the expected deposit amount — this amount is tracked for reference only, never charged (see Things to know).
Separately, you choose how the territory's geography is actually defined for population verification. Five modes are available:
- Zip code list — reuses the zip codes entered above.
- Radius from a center point — a center latitude/longitude and a radius in miles. You can type an address, city, state, or zip and look up the coordinates automatically, or enter latitude/longitude directly.
- Whole counties — pick a state, then check off one or more counties from a reference list.
- Click-select Census Block Groups — opens a map where you select individual Census block groups.
- Draw a custom shape — opens a map where you draw a polygon by hand.
The block-group and polygon modes need Google Maps configured for the environment. Once a territory is saved, its verified population (a Census-based estimate, not a hand-typed guess) appears alongside its description — this and the address-lookup tool both require the +Territory Analytics add-on; without it you'll see a lock notice instead.
The page defaults to a Map view that plots territories as color-coded shapes by status. Radius circles and drawn polygons render straight from what's saved on the territory; zip-code-list, whole-county, and Census-block-group shapes are fetched from Census boundary data on the fly, which needs ORG_OWNER/ORG_ADMIN access plus the +Territory Analytics add-on — without both, those three modes simply won't draw a shape on the map (a banner explains why), though every territory still shows fine in List view regardless of geography mode or access level. List is a searchable, filterable card list; you can search territories by name and filter by status from the filter bar above either view.
A separate Rebalance ZIPs button in the page's toolbar — open to any org admin, no add-on required — shifts a batch of zip codes from one zip-code-list territory to another when one has grown too dense.
The status lifecycle: reserve, award, release, block
Every territory moves through four statuses, shown in the UI as Available, Reserved, Awarded, and Blocked. From a territory's detail dialog (opened via "Manage" in List view or by clicking a shape on the map):
- Reserve puts an Available territory on a time-boxed hold (14 days by default) for a chosen prospect. You can't reserve a territory that's still under an active hold for someone else, already Awarded, or Blocked.
- Award permanently assigns a Reserved (or Available) territory to a shop and/or prospect, moving it to Awarded. If the territory requires a deposit, it must be marked Received first, or the award is refused.
- Release clears a Reserved hold back to Available. It's safe to call even if the hold already expired.
- Block pulls a territory out of circulation entirely (a legal hold, a franchisor decision, etc.), moving it to Blocked. A Blocked territory can't be reserved again until it's explicitly restored.
A hold expiring doesn't happen automatically behind the scenes — there's no background job clearing it. The territory simply carries a "Hold expired" badge in the list, and the page's alert banner flags any holds expiring within 3 days so HQ remembers to award or release before it lapses.
Deposits, conflicts, and legal descriptions
If a territory requires a deposit, HQ records what happened off-platform rather than SalesThumb collecting any money: mark it Received (with a method like wire or check, plus an optional reference), then later mark it Refunded or Forfeited if the reservation doesn't turn into an award. A territory can't be Released or Blocked while it has a Received-but-undecided deposit — refund or forfeit it first. Once a territory is Awarded, its deposit outcome is treated as settled and can no longer be changed.
The Check conflict button flags overlapping interest between prospects: either the same territory already claimed by someone else, or two different territories that share zip codes and are each claimed by a different prospect. Flagged conflicts collect on an "Open territory conflicts" list (surfaced via the alert banner) where an admin resolves each one as Awarded First, Awarded Second, Split, or Withdrawn. Separately, for radius- and polygon-shaped territories, checking a conflict also runs a rough bounding-box overlap check against every other territory in the org — this is a lightweight heads-up ("these territories may share ground, review manually"), not a precise boundary calculation, and it never blocks or auto-resolves anything on its own.
The detail dialog also includes a Legal description generator: an auto-generated plain-text restatement of the territory's saved geography that you can copy and paste into a franchise agreement's territory exhibit. It's explicitly not a substitute for legal review.
With the +Territory Analytics add-on enabled, admins also get a Report button (a downloadable PDF territory report), a Find nearby button for locating and mapping nearby competitor storefronts (scoped to that territory's shape), and a Territory Optimizer for suggesting a radius or set of block groups sized to a target population.
The Market Scorecard: opportunity and performance rankings
The Market Scorecard is a separate page reached from the "Market Scorecard" button on the Territory Mapping page. It requires ORG_OWNER or ORG_ADMIN access and the +Territory Analytics add-on; without either, the page shows a plain access or upgrade message instead of the rankings. It's a read-only view built for a franchise-development conversation, not a survey-grade market study — every figure on the page is labeled as an estimate.
Two ranked tables:
- Opportunity ranks every Available territory highest-opportunity-first by population relative to how many competitor locations HQ has already mapped nearby. A radius-defined territory searches within its own radius; every other resolvable geography searches a default 10-mile radius from an estimated center point. Territories defined by a zip list or by whole counties don't have a resolvable center point yet, so their competitor count and opportunity score show as unavailable — population is still shown for them.
