# Ongoing fees
The royalty is only one row. Item 6 can also include a brand fund, required local advertising, technology charges, payment-processing costs, training, audits, insurance shortfall, renewal, transfer, default interest and liquidated damages. Some are percentages of gross sales, some are fixed periodic amounts and some occur only after an event. Combining unlike fees into one neat rate can hide more than it reveals.
## Build three columns
Classify each Item 6 row by **base**, **timing** and **control**.
- **Base:** gross sales, purchases, a fixed dollar amount, actual cost or a formula.
- **Timing:** weekly, monthly, annually, on demand or only when an event occurs.
- **Control:** fixed for the term, adjustable to a stated cap, adjustable by a cooperative vote or adjustable without a stated ceiling.
Start by copying the filing's definition of gross sales. Delivery-platform receipts, discounts, refunds, taxes, gift-card redemptions and catering may not receive the treatment a buyer assumes. A 6% royalty on one definition is not necessarily comparable with 6% on another.
Then keep percentages and dollars separate. The [FTC's required Item 6 disclosures](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/436.5) include the amount, due date, payee, refundability, conditions and whether fees are uniformly imposed. If a technology fee is fixed per month, model it as dollars at several sales levels; do not turn it into a permanent percentage. If local advertising is a minimum spend rather than a payment to the franchisor, label it that way. If a filing does not disclose enough to calculate a combined burden, leave the combined cell blank.
## A multi-brand reading
GDK's [current North American franchise page](https://germandonerkebab.com/ae/german-doner-kebab-gdk-fast-food-franchise-opportunity/rest-of-the-world) advertises a 6% royalty and 3% marketing contribution. Its [2025 Wisconsin filing](https://apps.dfi.wi.gov/apps/FranchiseSearch/details.aspx?id=639752&hash=370187205&search=external&type=GENERAL) is the document to read for definitions, additional charges and adjustment language. The marketing page is a useful lead; it is not a substitute for Item 6.
The Halal Guys provides a second pattern. Its [official franchise page](https://franchise.thehalalguys.com/) describes investment requirements and development formats, while the [2025 Wisconsin filing](https://apps.dfi.wi.gov/apps/FranchiseSearch/details.aspx?id=639117&hash=921753141&search=external&type=GENERAL) contains the enforceable fee disclosures. Shah's Halal's [2025 Minnesota-filed FDD](https://cards.web.commerce.state.mn.us/documents/%7B9078B29B-0000-C21E-982F-C2FDAFB07783%7D/download?contentSequence=0&documentClass=FRANCHISE_REGISTRATIONS) supplies a third table with its own defined bases and conditions. Read the rows side by side, but do not assume a similarly named “marketing” charge buys the same services.
## Model what can change
Run at least three cases: the disclosed current charges, every adjustable charge at its stated cap and a sensitivity case for fixed fees during a weak-sales month. Add renewal and required refurbishment on the years when they occur rather than smoothing them out of sight. Ask existing franchisees which Item 6 charges changed, which required payments sit elsewhere in the document and whether advertising assessments produced store-level spending or only systemwide activity.
The objective is not one universal “fee stack.” It is a schedule that preserves what the contract actually says and exposes what remains uncertain.
## Worked stacks from this set
Fee stack, as this site uses the term, is royalty plus brand fund plus required local advertising when those percentages are disclosed. A missing royalty or fund leaves the brand unranked. Do not write a zero to make a row sortable.
| Brand | Royalty | Brand fund | Local | Notes | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Döner Haus | 3% | 2% | — | Standing-service imbiss | 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document |
| Shah's Halal Food | 5% | 1% | 1% | — | FDD issued 10 April 2024 |
| Wienerschnitzel | 5% | 1% | — | Local not in this record | May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs |
| Pepper Lunch | 5% | 2% | — | — | May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs |
| Mad for Chicken | 5% | 1% + 1% media | 1% | Each of brand and media can rise to 2% | FDD issued 3 May 2024 |
| GDK | 6% | 3% | 2% | Local waived if a cooperative levies up to 2%; royalty and fund may rise annually with no cap | FDD issued 3 September 2024 |
| The Halal Guys | 6% | 2% | 1% | — | May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs |
| The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill | 6% | 3%, raisable to 4% | 1% | 35-year term, so the stack runs a long time | FDD issued 17 August 2023 |
| Dog Haus | 6%, or 4% ghost kitchen | 2%, may rise to 3.5% | — | Plus $5,000 a year technology development | May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs |
| Capriotti's | 6–7% | 2%, rising to as much as 4% | 1.5% | Plus 0.65% technology | May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs |
| 375° Chicken 'n Fries | 6% | 1% | 1% | Footnote in the filing reads "five percent (6%)"; 6% matches the Item 6 table | FDD issued 30 April 2024 |
| Crave Hot Dogs and BBQ | 7% | 2% | 1% | — | May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs |
| bluTaco | — | — | none required | No initial fee; royalty not disclosed | May 2024 comparative study of published FDDs |
A dash is a missing field. Wienerschnitzel's local cell is not "0%." bluTaco's royalty cell is not "0%."
