Got a McDonald's franchise owner with 3 locations in St. Louis (Ameren territory). Bills are $3,200, $2,800, and $4,100/month. Two locations seem high compared to similar restaurants I've audited. Anyone worked with franchise operations before? Wondering if there are common billing issues specific to chains.
Franchise billing errors - McDonald's owner with 3 locations
Ruben, McDonald's typically has very predictable usage patterns so outliers are worth investigating. Check if all three locations are on the same rate schedule. We found a Subway where one location was incorrectly on a higher voltage rate class due to an old transformer upgrade that never got properly documented.
Also look at power factor issues. Fast food places with lots of motors (fryers, ice machines, HVAC) can have poor power factor that hits them with penalty charges. The franchise corporate office might have standard equipment specs that cause this issue across multiple locations.
Franchise operations are great audit targets because you can often find systemic issues across multiple locations. I'd recommend auditing all three - if you find errors in one location, there's a good chance the others have similar problems. The economies of scale make it profitable even if individual savings are modest.