Expenses

Expenses are costs deducted from an artist’s royalties. Common examples include advances, marketing campaigns, production costs, and distribution fees.

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Expense categories

Category	Description
Royalty Payment	A payment made to the artist (reduces balance)
Expense	A cost charged to the artist’s account (advance, marketing, production, etc.)
Adjustment	A correction or manual balance adjustment

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Adding an expense

1. Navigate to Royalties → Ledger Expenses
2. Click Add Expense
3. Fill in the expense details:

Field	Description
Project type	Choose Artist (charge to one artist) or Album (distribute across a release)
Artist / Release	Select the artist account or release to charge
Amount	The expense amount
Category	Select from Royalty Payment, Expense, or Adjustment
Description	Explain what the expense is for
Date	When the expense was incurred

4. Click Save

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Distribution methods

There are two ways to assign an expense:

Account-based expenses

Charged directly to one artist’s account. Use this for expenses specific to an individual artist, such as a personal advance or solo marketing campaign.

Release-based expenses (Album)

When you select Album as the project type, the expense is distributed proportionally across all artists on that release based on their royalty split percentages. Use this for shared costs like:

• Release-wide marketing campaigns
• Music video production for a collaborative release
• Distribution fees for a specific release

For example, if a release has two artists with 60% and 40% splits, a $1,000 release-based expense would charge $600 to the first artist and $400 to the second.

Note

Only artists who have artist accounts will receive their share of a release-based expense. Artists without accounts are skipped.

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Expense lifecycle

Expenses go through two stages:

Stage	Description
Uncommitted	Expense is entered but not yet locked. You can freely edit or delete it.
Committed	Expense has been committed and a ledger transaction has been created automatically. Locked from editing.

Committing an expense

When you’re ready to finalize an expense:

1. Open the expense from the Ledger Expenses list
2. Review all details are correct
3. Click Commit

Committing creates a permanent transaction in the artist’s ledger and locks the expense from further changes.

Caution

Once an expense is committed, it cannot be modified or deleted. Double-check the amount, category, and assignment before committing.

You can filter the expense list by Committed or Uncommitted status to see which expenses are still editable.

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Label split

Expenses can be shared between the label and the artist using the label split percentage.

To enable splitting on an expense:

1. Open the expense editor
2. Toggle Enable Split Form
3. Use the slider or type a percentage to set the label’s share (0-100%)
4. Use the Snap to 50/50 button for an even split

The label’s portion is absorbed by the label, and only the artist’s portion is charged to their account. For example, with a 50% label split on a $1,000 expense, only $500 is charged to the artist.

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Recoupment

Expenses reduce an artist’s balance until fully recouped. If an artist has a $5,000 advance and earns $2,000 in royalties, their balance shows -$3,000. Once earnings exceed the total expenses, the artist’s balance turns positive and they can be paid.

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Viewing expenses

1. Navigate to Royalties → Ledger Expenses
2. Filter by artist, date range, category, or committed status
3. View expense history and status

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Related guides

• Artist Accounts — How expenses affect account balances
• Statements and Reports — How expenses appear on statements
• Ledger and Transactions — How expenses are recorded

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