Royalty Payment Automation for Authors: Is it Worth The Cost?

 Since automation was first joined with the royalty management process, the advantages have been evident. By replacing strenuous manual tasks throughout the revenue sharing process with Royalty Tracker, our royalty software for publishers, the whole operation has become faster, less risky, less strenuous, and completely transparent. Automation isn't suitable for all areas of publishing, but as far as revenue sharing is concerned, it undoubtedly makes companies leaner and more adaptable.

But while most Royalty Tracker customers have simplified most of the milestones in the process, the final part - paying authors - remains remarkably non-automated for many publishers. Taking this final step can offer many benefits, such as reducing the time spent processing payments and eliminating the risk of human error that can occur when payment data is transferred from Royalty Tracker to outside accounting systems.

So could automatic payments be the missing aspect of the royalty management puzzle? Before we proceed further, we realize that, as with all aspects of royalties, automation isn't for everyone. For smaller publishers with a handful of titles, doing royalties manually shouldn't be too onerous. For newer businesses or small publishers with limited budgets, the costs associated with setting up automatic payments with their royalty tracking software can outweigh the savings you can make.

Automation should never be implemented just for the sake of it, or just because the technology is there. As MetaComet President David Marlin puts it: “Rather than aiming for payment automation just because you can, look at the ROI. How much effort will it save and what pressures can it relieve? It's a simple business decision that should focus on profits. "

What does the automation process resemble? It's a simple two-step process for entering payment information into your accounting system:

1. Follow the standard royalty period-end cadence, closing the royalty period and approving statements.

2. Pass the payment information to your accounting system. This is where setup costs typically come in, and most accounting systems need minimal setup, but Royalty Tracker software can transmit the data fairly easily.

There is an intermediate strategy that gives most of the benefits and little or no installation costs: generate a report in the Royalty Tracker software for publishers and import it into the accounting system. You the user in effect act as the network, carrying out the data transmission. For publishers using QuickBooks, this is a very valuable approach. Royalty Tracker can generate the report as a native QuickBooks file which can be imported directly into QuickBooks as invoices.

Once the data is in your accounting system, you can further increase automation using electronic payments. These payments through ACH, EFT and other third parties are becoming more widely used: The Federal Reserve reports that ACH transfers are growing by 5% per year, while checks are decreasing by 3%. Publishers who suggest authors switch from checks to electronic transfers through our royalty software may find they are pushing towards an open door.

Electronic payments, therefore, integrate seamlessly with MetaComet's AuthorPortal.com providing online access to royalty statements and data that can be coordinated with payments. This can benefit relationships with authors and reduce follow-up questions that editors face once their statements are created. For any questions it can't solve, Royalty Tracker's browser is often all publishers require, providing easy access to detailed sales information, calculations, statements, and past payments. Replacing checks with electronic wire transfers also alleviates common frustrations associated with payments, such as invalid or outdated postal addresses, by minimizing the manual work of finding why things don't crash.

Here are just five of the big wins in payment automation.

1 More time. Reducing the work involved in paying royalty and author care allows staff to do more profitable work.

2 Lower costs. Eliminating the cost of generating checks, stationery and postage can pay off your profits quickly.

3 Increased security. Automation reduces the possibility of human error in payments