Show Settlement Sheet
The financial reconciliation document completed after every show — reconciling gross revenue, deducting allowable expenses, and calculating the final artist payment and promoter result.
Overview
The settlement sheet is the financial document that closes out a show. It converts the deal structure on paper into actual dollars paid. Every line of revenue and every allowable expense gets accounted for, producing two numbers that matter: what the artist gets paid and what the promoter keeps or loses.
Settlement happens after the show, typically in the venue office or backstage with the tour manager (TM) or artist's business manager. In independent promotion, this often means reconciling everything at midnight against a document you started building weeks ago. The promoters who do this cleanly are the ones who build it throughout the process — not the night of.
A complete settlement sheet protects both parties. It creates a paper trail that resolves disputes before they become relationship problems. Agents and TMs remember which promoters run clean settlements and which ones are a mess to deal with. That reputation travels.
How to Use
Start building the settlement sheet the moment a show is confirmed. Pre-populate everything you know — venue deal, guarantee, deal split terms, ticketing fees — so you're not filling in blanks under pressure at midnight.
Collect receipts and documentation by category as you spend. Marketing invoices, production quotes, venue cost breakdowns — attach them to corresponding line items as they come in. On show day, reconcile your box office numbers against the ticketing platform report before the show ends. Discrepancies are easier to resolve while the box office is still open than after the show is over.
At settlement, walk the TM through every line item. Don't hand them a sheet and let them read it cold. Explain your deductions, show your receipts, and flag anything that might be contested so the conversation stays professional. When in doubt about whether an expense is allowable, check the contract — that document is the final word.
Template Fields
Each field below appears on the template. Fill in every applicable field — incomplete settlements and offers create problems downstream.
Show Date
Date of the performance.
Artist
Artist or act name as it appears on the contract.
Venue
Venue name and city.
Gross Ticket Revenue
Total face-value ticket revenue before any deductions. Pull this directly from your ticketing platform's settlement report — do not estimate.
Tickets Sold
Total paid tickets scanned at the door.
Comp Tickets
Total complimentary tickets issued. Comps reduce your gross attendance count and must be documented — an inflated comp list is one of the most common dispute triggers at settlement.
Total Tickets (Capacity)
Sum of sold and comp. Should reconcile against venue capacity and box office scan report.
Facility Fee Revenue
If your ticket price included a facility fee that flows to the promoter (separate from the face value), record it here. Not all deals include this — check your venue agreement.
Tax Deductions
Applicable amusement taxes, sales taxes on tickets, or other statutory deductions. Rates vary by state and municipality — confirm in advance.
Ticketing Fee Deductions
Service fees charged by your ticketing platform that come off the top before the promoter share. Distinguish between fees the ticketing company keeps and fees you collect and pass through.
Production Costs
All production-related expenses: sound, lighting, backline, staging, rigging, labor. Break this out if your deal allows specific production deductions — a lump figure invites challenges.
Marketing Costs
All promotional spend: digital advertising, print, radio, PR, street team, graphics. Only deduct marketing expenses if your contract explicitly allows it. Keep receipts for every line.
Venue Rental
The flat rental fee or percentage of gross paid to the venue, per your venue agreement. If the venue takes a percentage, calculate it here against confirmed gross.
Staffing Costs
Event staff: security, box office, stage managers, runners, load-in crew. Include only costs you directly paid — venue-supplied staff costs may be built into venue rental.
Hospitality / Rider Costs
Catering, dressing room provisions, hotel accommodations, ground transport — anything required by the hospitality rider that you directly paid. Keep itemized receipts.
Insurance
Event liability insurance and any required additional insured endorsements. If you have a blanket policy, prorate this show's share.
Miscellaneous Expenses
Any allowable expense not captured above. Label every item — 'misc' without a description will get challenged.
Total Expenses
Sum of all deductible expenses. This is the number that determines whether backend kicks in — verify the contract specifies which expenses are allowable before including anything here.
Net Revenue
Gross ticket revenue minus taxes, ticketing fees, and total deductible expenses. This is the pool from which artist payment and promoter return are calculated.
Artist Guarantee
The contracted minimum payment, paid regardless of revenue outcome. This is the floor — if net revenue is less than the guarantee, the promoter absorbs the shortfall.
Backend Split %
The artist's contractual share of net profits above the break-even threshold. Expressed as artist/promoter split. The split typically applies to net revenue above costs, not above the guarantee.
Artist Backend Payment
The dollar amount due to the artist from the backend split, if net revenue cleared the break-even threshold. Zero if the show didn't reach backend.
Total Artist Payment
Guarantee plus any backend payment. This is the number you're cutting a check for at settlement.
Promoter Net Profit / Loss
Net revenue minus total artist payment. Positive means the show made money. Negative means you covered the shortfall out of pocket. This is the final number.
Build the settlement throughout the booking cycle, not after. The moment a show is confirmed, create the settlement sheet and populate every known variable. By show day, the only fields you should be filling in are actuals — not reconstructing what you agreed to six weeks ago.
Reconcile box office before the last set ends. Your ticketing platform's real-time report and the venue's box office count should match. If they don't, find out why while the venue's systems are still live and staff are still present. A $400 discrepancy that takes 30 seconds to resolve at 10pm becomes a relationship problem at 1am.
Keep receipts organized by settlement category from day one. Marketing, production, hospitality — file receipts into those buckets in real time. Walking into settlement with a stack of unsorted receipts signals disorganization and invites challenges on every line.
Know what's actually deductible before the show. Not every expense you incurred is contractually allowable as a deduction. Read the deal memo. If "marketing" isn't listed as an allowable deduction, you can't include it on the settlement sheet — even if you spent the money promoting the show.
Callboard's settlement module pre-populates the sheet with deal terms from your offer and contract, so actuals are the only thing you're filling in on show night. Settlement reports archive automatically and feed into your P&L tracking across all shows.
The template is the format. The data is the edge.
Callboard.fm generates the market intelligence that fills these templates with confidence — demand signals, guarantee benchmarks, and risk flags.
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