Managing an Advance and/or Minimum Guarantee

A Guarantee is the minimum Royalty Payment that a Licensee is contractually obligated to pay a Licensor over the term of the agreement. Guarantees may be paid one time, quarterly, semi-annually or annually, are nonrefundable and can be credited against future Earned Royalties in the form of an Advance.

RoyaltyZone provides an easy way to enter, monitor, and enforce advances and guarantees.  Click on any image below to enlarge it:

Guarantee Payment Schedule

Capture and track the guarantee payment schedule. You'll be reminded by email when payments are due.

Invoice Reminders

You'll be prompted to create invoices as payment milestones are reached.

Advance & Guarantee Invoices

Create and send electronic invoices for Advance or Guarantee payments.

Monitor Guarantee Progress

Keep track of all invoice and royalty payments that count towards satisfying the guarantee.

Recoupable Balance

Monitor every credit and debit to the recoupable balance.

Unpaid Invoice Warning

Both licensor and licensee are warned if there is an unpaid invoice that affects the recoupable balance on a royalty report.

Click on any of the tutorial links below to learn how you can use RoyaltyZone to enter, monitor, and enforce royalty advances and minimum royalty guarantees:

How do I enter a one time Advance?

How do I enter a minimum Guarantee, effective over the agreement lifetime, with multiple payment milestones?

How do I enter multiple Advances or Guarantees with unique effective periods (non cross-collateralized)?

How do I enter multiple Advances or Guarantees for specific properties, categories, territories, or distribution channels?

How do I enter a non-recoupable minimum Guarantee?

How do I create an invoice for an Advance or Guarantee?

How do I make changes to an Advance or Guarantee via Amend?

How do I view Advance or Guarantee balances?

How do I enter historical Royalties or make a Royalty adjustment?

Posted in Features, Licensing, Licensing Terms | Leave a comment

New Royalty Management Features

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It's hot in Austin these days.  Really hot, with no relief in sight:

hot

The good news?  It's too hot for the RZ Dev Team to do anything but write code!  So, we've got some cool new features for you:

Automated Withholding Tax and Value Added Tax Calculations
You can now enter a WHT and/or VAT percentage for each of your agreements.  RoyaltyZone will make the calculations and adjust the invoice as necessary.  View  the tutorials:  How do I manage Withholding Tax? and How do I manage Value Added Tax?  NOTE: once you enter your percentages, email me if you need us to regenerate any of your open invoices to reflect WHT and/or VAT

Unusued Associations Report
Ever wonder if you missed a property or category on a license agreement or participation agreement?  Need to pare down your category list?  This new report (last link on the Reports page) will export a list of all of your unused rights, across all of your agreements.  

Agreement Entry Warnings and Errors
We've added a bunch of error and warning messages that will make it easier to enter complex agreement terms into RoyaltyZone.  We even hide the publish button until you fix the issue!

Add Rights – Search Box
There is a new search box on the Property, Territory, and Distribution Method selection page in the Agreement Entry flow.  This will make it even easier to find your desired rights from a large list of items.  Just enter a keyword, then use the "Select All" link, or check individual rights, to add them to the agreement.  Hint: if you need to add all rights, except for a few items, you can "Select All", then use the search box to unselect specific items.

New Recurring Fee: Lump Sum
You can now add a Lump Sum recurring fee (Marketing or Ad Fund) to your license agreements.  Lump Sum recurring fees are automatically added to every royalty report and invoice.

Coming Soon: QuickBooks Interface!
We are putting the final touches on a cool new plugin for QuickBooks that will import customers, vendors, items, invoices, and bills from RoyaltyZone at the click of a mouse.  Wanna be one of the first to try it out?  Shoot me an email!

Stay cool,

Lou

Lou Ellman
Chief Royalty Crusader
RoyaltyZone, Inc.
royaltyzone.com

P.S.  Please tell your licensing friends about RoyaltyZone.  We love referrals!


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Licensing Expo 2011 – Exhibitor Survival Kit

Thought I’d share this helpful article written by Jessica Davis. More great Trade Show advice can be found on her blog.

When planning to exhibit at tradeshows, it’s impossible to forget the big items, such as your display, accessories, banner stands, banners, signs, and your booth staff. Unfortunately there are many other small items that need to be brought along with you that often fall between the proverbial cracks when packing for a tradeshow. Often, these small items can cost a ridiculous amount of money when you have to resort to buying them on-site or extremely inconvenient when you have to go off-site in search of them.

So to make it easier, we’ve compiled a list of items that you shouldn’t leave the office without when en route to a tradeshow. Most are small enough to either be brought in luggage by a staff member or shipped in one box to the event or to your hotel.

