Licensing careers · Finance and royalties

Royalties Manager

A royalties manager runs royalty operations. They lead the analysts who process licensee statements, make sure minimum guarantee and overage invoices go out on time, manage cash collection and aged debt, and own the royalty system.

In global licensors the royalties manager often leads a team across several regions and runs the licensee forecast cycle with financial planning.

A royalties manager walks his team through royalty collections on a wall screen
Track
Finance and royalties
Level
Manager (also covers Senior Manager, Royalties)
Typical experience
5 to 10 years in royalties or licensing finance, including team leadership
Also called
Royalty Manager, Royalties-In Manager, Manager Royalty Operations, Senior Manager Royalties
Reports to
Head of Licensing Finance or Head of Partnership Finance
Next step
Senior Manager Royalties, Head of Licensing Finance

Key responsibilities

What does a royalties manager do?

  • Lead and develop the royalty analyst team
  • Make sure licensee statements are processed accurately and on time
  • Make sure minimum guarantee, overage and fixed fee invoices go out on schedule
  • Manage cash collection and aged debt, and escalate when needed
  • Own the royalty system and its links to CRM and ERP
  • Run credit checks on new licensees
  • Run the licensee forecast cycle with financial planning
  • Set KPIs for the royalty team and report on them
A week in the role
  • Review statement processing and collections against target
  • Escalate an overdue licensee with commercial
  • Sign off minimum guarantee invoices for the quarter
  • Coach an analyst through a tricky contract question
  • Meet IT on a royalty system to ERP fix

Where the role sits

The royalties manager owns royalty operations.

The royalties manager owns financial management for licensee income: statements in, invoices out, cash collected. They work closely with commercial on late payers and with financial planning on forecasts.

Receives
From licensees and commercial

Statements, forecasts and the contract terms behind every deal.

Owns
Royalty operations

Processing, invoicing, collections and the royalty system.

THIS ROLE
Hands off
To accounting and leadership

Collected revenue, aged debt and royalty reporting for the close.

The risky handoff

Contract terms retyped into a separate royalty system. When rates or minimum guarantees are set up wrong, every statement checked against them is wrong too.

How success is measured

Six KPIs for a royalties manager.

Few job ads define success for this role. These are the measures Flowhaven recommends.

KPIHow to calculate it
On time report processingShare of statements processed within the internal target
Royalty collection rateShare of invoiced royalties collected by the due date
Aged debtRoyalties overdue by more than 60 or 90 days
Minimum guarantee shortfalls caughtShortfalls invoiced in the period they arise
Forecast accuracyGap between licensee forecasts and actual royalties each quarter
Time per reportAverage hours from statement received to invoiced

Best practices

What great royalties managers do.

  1. Keep reports and forecasts in one place

    No email threads or version confusion.

  2. Check every report against the contract

    Rates, minimum guarantees, rights and territories.

  3. Connect to finance systems

    Send validated invoice data straight to the ERP.

  4. Treat late payers as a commercial issue

    Escalate with the deal owner early.

  5. Analyze performance trends

    Spot top performers, unused rights and revenue gaps.

  6. Review the process regularly

    Audit your own controls, efficiency and data quality.

Skills and tools

What the role asks for.

  • Royalty operations and accounts receivable
  • Team leadership across regions
  • Royalty systems and ERP integration
  • Credit control and collections
  • Forecasting with financial planning
  • Advanced Excel
Skills that stand out

Flowhaven and Salesforce experience is a strong plus.

Flowhaven is built on Salesforce, which IDC has ranked the number one CRM for 13 years in a row, with a 20% share of the CRM market in 2025. Licensing platform skills carry across the whole team.

Career path

Where people come from, and where they go.

Comes from
You are here
Royalties Manager
Moves to

Hiring?

Royalties Manager job description template.

Copy it, fill in the brackets and post it.

Royalties Manager

We are looking for a Royalties Manager to lead our royalty operations and make sure every licensee reports, is invoiced and pays on time.

What you will do

  • Lead and develop our royalty team
  • Make sure statements are processed accurately and on time
  • Own minimum guarantee and overage invoicing
  • Manage collections and aged debt
  • Own our royalty system and its integration with CRM and ERP
  • Run the licensee forecast cycle with financial planning

What you will bring

  • [5+] years in royalties or licensing finance, including team leadership
  • Strong knowledge of licensing contracts and royalty accounting
  • Experience with royalty systems and ERPs
  • Experience with Flowhaven or Salesforce is a plus

How success is measured

On time report processing, collection rate, aged debt and forecast accuracy.

FAQ

Questions people ask about the royalties manager role

They run royalty operations: statement processing, invoicing, collections and the royalty system, usually with a team of analysts.

The analyst processes statements. The manager owns the process, the team, collections and the system.

Free for licensing finance: a royalty report template and a quarter close checklist

Give licensees one clear Excel format that flags wrong rates and deductions over the cap, and run every quarter close the same way.

Every statement, invoice and minimum guarantee in one place.

See how royalty teams run statements and collections in Flowhaven.