Switching royalty software is a big decision. But once you’ve made it, the next question is usually the harder one: what do you do with all the data you already have?
If you’ve been tracking royalties in spreadsheets or another system, you’ll have years of sales figures, royalty calculations, and payment history sitting somewhere. Bringing that into a new system isn’t always straightforward, and there’s no single right answer. It depends on how much history matters to you and your authors, and how much effort you’re willing to put in upfront.
Switching from Metacomet? If you’re currently using Metacomet, the process is simple. Export your data and get in touch with us. We can import it directly into Royalties HQ, so you won’t need to worry about reformatting or manual data entry.
The two approaches
When publishers move to Royalties HQ, they generally choose one of two paths.
Option 1: Full historical import. You import all of your sales data from the very beginning and recreate your royalty runs from that point onwards. This gives you and your authors a complete picture of everything in one place.
Option 2: Clean cutover. You pick a date, draw a line in the sand, and start importing sales data from that point forward. For everything before that date, you enter summary totals so the numbers still add up.
Both options work well. The right choice depends on your priorities, your data, and how much time you want to spend on the transition.
Full historical import
This is the most thorough approach. You gather all your sales files going back to whenever you started, upload them into Royalties HQ, and run your royalty calculations from the beginning.
The result is a single, unified record of every sale and every royalty statement. Your authors can log into the Author Portal and see their complete history. There’s no gap in the data and no need to explain where older figures came from.
The trade-off is that this takes more work upfront. You’ll need to dig out old sales reports from your distributors, and the process of importing and running historical royalty periods takes time.
There’s also something important to be aware of. The royalty statements that Royalties HQ generates will not be identical to the ones you previously sent out. The reporting periods may differ, the formatting will be different, and small rounding differences can creep in. If your authors compare old statements with what they see in the portal, the totals should be very close, but they probably won’t match to the penny.
This option is best if you want a complete, unified record of all your royalty data and you’re comfortable explaining to authors that historical statements have been recreated in the new system.
Clean cutover
With this approach, you choose a start date and only import sales data from that point onwards. For everything before that date, you record two summary figures on each product: the total units sold and the total royalties earned.
These legacy figures ensure that lifetime totals are correct and, crucially, that any tiered royalty contracts calculate at the right rate. If an author’s royalty percentage increases after 5,000 units sold, for instance, Royalties HQ needs to know about those prior sales to apply the correct tier.
The advantage here is speed. You don’t need to track down years of old sales files. You just need the summary numbers, which you can pull from your existing records or spreadsheets.
The downside is that your authors won’t see a detailed breakdown of sales before the cutover date. They’ll see the totals, but not the month-by-month detail. For many publishers, that’s perfectly acceptable, especially if you’ve already sent out statements covering those earlier periods.
This option is best if you want to get up and running quickly and your authors don’t need granular access to older data through the portal.
Talking to your authors
Whichever option you choose, it’s worth letting your authors know what’s happening. A short email explaining that you’re moving to new royalty software, and what they can expect, goes a long way.
If you’re doing a full import, let them know that their historical statements have been recreated and may look slightly different from what they received before. If you’re doing a clean cutover, explain that detailed reporting starts from the new date and that prior totals have been carried forward.
In our experience, authors are understanding about these transitions. Most authors want their publishers to succeed, and they appreciate the transparency. Once they see the Author Portal and can check their sales and statements whenever they want, any initial questions tend to fade quickly.
Getting started
If you’re not sure which approach suits your situation, get in touch. We can talk through your data, your catalogue size, and your authors’ expectations to help you decide. And if you’re migrating from Metacomet or another system, we can often make the process much simpler than you’d expect.