Tradeshow survival kit items include:

An extension cord. Will come in handy when you realize how far equipment or lighting is from the nearest outlet.

Scotch, Gaffers and masking tape. Can be used from everything from holding down a tablecloth to sealing boxes for shipment.

Stapler. What good is a stapler without staples? Pack extra!

Paper clips. What can a paperclip not do?

Velcro dots or strips. Use to adhere signage to you’re the walls of your display, hold up banners or keep tablecloths in place.

Sewing kit. Prevent wardrobe disasters with this handy kit.

Safety pins. MacGyver once saved the world with a safety pin and a rubber band. Enough said.

Push pins. Use to hold signage in place, posts messages or notes, or awaken sleepy staff.

Black permanent markers. Use for labeling boxes or marking items that you don’t want walking away.

Blue, red, and black pens. Yes, attendees steal pens so pack plenty.

Notebooks or pads of paper. Keep notes, reminders for staff, etc.

Rubber bands. See safety pins.

Small hammer and screwdriver. You don’t want to have to rely on on-site employees to loan you these handy essentials.

Spare pair of eyeglasses. Would be a really inconvenient time to not be able to see.

Wrist watch. Very important to keep scheduled meetings with the press or customers running on time.

Aspirin, Ibuprofen or other medications. Headaches are common at tradeshows due to late nights, over-imbibing, and lack of sleep.

Tissues. You never know when you’ll need these.

Paper towels. Prevent food or drink spills from ruining equipment.

Garbage bags. Especially handy when cleaning up after show is over.

Hand sanitizer or wipes. Shaking hands is a great way to make a good first impression, but it can also be a great way to catch a cold or other illness.

Alka-Seltzer. Plop, plop, fizz fizz…relief.

Throat lozenges. Everyone’s voices will be tired and sore from all the talking and dry air at tradeshows.

Lip balm. Indoor dry air and lots of talking equals chapped lips.

Eye drops. Won’t make up for lost sleep, but will help.

Comfortable flat shoes. Sure heels make you look great, but after hours of standing up, you’ll be happy you packed a more comfortable alternative.

Stain removal wipes. That meatball sub seemed like a good idea.

Granola bars. Perfect for a quick nourishment break.

Mouthwash or breath mints. Everyone has been trapped into talking to someone who has “death breath.” Don’t be that someone.

Extra batteries for equipment. This is one of the many items you’ll pay an arm and a leg for at the conference center’s gift shop.

Small digital camera. Take pictures of your booth, empty before the show to best show signage, displays, etc., and again while it’s filled with eager attendees for future promotional uses.

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Lou Ellman to host free LIMA roundtable discussion at 2011 Licensing Expo

LIMA is offering a FREE group of roundtable discussions for attendees of the 2011 Licensing International Expo. The event takes place on June 15, 2011 at 9 AM PST in the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Discussion leaders and topics will include:

  • J.J. Ahearn, Licensing Street: “What Makes A Merchandisable Property?”
  • Pete Canalichio, Licensing Brands Inc.: “Tying Licensing Into Event Marketing”
  • Lou Ellman, RoyaltyZone: “Measuring The Success of A Licensing Program”
  • Bob Traub, Chorion: “Working With Retail”

A maximum of 70 registrations will be accepted. Join the discussion!

Posted in Events, Licensing | Leave a comment

Lou Ellman to present “Licensing Equals Opportunity” at the SGIA Business Development Conference

Lou Ellman, founder of royalty software company RoyaltyZone, will present “Licensing Equals Opportunity” at the Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) Business Development Conference on May 11, 2011 in Denver, Colorado.

Lou’s talk is an informative and entertaining introduction to the world of brand and patent licensing. Discover ways to grow your brand and increase revenue through this intro to trademark, copyright, and patent licensing. Join us for an informative walk-through of a typical brand licensing program, including:

  • Key terminology
  • Roles and responsibilities between licensors, licensees, and licensing agents
  • Best practices for success
  • Resources for quick-starting a licensing program
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What is brand licensing?

Curious about brand licensing? Check out this short video explaining how brand licensing works, courtesy of Advanstar (the folks behind the Licensing Expo).

Posted in Licensing | Leave a comment

RoyaltyZone releases enhanced Royalty Participation features

Participation royalties are a portion of earned royalties that must be paid to a third party, such as a licensing agent, intellectual property owner, actor, athlete, inventor, or artist. Participation royalties are often paid for only a specific licensed property or group of properties. Participation can also be limited to a single license agreement, or a specific territory.

Calculating participation royalties using spreadsheets is very difficult. Licensors must analyze sales data across all of their licensee’s royalty reports to identify only those sales and royalties that match the participation rights criteria. In addition, Licensors must filter out any royalties that have been reported, but are not yet paid. Recouped advances, advance payments, and guarantee payments must also be analyzed and included. For these reasons, participation royalty reporting is an ideal process to be automated by royalty software.

