Full-time equivalents in the support office spent on work that is the same every week, by function.
TodayHeadless
Franchisee support
12 → 4
Field audits
9 → 4
Royalties and finance
8 → 3
Franchise sales
6 → 3
Total21 FTE of time back. 37,800 hours a year.35 → 14
02 · The stack
Your stack. Built by us. Owned by you.
PADISO is not in your stack. We choose the agents, wire them into the systems you already run, and set the rules inside your own tools. Every account, contract and log is in your name.
You
CEO and leads
7am daily summaryApprovals in TeamsWeekly network review
Agents
Bought, not built
Delightree AI SearchZendesk AI agentsSafetyCultureFrannie AI in FranConnectChaserCustom Claude agents on n8n
The rules
Set in your own tools
Approval thresholds in SlackSpend caps in each vendorAudit logs you keepWeekly accuracy checks
Systems of record
Stay as they are
FranConnectXeroZendeskSite POSTeamsBank feeds
Models: Claude, GPT, Gemini or Grok, chosen per task on accuracy and cost. Swappable without a rebuild.Custom agents: only where no product exists. Here, two: audit visit reports and the network P&L.
03 · The playbook
Function by function, step by step.
The tools, the order of work, the guardrail and what it is worth. Detailed enough to implement.
Franchisee support
Weeks 5 to 8
Franchisee answers
2 days → 5 min
Hours back a year
14,400
Net EBITDA a year
$528K
Tools
Delightree AI SearchZendesk AI agentsTeams
Steps
1Gather the operations manual, policies, standards and 12 months of support tickets.
2Load the manual into Delightree. Franchisees ask in plain language and get answers from approved content.
3Zendesk AI agents handle tickets on supplies, systems access and marketing assets.
4Anything the manual cannot answer goes to the right field manager and becomes a new manual entry.
People keep
Coaching, struggling sites, relationships
Guardrail
Legal, HR and safety questions always go to a person.
Field audits
Weeks 8 to 11
Audit report to site
10 days → Same day
Hours back a year
9,000
Net EBITDA a year
$330K
Tools
SafetyCultureFranConnectClaude agent on n8n
Steps
1Rebuild the brand standards audit in SafetyCulture. Photos required on every critical item.
2Franchisees run weekly self audits. Field managers visit the bottom 20% first.
3A Claude agent on n8n writes the visit report and action plan from the audit, ready to send.
4Overdue actions escalate to the field manager. Trends reported by region each month.
People keep
Site visits, coaching, enforcement
Guardrail
Breach notices and default letters are always sent by a person.
Royalties and finance
Weeks 11 to 14
Royalty reconciliation
8 days → 1 day
Hours back a year
9,000
Net EBITDA a year
$330K
Tools
FranConnectXeroChaser
Steps
1Weekly sales from every site feed the royalty calculation in FranConnect.
2Royalty and marketing fund invoices raise on schedule and post to Xero.
3Chaser follows up overdue fees. Repeat late payers flag to the field manager.
4A Claude agent drafts the monthly network P&L and the site league table.
People keep
Hardship cases, disputes, franchisee finance
Guardrail
Fee deferrals and write-offs need the CFO.
Franchise sales
Weeks 13 to 16
Enquiry response
3 days → 10 min
Hours back a year
5,400
Net EBITDA a year
$198K
Tools
FranConnectFrannie AI
Steps
1Route every franchise enquiry into FranConnect. Score by territory, capital and experience.
2An AI agent replies with the information pack and books a discovery call.
3An onboarding checklist runs from signing to opening: training, fit-out, systems, launch.
4New franchisees get the knowledge assistant from day one.
People keep
Discovery days, selection, approvals
Guardrail
Every franchise grant and territory is approved by the board.
Tools named are what we would shortlist for this business today. No paid placements and no vendor affiliation. Best of breed moves fast, so the stack is reviewed every quarter.
04 · How it runs
Faster on every measure that matters.
Shorter bar is better. Same business, same team leads, same systems.
Franchisee answers576× faster
Today
2 days
Headless
5 minutes
Audit report to site30× faster
Today
10 days
Headless
Same day
Royalty reconciliation88% faster
Today
8 days
Headless
1 day
Enquiry response432× faster
Today
3 days
Headless
10 minutes
Sites with overdue fees73% fewer
Today
11%
Headless
3%
Tickets reaching the support office80% fewer
Today
900 a week
Headless
180 a week
05 · The money
$6.3M EBITDA becomes $7.69M.
Each function adds to the bottom line. Figures are net of software, models and running the agents.
$6.3M
Today
+$528K
Franchisee support
+$330K
Field audits
+$330K
Royalties and finance
+$198K
Franchise sales
$7.69M
Headless
EBITDA margin
15%→18.3%
How the $1.39M is built
21 FTE × $88K$1.85MSoftware, models, running, 25%−$0.46MNet a year$1.39M
06 · The 16 weeks
One function at a time. Value from week 8.
Each function runs in shadow mode for two weeks: agents draft, people send. Nothing goes live until accuracy holds above 90%.
12345678910111213141516
Diagnostic
Diagnostic
Franchisee support
Live wk 8
Field audits
Live wk 11
Royalties, finance
Live wk 14
Franchise sales
Live wk 16
DiagnosticShadow modeLive
Annual EBITDA run rate, by week
$1.39M by week 16
12345678910111213141516
Milestones
Week 4Board signs off the case, the stack and the guardrails
Week 8Knowledge assistant live for all 120 sites. $0.53M run rate
Week 11SafetyCulture audits and visit reports live. $0.86M
Week 14Royalties reconciled in a day. $1.19M
Week 16Enquiry agent live. Handover to Operate. $1.39M
07 · After
The CEO’s Monday, headless.
One summary at 7am. Two decisions. The rest of the day goes on franchisees and growth.
Daily summaryMon 7:00am
1,240
franchisee questions answered last week
91%
without the support office
12
franchise enquiries qualified
Waiting for you · 2
Discovery day · 2 candidates · open territoryApprove
Fee deferral · site 044 · 8 weeks · hardshipReview
Royalties 97% collected · 6 sites below audit standard
Always waits for a human yes
Franchise grantsevery one
Fee deferrals and write-offsevery one
Breach noticesevery one
Legal, HR, safety answersalways a person
Marketing fund spendover $10K
Illustrative model: 21 FTE of repeatable work at $88K fully loaded, less 25% for software, models and running the agents. 1,800 hours per FTE a year. Not a client result. A Diagnostic replaces these with your numbers. Product names are trademarks of their owners.
What would your business look like headless?
30 minutes with our founder. We sketch your before and after, and your stack, on the call.