Live counts, definitions and freshness

Last bulk FDD extraction

July 12, 2026

When the filings on record were last read end to end.

Last cited correction

September 24, 2026

The newest figure written with a page and a verbatim quote from its filing.

SBA loan data refresh

May 19, 2026

SBA 7(a) and 504 records obtained through FOIA.

Brands4,325

Brand pages the site actually publishes: is_published AND merged_into IS NULL. Excludes unpublished drafts and rows merged into a canonical duplicate.

Brands graded3,070

Published, unmerged brands whose Verdict letter the site actually SHOWS: rating IS NOT NULL and not sba_only (the owner decision that lending-only brands show lending facts, no grade — GRADED_RATING_SQL). The column holds a rating on sba_only rows too, which is why this used to equal published_brands and print '4,327 brands graded' beside 3,071 graded pages (R22, 2026-09-12).

Lending-data-only brands1,255

Published, unmerged brands with SBA lending history and NO FDD on file (data_quality = 'sba_only'). They browse behind a filter, carry no grade, and are the difference between '4,327 brands' and '3,071 with an FDD'.

Brands with an FDD on file3,070

Published, unmerged brands whose row NAMES a source FDD document (pdf_filename). This is a count of BRANDS, not documents. 3,072 of these are `verified` — the brand, the compiled index and the file on disk all agree.

FDD filings3,024

Distinct source FDD documents behind those brands (distinct lower(pdf_filename)). Lower than fdd_brands because 48 brands are covered by a document filed jointly with another brand. THIS is the number to quote as "filings" or "documents".

Brands with an FDD year3,070

Published, unmerged brands with fdd_year recorded. A YEAR is not a DOCUMENT: 19 brands carry a year with no file named. The unscoped version of this query (no published/unmerged filter) returns 3,188 and is what methodology used to print.

With a revenue figure1,405

Published, unmerged brands publishing an average gross-sales figure from Item 19 (avg_gross_sales IS NOT NULL). Gross sales are not profit.

With matched SBA history3,014

Published, unmerged brands with at least one matched SBA loan from a named lender (sba_total_loans IS NOT NULL AND sba_unique_lenders > 0).

SBA 7(a) records126,612

7(a) franchise loans in the FOIA extract, rolled up BY LENDING BANK (sba_banks). Per-brand charge-off is 7(a)-only; 504 is real-estate.

SBA 504 records16,915

504 franchise loans in the same FOIA extract, rolled up BY CDC (sba_cdcs).

SBA loan records143,527

Combined 7(a)+504, from the lender rollups. Each loan is counted once. THIS is the public SBA figure — it is the 143,527 on the homepage.

Owner contacts278,585

Franchisee owner contacts from FDD Item 20, summed over PUBLISHED, unmerged brands (sum(contact_count) WHERE contact_count > 0). The unscoped sum is 279,885 and equals count(*) FROM contacts; the difference is contacts sitting on rows that have no page. Personal due-diligence only — not for telemarketing or automated calls (TCPA).

Brands with contacts2,545

Published, unmerged brands with at least one Item 20 owner contact.

Categories18

Rows in the categories table.

Verified against the document3,072 (floor)

Of fdd_brands, those where all three sources agree: the brand names a document, the file is on disk, and text has been extracted from it. The 2 exceptions are year disagreements (skrimp-shack-food-truck, tapioca-express).

Item 19 declined1,007 (floor)

Filings we hold whose Item 19 EXPLICITLY makes no financial performance representation. Item 19 is voluntary, so these rows are correctly empty — counting them as an extraction gap inflates the backlog roughly threefold.

Item 19 with an FPR1,596 (floor)

Filings we hold whose Item 19 makes a financial performance representation with real figures. Larger than revenue_brands (1,086) because an FPR is not always a stated average — some list per-outlet figures only, and deriving a mean from those would be fabricating a number the filing does not state.

A value marked “floor” is shown when the live query is unavailable; floors are set below the live count and never above it.

A page citation records the page of the brand's own FDD the figure is printed on. Brand pages show the same state beside each figure. A figure without one is published from our reading of the filing and is marked as such, never dressed as cited.

• 2026-09-24Momentum is a labelled state from the latest Item 20 year - positive, negative, flat, or negative because more agreements are signed but not open than outlets are open - shown with its numbers. It is not a score and never affects the grade.
• 2026-09-24Citation badges cover the royalty, the ad fund and the Item 19 range as well as the investment, fee, sales and unit figures, and every badge names the FDD year of the page it cites.
• 2026-09-24An absent value says why: "Not extracted" means we have not read it from the filing, "Not disclosed" means the filing declines to state it. Comparisons name the FDD each column comes from, warn when the filings are from different years, and take up to five brands.
• 2026-09-24Investment ranges above $50 million are shown as the filing prints them. The earlier display cap treated them as parse errors, but every one is a hotel whose Item 7 total was checked against the filing page.
• 2026-09-24An SBA charge-off rate is shown only where one representativeness rule holds, on every page: at least 10 loans, at least 10 resolved, a lender on record, and loans equal to at least 2% of franchised units. Where the rate is hidden, a coverage word (limited, insufficient, not matched) says why.
• 2026-09-24Category comparisons use the median of the category, with its middle half and the number of brands behind it, instead of a mean that a few very large systems pulled far from the typical brand.
• 2026-09-24Auditor going-concern doubt means the auditor's report carries a going-concern section. The standard audit-report sentences about evaluating going concern are not a finding; 98 flags were corrected from the auditors' own reports.
• 2026-09-24Item 19 status is one of four: disclosed (an average is on file), partial (figures but no system average), not disclosed (the filing says it makes no financial performance representation), or not extracted (our gap).

Read the full methodology