## Fixed, event-driven, and "then-current"
Percentages are not the whole Item 6. Transfer fees in this set range from bluTaco's $2,500 to Great Greek's greater of $29,500 or 10% of sale price, capped at the then-current franchise fee. Renewal fees, where stated as dollars, include Halal Guys, Dog Haus and Crave at $5,000, Capriotti's at $10,000, Great Greek at $2,500. GDK's renewal fee is 50% of the then-current franchise fee. Pepper Lunch's renewal fee is "as required by the franchisor at renewal" — a blank in the model.
Technology charges that are dollars or extra percentages belong on their own lines: Dog Haus $5,000 a year; Capriotti's 0.65% of gross. Do not fold them into the stack and then compare stacks across brands as if they were complete.
Gross-sales definitions still decide the burden. A 6% royalty on delivery receipts after platform commissions is not 6% on the menu total. Copy the definition from the agreement, not from the Item 6 label.
Item 6 before a ranking conversation
- Base, timing, control for every row.
- Caps copied verbatim; "no cap" written as no cap (GDK 2024 royalty and fund).
- Technology and transfer on separate lines.
- Missing rates left missing (bluTaco).
- Term length applied: Great Greek's stack times 35 years is a different lifetime cost than a 10-year term at the same percentages.
## Cooperatives, waivers, and double-counting
GDK's 2% local spend is waived if the store joins a GDK advertising cooperative that can itself levy up to 2% (FDD issued 3 September 2024). That is not a 13% stack. It is a 6+3+up-to-2 stack whose local bucket changes payee. Write the payee on the worksheet. A cooperative that spends in your trade area is not the same product as a national fund that never buys a local spot.
Mad for Chicken splits brand fund and media marketing at 1% each, each able to rise to 2% (FDD issued 3 May 2024), plus 1% local. The current disclosed total of those three is 3%; the contractual ceiling on the two system fees alone is 4% plus the local 1%. Current versus ceiling are two rows.
Dog Haus's 2% marketing, creative and technology fee may rise to 3.5%, with a separate $5,000 annual technology development fee (May 2024 comparative study). At low sales the $5,000 is a large effective percentage; at high sales it shrinks. That is why fixed fees stay in dollars in the model.
Crave's 7% royalty is the high royalty in this set (May 2024 comparative study), with 2% brand fund and 1% local. Compare it with Wienerschnitzel's 5% + 1% only after you have also compared term (10 vs 20 years), renewal (one option vs none), and transfer (yes vs no). A cheaper stack on a contract you cannot sell is not cheaper in the sense a buyer means.
## Related reading
- [What it costs to open](/what-it-costs/) — Item 5 sits inside Item 7
- [Item 8, suppliers](/item-8-suppliers/) — rebates that act like a second royalty
- [Item 17, renewal and exit](/item-17-renewal-and-exit/) — renewal and transfer fees
- [Comparison worksheet](/comparison-worksheet/) — unlike bases kept apart
- [Glossary](/glossary/) — fee stack, then-current, gross sales
Item 6 before Item 5
## The rounding error is
the initial fee {: .display }
3 bases
Percentage, fixed, actual cost
Keep unlike charges separate until the document gives enough information to model them honestly.
Timing
Recurring or event-driven
A weekly royalty, annual software charge and transfer fee belong on different lines and dates.
Control
Fixed, capped or adjustable
The current amount and the contract's adjustment right are two different facts.
Item 6
Where all of it is disclosed
Every compulsory payment is on that one table, including the ones nobody advertises.
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HTML: https://qsrfieldguide.com/ongoing-fees/