Restaurant franchise accounting Accounting for Wingstop franchisees. Royalty on Gross Sales, debited every Tuesday.
Wingstop charges a 6% royalty and a 5.5% advertising fund contribution on Gross Sales, debited weekly for the week ended the previous Saturday. Its definition of Gross Sales leaves out sales tax, coupon credits, employee discounts, third-party delivery fees and gift cards sold, and its agreement requires the brand’s standard chart of accounts and fiscal year. Kite keeps those rules for Wingstop operators.
Operators of this brand run their back office on Kite
What the Wingstop agreement charges
| Fee | Amount | Charged on | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty | 6%[1] | Gross Sales | Weekly, by automatic debit on Tuesday |
| Advertising Fund | 5.5%[1] | Gross Sales | Weekly; may be set between 5% and 5.5% each year |
| Technology fee | $175[1] | Per month | Monthly, by automatic debit |
The rules that change the books
What Gross Sales leaves out
Gross Sales is the restaurant’s revenue from all products and services, excluding sales taxes, coupon credits, employee discounts, third-party delivery fees and the sale of gift cards[1]. Delivery orders count at their menu value; the marketplace’s fees do not.
The week ends Saturday
Royalty is debited on Tuesday for Gross Sales in the week ended the prior Saturday, and the franchisor may poll the restaurant’s system for the figure directly[1]. Books that close weeks on Saturday agree with the debit; books that close on Sunday are a day out of step every week.
The brand’s chart, calendar and deadlines
Franchisees adopt Wingstop’s standard chart of accounts and fiscal year, send quarterly statements within 30 days of quarter end and annual statements within 45 days of year end, and bear the audit cost if Gross Sales were understated by 1% or more[1].
The required POS, and year one
Franchisees must use the brand’s specified system, NCR Voyix Aloha, and the franchisor has independent access to its data. First-time franchisees must use a designated franchise accounting provider for at least their first twelve months[1] — Kite is for operators past that point, and for every store after the first.
Where Wingstop books go wrong
The delivery payout that never landed
A marketplace statement shows the orders; the deposit two days later is short, or never arrives. Booked from the bank, the missing money looks like a slow week. Booked from the statement, it is a clearing balance with a store and an amount.
Delivery fees in the royalty report
Third-party delivery fees are outside Gross Sales. A store that books delivery net of the marketplace’s commission, or that reports the payout instead of the menu value, gets the basis wrong in one direction or the other every week.
The day restated after the royalty was paid
An offline register syncs late, a void is processed the next morning, and a day already reported to the franchisor changes. The difference belongs on the next royalty payment as its own line, not in an edit to the one already debited.
Questions
Questions Wingstop operators ask.
Does Kite read NCR Voyix Aloha?
Yes, by daily export: a day of sales by store is dropped in and read, the way a bank statement is. Kite connects directly to the bank, the cards, Uber Eats and QuickBooks Online, and reads DoorDash and Grubhub from their statements.
How does Kite compute the Wingstop royalty?
Weekly, on the Saturday-ending week the franchisor debits, from the register’s sales by category, with the agreement’s Gross Sales definition quoted beside the charge so a person can see what was excluded before it is approved. A day restated after the debit becomes an adjustment on the next week.
We are in our first year as a Wingstop franchisee. Can we use Kite?
Not for the books the agreement assigns to the designated provider during your first twelve months. Kite can read your leases and agreements from day one, and take the books over when that period ends.
Sources
- [1]Wingstop 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document (issued 28 March 2025), Items 6 and 11 and franchise agreement §§1, 5, 7 — Wingstop Franchising LLC · the franchisor’s or a filer’s own document
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