- Performance ranks every Awarded territory that has an operating shop by trailing-12-month revenue per capita — the same revenue definition (completed payments, net of refunds) HQ's other reports already use for that shop, compared against the territory's Census population.
A third section, Richer signals, offers to layer additional third-party demographic data (median age, per-capita income, a diversity index, bachelor's-degree-or-higher attainment) and a crime-density read onto the top-ranked opportunity territories. As of this writing those vendor connections haven't been turned on for any org, so this section shows a "not connected yet" placeholder — it will populate automatically once they're enabled.
Things to know
- Territory Mapping and the Market Scorecard are HQ-level franchisor tools. An individual shop owner does not see either page; there is no equivalent territory view at the shop level.
- Viewing territories, their detail, and open conflicts is available to any org member with access to the organization. Adding, editing, reserving, awarding, releasing, or blocking a territory, and resolving a conflict, require ORG_OWNER or ORG_ADMIN. Checking for a conflict does not require admin access, since it only flags overlap — it never awards or reserves anything.
- Recording a deposit as received, refunded, or forfeited additionally requires full HQ access — an admin whose org invite was scoped to CRM-only work can manage territories otherwise, but can't attest these off-platform money events.
- Deposit amounts are tracked and attested only. Nothing is ever charged automatically through SalesThumb; real deposits are collected off-platform and HQ manually records what happened.
- Every geography mode can render as a shape on the map view. Radius and drawn-polygon territories always render, since their shape lives directly on the territory; zip-code-list, whole-county, and Census-block-group territories fetch their shape from Census boundary data on demand, which needs ORG_OWNER/ORG_ADMIN access and the +Territory Analytics add-on — without both, those three modes won't draw on the map (a banner explains why), though they always show fully in List view.
- The conflict "check" is an exact match on shared assignment or shared zip codes; the additional bounding-box overlap warning for radius/polygon territories is a rough heuristic meant to prompt manual review, not a certainty.
- Census population figures, address lookup, the territory PDF report, the competitor finder, the Optimizer, and both Market Scorecard rankings all require the +Territory Analytics add-on on top of admin access. Rebalance ZIPs is the one admin tool on this page that does not need the add-on.
- +Territory Analytics isn't self-serve yet — it has no pricing-page listing or checkout flow. It's currently enabled only for the orgs SalesThumb turns it on for directly; everyone else sees the lock notices described above.
- There's no delete for a territory — a territory you no longer want to offer is retired via Block instead.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Who can use Territory Mapping and the Market Scorecard?
A: Both are HQ-level franchisor tools, not something an individual shop owner sees. Any org member with access to the organization can view territories and open conflicts, but adding, editing, reserving, awarding, releasing, or blocking a territory — and viewing the Market Scorecard at all — requires an ORG_OWNER or ORG_ADMIN role.
Q: What happens when a reservation hold expires?
A: Nothing happens automatically — there's no background job clearing it. The territory keeps showing as Reserved with a "Hold expired" badge until an admin releases it, awards it, or (once the hold has lapsed) reserves it for a different prospect. The page's alert banner flags holds expiring within 3 days as a reminder.
Q: Does SalesThumb charge the franchise deposit for me?
A: No. Deposit amounts are tracked and attested only — HQ marks a deposit as received, refunded, or forfeited based on money collected off-platform (wire, check, etc.). Nothing is ever charged automatically through the platform.
Q: Why can't I award a territory to a shop?
A: Award is refused if the territory requires a deposit that hasn't been marked Received yet, if the territory is already Awarded to someone else, or if it's been Blocked. Record the deposit as received (or release/reconsider the block) first.
Q: Why is a territory's Opportunity score showing as unavailable on the Market Scorecard?
A: The Opportunity ranking needs a resolvable center point to search for nearby competitors. Territories defined by a zip list or by whole counties don't have one yet, so their competitor count and opportunity score show as unavailable — the territory's population estimate is still shown.
Q: What's the difference between Territory Mapping and the territory heatmap under Franchise Sales?
A: Franchise Sales' territory view is a state-level pipeline heatmap built from prospects' free-text territory interest. Territory Mapping is the actual system of record — named territories with a real status lifecycle, a defined geography, and conflict tracking.
Q: How do we get the +Territory Analytics add-on turned on for our org?
A: It isn't available as a self-serve purchase right now — there's no pricing-page listing or checkout flow for it yet. It's currently enabled only per-org, directly by SalesThumb. If your org wants Census population figures, the PDF report, competitor discovery, the Optimizer, or the Market Scorecard, reach out to your SalesThumb contact to ask about it.