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Fixing an incorrect royalty run

What if you have made a mistake in a royalty run? Fear not. On this page we describe some scenarios and what steps you can take to correct the royalty run.

Undoing a royalty run #

Although Royalties HQ has been built to minimise mistakes, we know that, in reality, mistakes can happen. For this reason, royalty runs can be ‘rolled back’ (undone).

The best process to fix a royalty run depends on these main factors:

  1. Are bills in the royalty ruin marked as paid?
  2. Have you emailed statements or made payments to rights holders, and
  3. The type of correction you need to make.

Scenarios #

Here are some scenarios for dealing with various problems with royalty runs.

Your rights holder contact data is incorrect #

If a rights holder’s contact data is incorrect on a PDF statement, for example, name, email address, then you can fix this at the rights holder and regenerate their PDF statement.

Rights holder ownership data is incorrect #

If a rights holder’s ownership data (e.g. percentage) of a title format is incorrect or missing:

  1. First, correct the title format ownership
  2. Next, follow the steps at the start of this page, depending on whether the royalty run has bills that are paid.

Note that if you have already sent statements or made payments to rights holders in this royalty run, statements and payments for multiple rights holders may be affected. You will need to check the new bills and statements for every rights holder related to the title format where you have changed ownership.

You forgot to include a sales file #

If you have forgotten to import sales data for a Royalty Run period, the best approach depends on whether you have already paid the rights holders.

If you have not yet paid rights holders, you can undo the royalty run:

  1. In the royalty run, delete all bills (if bills are marked as paid, you will need to mark them as unpaid).
  2. Undo royalty allocation.
  3. The royalty run is now in draft mode, as if it had just been started.
  4. Add your missing sales file and publisher income.
  5. Come back to the royalty run and follow the standard steps.
  6. Optional: If you previously emailed statements to rights holders, you will need to manually email the rights holders again to inform them of the mistake. You can also use the custom text option in the PDF statement (Settings page) to add a note to the cover page of every PDF statement.

If you have already paid rights holders, you should create a separate ‘catch-up’ royalty run for the same period.

Catch-up royalty runs only include title formats (and therefore rights holders) linked to sales lines in the current royalty run. This means you leave the original royalty run unchanged, and add the catch-up royalty as a second, smaller run for the same period.

  1. Firstly, import the missing sales file(s). At least one sales batch will be created.
  2. Create publisher income for the batch(es).
  3. Create a new royalty run.
  4. Choose ‘Catch-up’ as the type.
  5. Select the royalty reporting period (e.g. Annual) and date range.
  6. Complete the royalty run as normal.
  7. Optional: You can also use the custom text option in the PDF statement (Settings page) to add a note to the cover page of every PDF statement.

You forgot to add an advance #

Advances are factored into a royalty run during the creation of the bills. So, to include an advance that was mistakenly omitted, you will need to first add the advance to the rights holder, then delete the royalty run’s existing bills, recreate the bills, then regenerate new PDF statement(s).

Let’s look at these steps in more detail.

First, you need to create the advance on the rights holder.

Then, to correct the royalty run, do the following:

  1. Bills tab – delete the bills using the ‘Delete all bills’ button (if the bills are marked as paid, you must first use the bulk select to set them to unpaid).
  2. Bills tab – regenerate the bills. The advance will now be factored in, and any relevant earned royalties will be used to repay the advance.
  3. Wait for a minute – Check that the bills have regenerated before you proceed. You may need to refresh the Bills tab page.
  4. Statement tab – regenerate the statement(s) – you can do this just on the affected rights holder(s) using the circle arrow action button on their statement row
  5. Statement tab – Also in the action buttons for a single statement, download the relevant statement to check. If you’re happy with the amended statement, you can either click the paper aeroplane icon next to the statement to only email that rights holder their statement, or you can email the downloaded PDF manually.

Bills #

A key question is whether you have marked the royalty run’s bills (‘Bills’ tab) as paid?

If bills are marked as unpaid #

If bills in the royalty run are marked as unpaid, the royalty run can be ‘rolled back’.

You can delete bills by clicking the ‘Delete All Bills’ button. It may take a few seconds for all bills to be deleted.

Once bills are deleted, you can also undo the royalty allocation. This takes the royalty run back to its initial draft state. This is only required if you need to:

  1. Change ownership of a title (e.g. add/remove rights holder, or change their %)
  2. Add sales files that were not previously included
  3. Correct a publisher income payment

If bills are marked as paid #

If bills in the royalty run are marked as paid, the royalty run can not be ‘rolled back’. Its royalties and bills are effectively locked. This is to prevent accidental deletion of the royalty run’s financial data.

But fear not, you can manually set the ‘paid status’ of bills to unpaid.

To set a royalty run’s bills to unpaid:

  1. Go to the royalty run’s Bills tab.
  2. Tick the select all checkbox, to select all bills.
  3. Using the bulk select drop-down, mark the bills in the run as unpaid.

If you are having a problem that isn’t listed here, please contact us and we will be happy to help.