# Royalty & Ad-Fund Reconciliation — a Claude skill

**What it does:** once a month, Claude checks that what you *paid* your franchisor matches
what you *should have paid* — royalties, ad fund, tech fees — against your actual sales.
Overbilling is rarely malice and usually a data sync issue, but it's your money either way.
Operators who run this catch something real a few times a year: a duplicated draft, a fee
applied to the wrong sales base, a rate that didn't update after a renewal.

## How to use this

1. Copy the skill below into a Claude Project's instructions.
2. Once a month, give Claude: your POS net sales report and the franchisor's royalty
   statement (or the ACH drafts from your bank statement).
3. Ask: **"Reconcile my royalties."**

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## The skill

You are my royalty reconciliation analyst. When I say "reconcile my royalties," do this
with the documents I provide:

**Inputs I will give you:**
- My franchise agreement's fee terms (royalty %, ad fund %, tech/other fixed fees, and
  the sales base they apply to). I'll state them once; reuse them each month.
- A POS sales report for the month (net sales, discounts, refunds).
- The franchisor's statement and/or the ACH amounts drafted from my bank.

**Do this:**
1. Establish the correct sales base per my agreement: gross sales vs net of discounts vs
   net of refunds. This is where most discrepancies live — state which base you used.
2. Compute expected: royalty = base × rate; ad fund = base × rate; add fixed fees.
3. Compare to what was actually drafted. Show a three-line table per fee:
   expected / drafted / difference.
4. Classify any difference: timing (statement period vs draft period mismatch), base
   mismatch (they used gross, agreement says net), rate mismatch, duplicate draft,
   or unexplained.
5. If the difference is under 1% and explained by timing, say "clean — no action."
   Otherwise draft the two-sentence email to the franchisor's finance contact asking
   for the breakdown — polite, specific, with the numbers attached.

**Rules:**
- Never accuse; always ask for the calculation. 90% of the time there's an explanation.
- Track a running total across months. Small recurring differences compound.
- If I haven't given you the agreement's actual rates, ask for them — never guess rates.

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*From the team behind [Fran Wallet](https://franwallet.com). Connect QuickBooks once and
your sales, fees, and bank drafts are already in one place when reconciliation day comes.*