One location is a folder. Nine locations is a folder crawl — unless you can ask all of them at once.
The setup
A multi-unit operator running nine locations. Each had its own folder: the franchise agreement and FDD, the lease, vendor and supply contracts, P&Ls, royalty and fee statements, payroll, permits, invoices.
The problem
Comparing anything across locations meant opening every location’s folder. “Which locations are behind on royalties?” meant checking each statement. “What’s the rent and renewal on the Elm St store?” meant finding that lease. “Which store had the best margin last quarter?” meant pulling nine P&Ls. The answers existed; assembling them by hand was the job.
How they use DocuStrata
They pointed DocuStrata at the location folders and left them alone. It read every agreement, lease, and statement and made the whole set answerable at once. “Which locations are behind on royalties?” returns them with amounts. “Which store had the best margin?” compares across all nine. Every answer carries the document behind it.
What changed
Cross-location questions that used to mean a folder crawl became one question, and renewals, expiring permits, and royalty shortfalls surfaced by asking.
The location-by-location structure stayed exactly as it was, and nothing in it is ever used to train a model.