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Your statement opens with Closing balance, then four cards showing how the period got there: Opening Balance. What you were owed when the period started, which is the previous period’s closing balance. Payments. What was paid out to you during the period. It’s shown as a negative figure because it reduces what you’re owed. Transactions. Manual entries your record company made on your payee balance in this period, such as an advance. Transferred from Accounts. What moved up from your accounts into your payee balance this period. This is where your royalties arrive. The four add up:
Payments and advances are negative, so they pull the closing balance down.

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The second row of figures

Total Royalties, Total Costs and Total Units come from the sales and costs behind the statement rather than from your balance. They tell you what the period earned; the cards above tell you what you’re owed. The two don’t have to match. Royalties are calculated on your contracts and only reach your payee balance once they’ve cleared any unrecouped costs on the account, so a period can show royalties and still transfer nothing up. Total Royalties on its own is never the amount payable.

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The same statement at other levels

Switch to an account or a contract and the cards change to suit that level. An account shows Transferred from Contracts and Transferred to Payee. A contract shows Royalties, Costs, reserves, and Transferred to Account.

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