Franchisee: Compare your Business to Peer Groups (Cohorts)

Oct 15, 2026

What is a Cohort?

A cohort is a peer group of locations across your brand that have something in common, such as annual revenue or length of time they've been open. The franchisor creates these groups and can share them with you so you can see how your business stacks up against similar locations.

For example, you might compare against:

• Locations of a similar size, such as "Revenue Under $500K Annually."
• Locations at a similar stage, such as "Age: 3–5 Years."

A few things to know:

• Privacy is protected. Cohort results show the group as a whole. You never see which locations are in a cohort or any other owner's individual numbers, and they never see yours.
• Cohorts update on their own. Revenue and age are re-checked as new financials come in, so locations move in and out of a cohort as they grow.
• You see only shared cohorts. Your brand team decides which cohorts are available to you. If you don't see any, see the FAQ below.

Comparing against a cohort in Benchmarks

1. Select Benchmarks in the left-hand menu of Insights.
2. Click the small circle icon at the left of the selector at the top of the page and choose Cohorts. (The other options are Locations and States.)
3. Open the selector and pick one or more cohorts. Each appears as a tag you can remove with its ×.
4. Set the start and end months.
5. Click Run Benchmarks.

To see your own numbers for comparison, switch the selector to Locations, pick your location, and run Benchmarks again for the same months.

Reading the results

Each chart (Sales, Payroll Expenses and so on) shows the cohort month by month. Hover over any month to see the exact values.

If your number sits between the green and orange lines, you're in the middle half of the group. Above the orange line (for sales) puts you in the top quarter.

Use the buttons above the charts to change the view:

• Default, Dollars or Percent of Revenue changes how values are shown. Percent of Revenue is useful for comparing costs fairly between businesses of different sizes.
• Average or Median changes the main measure. Median is less affected by one unusually high or low location.

Tips and FAQ

The cohort list says "No options." No cohorts have been shared with you yet. Ask your brand team or your Ceterus contact which peer groups are available.

I see "There are no locations matching your selected filters." No locations fit that cohort for the months you picked. Try a wider date range or a different cohort.

Can other owners see my numbers? No. Everyone sees cohorts only as a group.

Why did a cohort's numbers change from last time? Locations join or leave a cohort as their revenue and age change, and new monthly financials are added as your books close.

Tips

• Compare against a cohort that matches your size or stage; comparing a new location to mature ones can be misleading.
• Look at trends over several months rather than a single month.
• Use Percent of Revenue when comparing expenses like payroll.