Terminology

A franchise area made up of multiple counties — the unifying concept that replaces the legacy Zone/DMA terminology. Each territory has a color, name, owner (optional), aggregated economics, and a status of Available, Reserved, Pending, Active, or Sold.

Synonym for Franchise Territory. The internal field `zone_code` is preserved on territories for join compatibility but is hidden from the UI.

A Territory that has been assigned to an Owner — nothing more. A franchise is not a separate business entity; it is the territory plus its owner, optionally with additional users granted role-restricted access scoped to that territory's data only.

The base geographic unit. Every county belongs to at most one franchise territory. Counties carry the underlying economic data (firms, employees, revenue, payroll).

Standard US state, identified by its two-letter postal abbreviation (e.g., CA, TX, NY).

A higher-level grouping of franchise territories (e.g., Northeast, Southeast). Used for color families and reporting.

Nielsen-defined media market. Retained as analytical metadata on counties (dma_code / dma_name) for advertising planning only. The legacy DMA tables and the 'DMA Territories' layer have been replaced by Franchise Territories.

Census Bureau definition of an urban area and surrounding counties tied together economically. CBSA is the broader umbrella term that includes both MSAs and Micropolitan Statistical Areas.

Numeric codes assigned by the US government to states and counties. A 5-digit county FIPS (also called GEOID) combines a 2-digit state FIPS with a 3-digit county FIPS — e.g., 06037 = Los Angeles County, CA.

The full FIPS identifier for a geographic area. In this app, county_geoid is the 5-digit county FIPS code, always padded with leading zeros.

USPS postal codes. ZIP5 is the standard 5-digit code; ZIP+4 adds a 4-digit suffix identifying a smaller delivery area.

Standard industry classification used by federal statistical agencies. A 6-digit NAICS code identifies a business's primary industry (e.g., 621111 = Offices of Physicians).

A unique 10-digit number issued by CMS to every healthcare provider in the US. Used to identify firms and individuals across HIPAA transactions.

A 6-character identifier assigned by CMS to Medicare/Medicaid-certified facilities (hospitals, SNFs, etc). Used to track quality, billing, and provider performance.

A 9-digit federal tax ID issued by the IRS to businesses (formatted XX-XXXXXXX).

A free, universal identifier for any physical place. Combines an address part and a POI part to uniquely identify locations across data sources.

A 10-character code from the Healthcare Provider Taxonomy Code Set that classifies a provider's specialty (e.g., 207R00000X = Internal Medicine).

Total annual revenue across all firms in the area. Headline KPI used to value territories and franchises.

Sum of annual wages paid by all firms in the area.

Wages paid in the first calendar quarter — useful for trend comparisons.

Total operating costs reported by firms in the area.

Distinct legal business entities. A firm may operate multiple establishments.

Physical business locations. One firm with three offices counts as one firm and three establishments.

Total number of paid workers across all firms in the area.

A franchise territory whose counties are not yet claimed by any franchise — fully open for sale.

A franchise territory where some counties have been sold to one or more franchises, but others remain available.

A franchise territory where every county has been claimed by a franchise.

A territory that is being designed and not yet finalized or visible publicly.

A territory that has been finalized and is visible on the public map.