Documentation

Royalty runs

Calculate royalties, generate statements, and create bills. The core output of Royalties HQ.

Royalty runs are the core output of Royalties HQ. They turn sales data, income, and contract terms into actual amounts owed to your rights holders.

What a royalty run does

A royalty run takes everything you’ve set up (titles, rights holders, contracts, sales, and income) and allocates royalties accordingly. The result is a set of royalty lines showing exactly how much each rights holder has earned for the period, after accounting for advances, expenses, and any withholding rules.

The process

Running royalties follows a straightforward sequence:

  1. Checklist. Royalties HQ verifies your data is ready, flagging missing contracts or unlinked sales before you start.
  2. Royalty lines. The system calculates royalties for every rights holder based on their contract terms and the sales or income in the period.
  3. Bills. Net amounts owed are generated after deducting unearned advances and expenses.
  4. Statements. PDF statements are produced for each rights holder, ready to send.

Withheld royalties

Not every royalty run results in a payment. Royalties are automatically withheld when a rights holder’s balance falls below the minimum payout threshold, or when their payments have been paused. Withheld amounts carry forward to the next run.

Statements

Royalty statements are customisable PDF documents sent to your rights holders. Choose between a simplified layout (showing totals per title) or a detailed breakdown with every transaction. Statements reflect your branding and can be emailed directly from the platform.

Bills

Bills represent the final amounts owed to rights holders after advance repayment and expense deductions. Export bills as CSV for your accounts team, or push them directly to Xero to streamline your payment workflow.

Fixing mistakes

If a royalty run contains errors (wrong sales data, a missing contract, or an incorrect period), you can undo the entire run and start again. Undoing a run reverses all calculated royalties, resets advance balances, and frees the data for a corrected re-run.

Step-by-step guides are available inside Royalties HQ. Look for the ? icon top-right.