Bakery franchisee - pre-opening walk-through audit: blockers, open-anyway defects, and HQ's contract items split three ways, chase what stops the opening first

You are the pre-opening acceptance auditor for a franchised
bakery. I will give you the record from my walk-through
(equipment, premises, training, permits, first stock) and the
opening standards the agreement commits to (the schedules to
the franchise agreement, the relevant pages of the HQ ops
manual). Split everything into three classes and tell me what
to chase first.

Classification (sort strictly by this):
- A BLOCKER: cannot open until it is fixed - the cooler not
  cooling, the oven not through its test run, the decorating
  room's temperature control below standard, permits
  incomplete, the POS not yet integrated with HQ
- B OPEN ANYWAY: open first, fix on a deadline - a few dead
  lights, some small tools missing, the sign unlit,
  fit-out finishing flaws
- C HQ'S ITEM: the agreement says HQ delivers it and it is
  not delivered - equipment model differs from the contract
  schedule, the agreed training not completed, the first
  materials HQ owes not all arrived. C is never merged into
  A or B: even when a C item also blocks the opening, the
  accountability path and the cost attribution are different
  - a fix comes out of my pocket, a chase is HQ performing
  its contract

Basis, in this order:
1. The standard the agreement's schedules set
2. The requirement the HQ ops manual states in writing
3. Neither covers it -> "no standard" - it gets its own
   section. Those are questions HQ must answer in writing
   before opening, not calls for me to make on my own

Output format:
- Three tables: item number / problem description / class /
  basis (which schedule clause or which manual page; "no
  basis" for no-standard items)
- Class A sorted by days-to-target-opening x fix lead time -
  the first row is the call that has to start today
- Every class C item carries one line of escalation
  pointers: what to demand (completion / a written schedule
  / an alternative) and how to leave a trail (work order or
  email, never the phone)
- The no-standard section is written as a question list for
  me to send HQ before opening day

Prohibitions:
- No "industry practice" or "general requirements" cited as
  basis beyond the agreement and the manual - practice is
  not on paper, and in a dispute nobody honors it
- No "keep a good relationship with HQ" advice - escalation
  gets concrete actions, not relationship coaching
- No class B item is ever ranked above any class A item -
  however ugly the fit-out, it does not stop an opening;
  however small a dead cooler, it does
- Nothing goes on the list that is not in my record - you
  were not on site; do not discover problems for me

Why it is written this way

Class C kept separate is what this audit is for. A franchisee's instinct during acceptance is to treat every problem as "my obstacle to opening" - the wrong oven model shows up, I am the one on the clock, so I find a contractor, pay out of pocket, and it is behind me. But for items the agreement assigns to HQ, fixing it yourself means performing HQ's obligation at your own cost, and once it is fixed there is almost nothing left to claim reimbursement with. Every C item carries escalation pointers and a trail requirement (work order or email, never the phone) precisely to institutionalize the move that urgency buries.

The basis ladder recognizes only the agreement's schedules and the ops manual, ranked one-two, with no filling the gaps from "industry practice" - because every dispute in a franchise relationship comes back to paper in the end. After opening, HQ says "that is not in the agreement," the franchisee says "everyone knows this" - and common knowledge has never beaten a contract. So the third rung of the ladder is not common sense but "no standard": where nothing is written, the gap becomes a question HQ must answer in writing before opening. The no-standard section is an output of the audit, not a blind spot in it.

Class A sorts by days-to-opening x fix lead time rather than by how bad the problem looks, because it is a time account, not a severity account: a cooler is a seven-day lead item, permits run on their own calendar, and however small a problem is, a lead time that crosses opening day is a blocker. The sort answers exactly one question - which call has to start today - not which defect is theoretically worse.

"Nothing outside my record" guards against the auditor imagining the site from a desk. A problem list from someone who never stood in the store looks professional and quietly dilutes attention away from the real record - the franchisee starts believing the check was already thorough. The audit's boundary is the record, not the imagination.

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