RoyaltyZone’s new Royalty Participation features automate the royalty calculation and reporting process for Participation Agreements:

  • Define and track Participation Agreement terms, including rights, rates, advances, guarantees, and fees
  • Create participation royalty reporting rules to define when reports are due, and what data fields need to be included
  • Identify source agreements from your pool of licensed out license agreements
  • Create and calculate participation royalty reports with just one click – all matching sales and royalty data is automatically imported!
  • Export participation royalty details to XL for distribution to third party recipients
  • Analyze results and measure success with Trends and Analysis charts
  • Create and pay invoices for royalty owed
  • View the full history of every royalty report and invoice for each participation agreement
  • Receive email reminders with participation royalty reports are due

To learn more about managing royalty participation with RoyaltyZone, check out these tutorials:

How do I create a Participation Agreement?

How do I keep Participation Agreement and Source Agreement rights in sync?

How do I create a Participation Royalty Report?

Posted in Features, Licensing Terms, News | Leave a comment

Lou Ellman to host “Brand Licensing 101″ session at RISE conference

RoyaltyZone founder Lou Ellman is hosting a free session titled “Brand Licensing 101” on March 8, 2011 during the RISE conference in Austin, TX.

Discover ways to grow your brand and increase revenue with trademark, copyright, and patent licensing. Topics will include an introduction to licensing terminology and agreements, the roles and responsibilities of licensors, licensees, and licensing agents, best practices, and resources to get started.

To register, visit: https://www.riseglobal.org/sessions/detail/licensing-101

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Shift License Agreement Start Dates

Happy Holidays from RoyaltyZone! Our gift to you? The power to move time.

You now have two choices for changing the start date of a license agreement:

  • Start Date Only
  • Shift All Terms

With the new Date Shift feature, you can enter all of the agreement terms, then shift the start date as necessary until the contract is fully executed.  All start dates and payment schedules for entered agreement terms will be shifted to match the new start date.  You can also change or shift the start date for a published agreement via Amend.

For example, let’s say you want to change the start date to 3/1/11 for a one year license agreement with one royalty rate and a single guarantee with quarterly payments.  The original dates are:

  • Start Date: 1/1/11
  • End Date: 12/31/11
  • Royalty Rate Effective: 1/1/11 to 12/31/11
  • Guarantee Effective: 1/1/11 to 12/31/11
  • Guarantee Payments: 1/1/11, 4/1/11, 7/1/11, and 10/1/11

Selecting “Start Date Only” will result in these changes:

  • Start Date: 3/1/11
  • End Date: 12/31/11
  • Royalty Rate Effective: 3/1/11 to 12/31/11
  • Guarantee Effective: 3/1/11 to 12/31/11
  • Guarantee Payments: 3/1/11, 4/1/11, 7/1/11, and 10/1/11

Selecting “Shift All Terms” will result in these changes:

  • Start Date: 3/1/11
  • End Date: 2/28/12
  • Royalty Rate Effective: 3/1/11 to 2/28/12
  • Guarantee Effective: 3/1/11 to 2/28/12
  • Guarantee Payments: 3/1/11, 7/1/11, 10/1/11, and 1/1/12
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Currency normalization for multi-currency license agreements and royalty reports

We released some exciting new features for RoyaltyZone royalty software last night that will help licensors and licensing agents better manage license agreements across multiple currencies.

Choose your Account Currency.  Visit Setup > Currencies to select your account currency.  You can still select any currency for individual license agreements.

Exchange Rate Data is automatically imported to your RoyaltyZone account each day from the European Central Bank (http://www.ecb.int/).  View historical exchange rates via Setup > Currencies.

Currency Normalization. All foreign currency royalty reports can now be viewed in your account currency at the click of a button.  In addition, all summary charts and exported reports are normalized to your account currency.  RoyaltyZone uses the average exchange rate over the entire reporting period (quarter, month, etc) to calculate normalized currencies.

  1. Click on any foreign currency royalty report
  2. Click “View in USD” (or whatever you designate as your account currency) to see the normalized results
  3. Click “View in EUR” (or whatever the agreement currency was) to return to the original results
  4. Reporting Period, Custom Time Frame, Property, and Category summaries and export files all display normalized results

BONUS feature: improved Category reports! Licensors can now drill up or down through all category hierarchies to view royalty trends and analyze results. Visit Associations > Categories to see it in action: expand any category to view it’s sub-categories, and click on any category hierarchy level to view its Royalty Trends and Analysis chart.

Royalty results by category

Click to enlarge image

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