The rules on specific purpose funds changed through 2025 and the ACCC has said publicly that it is watching. This is the plain version: the four deadlines, what the fund is allowed to pay for, and the records head office wants to be able to produce without a week of reconstruction.
A marketing fund is a specific purpose fund: money franchise partners pay in for a stated common purpose, which the franchisor holds and has to account for. That last part is what makes it different from ordinary business spending. The money is the network's, head office administers it, and the Franchising Code attaches disclosure, accounting and audit duties to it.
Most franchise brands run one. Partners contribute, usually as a percentage of revenue, and head office spends it on the brand's behalf. The obligations below apply whether the fund is large or small, and whether or not anybody has ever asked to see the statement.
Two dates matter. The current Franchising Code took effect on 1 April 2025, with further changes from 13 October 2025, and the specific purpose fund requirements described here apply from 1 November 2025.
The annual financial statement for the fund has to be prepared within four months of the end of the financial year. It has to give partners meaningful information about receipts and expenses, not a single line labelled marketing.
Once prepared, the statement has to reach franchise partners within thirty days.
The statement has to be independently audited unless 75 percent of partners vote that an audit is not necessary. That vote has to happen within three months after the financial year ends.
Where an audit is done, the audit report has to reach partners within thirty days of head office receiving it.
One requirement inside the statement catches people out. It has to state the percentage of total fund income that went on the fund administrator's own expenses. If your reporting cannot separate running the fund from spending the fund, that number is difficult to produce and awkward to defend.
Four categories, and a cost that does not fall into one of them does not belong in the fund.
There is also a contribution rule worth knowing. If the franchisor or master franchisor operates a franchised business, they contribute to the fund on the same basis as their partners. Since 1 November 2025 that applies to corporate units run on the same basis as franchises.
This is the part that causes the most trouble, and it is a records problem before it is a legal one.
Fund money is network money with obligations attached. Local area marketing is a partner spending their own money in their own catchment, on top of the fund. Both end up as advertising. Only one of them belongs in the fund statement.
When both run through the same agency, the same ad account or the same spreadsheet, separating them at the end of the year becomes an exercise in reconstruction. That is uncomfortable at the best of times and considerably worse if an audit is running or a partner has asked a pointed question.
What makes it straightforward is recording the split at the moment the money is committed rather than working it out afterwards. Per store, per campaign, with the source of the money attached to the record. Amplaro does that because partners order campaigns individually and each order carries its own store, its own budget and its own paid or fund-funded status, but the principle holds whatever you use. Decide at the point of spend, not at the point of audit.
None of this is a legal checklist. It is the list of things that are painful to assemble late.
This page is a plain summary of publicly available guidance and it is not legal advice. The Franchising Code is the authority and the ACCC publishes guidance on specific purpose funds. If money or obligations turn on it, take proper advice.
It is money franchise partners pay in for a stated common purpose, which the franchisor holds and administers on their behalf. A marketing or advertising fund is the usual example. Because the money belongs to the network rather than to head office, the Code attaches disclosure, accounting and audit obligations to it that do not apply to ordinary business spending.
Within four months of the end of the financial year. It then has to reach franchise partners within thirty days of being prepared. It also has to give partners meaningful information about receipts and expenses, and it has to state the percentage of total fund income that went on the fund administrator's own expenses.
The statement has to be independently audited unless 75 percent of franchise partners vote that an audit is not necessary for that year. That vote has to happen within three months after the financial year ends. Where an audit is done, the audit report has to reach partners within thirty days of head office receiving it.
Costs that were set out in the disclosure document, legitimate expenses related to the fund's stated purpose, expenses most franchise partners have agreed to pay, and the reasonable costs of administering and auditing the fund itself. If a cost does not fall into one of those, it does not belong in the fund.
If the franchisor or master franchisor operates a franchised business, they contribute on the same basis as their franchise partners. Since 1 November 2025 this applies to corporate units run on the same basis as franchises.
No, and mixing the two is the most common reporting problem we see. Fund money is network money with obligations attached to it. Local area marketing is a partner spending their own money in their own catchment. They need to be separable in your records, per store and per campaign, because the fund statement only accounts for the first one.
Where the fund line sits against partner spend is really a local versus national question.