The signed or draft franchise agreement with all schedules, the site lease or letter of intent, the fit-out quotation, the equipment schedule, proof of the franchise fee payment, corporate formation and ownership records, and the funding trail from the applicant's accounts. A unit-level financial model completes it. The disclosure document alone describes the system, not this applicant's enterprise.
Check the schedules the summary leaves out
Franchise agreements carry their weight in appendices: renewal terms, transfer restrictions, personal guarantees, minimum performance clauses, and the advertising fund. Read them against the lease, because a personal guarantee on rent changes the applicant's exposure and a transfer restriction affects any later exit. Reconcile names, dates, and amounts across all of it, and note anything requiring translation or an original signature before the pack is assembled.
Add one comparison that the disclosure document will not make for you: the franchisor's standard agreement against whatever was actually negotiated. Concessions given during a sales process — a waived fee, an extended opening window, a modified territory — are only worth what the executed document says, and side assurances given by a development representative are not terms. Ask for a redline against the standard form, and read the integration clause, which usually provides that nothing outside the document counts.
Hypothetical example: a tutoring franchise applicant is assured verbally that the opening deadline is flexible, and the executed agreement contains a fixed date and a clause stating it supersedes all prior discussions, which is the single most important paragraph in the pack.