Review your franchise operations manual before gaps become costly

A review is often worthwhile before onboarding new franchisees, rolling out a revised operating model, updating system standards or expanding into additional locations. It can also help if your manual has grown over time and now contains inconsistent instructions, outdated processes or unclear rules around brand use and fees. Because manuals are often used day to day, small drafting problems can become bigger operational issues later. A legal review can highlight where the manual may not support the franchise relationship as clearly as it should.

We usually look at whether the manual is clear, internally consistent and aligned with the broader franchise framework. That can include operational directions, use of branding, quality control requirements, fee-related references, confidentiality expectations, training obligations and how much discretion the franchisor reserves to update procedures. We also consider whether the manual says things that may be difficult to enforce or that sit awkwardly with the franchise agreement. The aim is to identify legal and practical weak points, not just grammar or formatting issues.

Yes, although the reasons can differ. Franchisors may want to check that the manual supports consistency across the network and does not create avoidable legal exposure. Franchisees may want an informed view of whether the manual imposes obligations that are unclear, overly broad or inconsistent with the documents they signed. In either case, the review is about understanding how the manual operates as part of the wider relationship. It is not limited to a surface read of the document alone.

No. This service is for review and advice on an existing operations manual. You receive written findings and recommendations, which may identify sections that should be revised, removed, expanded or better aligned with other franchise documents. If the manual needs substantial rewriting or a fresh document, that would usually require a separate drafting scope. Keeping the review and the rewrite separate can be useful because it lets you first understand the legal and operational issues before deciding how much redevelopment is actually needed.

Yes. The fixed-fee covers the review of the existing manual, the written summary and the follow-up discussion described on this page. It does not include tax advice, technical implementation, security remediation or ongoing representation. It also cannot promise that the manual will be effective in every real-world scenario, because legal risk depends partly on how the franchise system actually operates. In some cases, the right advice will also depend on how the business collects, uses and shares information across the network.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Franchise Operations Manual Review service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.