Custom software for licence royalty settlement
Anyone who licenses a brand, character, design or technology receives royalties from licensees. Every agreement has its own terms: percentages per product and territory, advances, minimum guarantees and reporting dates. The sales reports arrive in spreadsheets of varying formats. Appfront builds software that reads in the reports, calculates royalties according to the agreement and shows who is late or paying too little.
What is licence royalty settlement software?
Licensing is all about the terms of each agreement. A licensee may use a brand or design for certain products, in certain countries and through certain channels, and pays a percentage of revenue for it. There is often an advance that is offset against later royalties, and a minimum guarantee: an amount the licensee pays per period regardless.
The licensee reports its sales, quarterly or half-yearly, usually in its own spreadsheet. The licensor has to check those reports, apply the right percentage per product and territory, offset the advance, monitor the minimum guarantee and invoice. With ten licensees that is still manageable. With fifty, in different currencies and formats, you lose track and discrepancies go unnoticed.
We build custom software because licensing portfolios differ: which rights, which types of agreement, how many licensees, and which invoicing and accounting systems are already in place. The software follows your agreements; which terms are legally binding is set out in the agreement itself.
Every term recorded
Percentages, territories, advances and minimums per licence.
Reports imported
Licensee sales checked and calculated.
Arrears at a glance
Late, too low or below the minimum: you see it.
How we build your licence royalty accounting software
We start with your portfolio: which licences, which terms occur, how reports come in and how you currently settle accounts. We often begin by recording the agreements, because the calculation builds on them. Importing reports, the calculation, invoicing and alerts follow. We carry over existing agreements and reports, so advances and minimum guarantees are correct from the start.
Licences, terms and reports.
Percentages, territories and minimums.
Import, check, calculate.
Invoices, alerts and overview.
What licence royalty accounting software actually does
The components below appear in almost every licence royalty accounting system. Which ones you need depends on your portfolio.
Agreements
Per licence and territory.
Reports
Import in any format.
Calculation
Percentage per product.
Minimum guarantee
Monitored per period.
Alerts
Late or deviating.
Overview
Per licensee.
Who we build licence royalty accounting software for
The software is intended for anyone who licenses out rights. The more licensees and agreements, the more it delivers.
Brand owners
Many product categories. Terms per product matter.
Licensing agencies
Other people's rights. An overview per client is the core.
Designers and studios
Characters and designs. Reports matter.
Technology companies
Patents and software. Control matters.
Test your idea first: a working prototype in 1 day
With OneDayBuild, we make your idea tangible in a single day for €1,150, so you know whether further development is worth the investment. Decide to go ahead with the full build? Then we deduct the cost in full.
View OneDayBuild →Technology and integrations
This page is about royalties from licences. For a publisher's accounting with authors, see our page on royalty accounting for authors, for managing software licences see our page on licence management software, and for commission see our page on agency administration and commission. You can read about our approach on building custom software.
Why Appfront for your licence royalty accounting software?
A report nobody checks, a minimum guarantee that is not claimed, or a percentage applied to the wrong territory costs a licensor income it is entitled to. That is what we build on: every term recorded, reports imported and checked, and arrears immediately visible.
No missed income
Minimums claimed.
Correct calculation
According to the agreement.
Overview
Who is falling behind.
Security and privacy in licence royalty accounting software
The software contains commercial terms and revenue figures from licensees, which are often confidential. Access is set up per role, a licensee only sees its own data in a portal, and every change is logged.
The software runs in a European data centre, with encrypted storage and daily backups. We document the processing in a data processing agreement.
Frequently asked questions about licensing royalty management software
Questions licensors ask before getting started.
The software records the terms of each licence, reads in licensees' sales reports, calculates royalties according to the agreement and generates the invoice. It also monitors advances and minimum guarantees, and flags reports that are late or inconsistent.
With authors, the publisher settles with the author on its own sales. With licensing, the rights holder receives royalties from licensees, based on their reports. Checking those reports and the minimum guarantees is the core of it here.
Yes. Each licensee can submit its own spreadsheet; the software learns for each licensee which column means what. Prefer a single format? Licensees can enter their sales in a portal instead.
An advance is offset against royalties until it has been earned back. A minimum guarantee is compared with the calculated royalties each period; if they fall short, the difference is ready to be invoiced.
Yes. Each territory uses the rates and currency from the agreement, and conversion follows the exchange rate you have agreed with the licensee. That way you can see income per territory and in total.
The software highlights anomalies, such as falling sales without explanation, products that fall outside the licence, or territories where nothing is reported. That helps you prepare for an audit if your agreement allows it.
Check that first. An accounting package processes the invoices, but usually does not know the terms of each licence. Custom software makes sense if the calculation is currently done in spreadsheets, or if minimum guarantees and reports are not monitored properly.
Yes. Licensees enter their sales for each period or upload their file, and see their own agreement, the calculated royalty and outstanding invoices. Reminders go out automatically when a report is late, so you don't have to chase up who still needs to submit.
Licensing royalties that add up?
Tell us how many licences you have, what terms they contain and how reports currently come in. We'll show you what the software looks like.