What is a Rule?

A Rule is a reusable decision recorded by Reprtoir during royalty statement processing.

Rules are created when the user corrects or standardizes data during the “Handling Data Errors” step. Once recorded, a Rule allows the system to automatically apply the same decision to future Royalty Statement Incomes, without requiring repeated manual intervention.

Rules are a core mechanism for building a consistent and normalized royalty database across heterogeneous royalty sources.

Why Rules Exist

Royalty data originates from multiple providers, formats, and reporting conventions. The same real world information is often expressed differently across sources.

Rules allow Reprtoir to:

eliminate repetitive corrections across multiple statements
ensure consistent classification of data over time
reduce manual processing as volumes grow
maintain reliable reporting, exports, and analytics across providers

Rules transform one time user decisions into durable system behavior.

When Rules Are Created

Rules are created automatically when a Data Error is corrected during the royalty processing workflow.

Typical cases include:

mapping provider specific retailer names to a single internal retailer
standardizing sale types across multiple sources
resolving recurring unknown territories
normalizing reporting dates or periods
resolving recurring identifier or asset level mismatches

Rules are not applied retroactively at the moment they are created. They become active only once the current Royalty Statement Income has fully completed the processing workflow.

Where to find the Rules list

To display the Rules list, open the navigation menu on the left of the Workspace, click the “Royalty Accounting” icon, locate the “Transactions” section, and click the “Rules” list.

The Rules list provides full visibility over all automatic decisions recorded by the system.

What the Rules list is used for

The Rules list allows you to:

review all existing Rules
understand which corrections have been automated
verify which Statement Templates are affected
see when and by whom a Rule was created
audit the standardization logic applied to your royalty data

The Rules list acts as a control and verification layer for all automated corrections performed during statement processing.

Rule Scope and Context

Each Rule is associated with precise contextual information, including:

the Statement Template it applies to
the affected data field such as retailer, territory, sale type, or identifier
the original source value
the standardized or corrected value
the user who created the Rule
the creation date

This contextualization ensures that Rules are applied predictably and only within their intended scope.

Deleting a Rule

Deleting a Rule does not modify any royalties that have already been calculated.

When a Rule is deleted:

past calculations remain unchanged
previously processed statements are not affected
future statement imports will no longer apply that Rule

If a new Royalty Statement Income is processed after a Rule has been deleted, the original Data Error will reappear and must be handled again.

This guarantees accounting integrity while preserving operational flexibility.

Reprocessing and Historical Changes

If a user wants to change how past royalties were calculated, deleting a Rule is not sufficient.

To apply a different decision retroactively, the user must:

update or delete the relevant Rule if needed
reprocess the affected Royalty Statement Income using the reprocessing feature

Reprocessing recalculates royalties from the original source data using the current configuration and Rules.

No historical data is ever modified silently.

Processing Order Recommendation

When processing multiple Royalty Statement Incomes from the same Statement Provider, it is strongly recommended to process them chronologically and one by one.

Rules created while processing an Income become active only after that Income has fully completed the processing workflow.

By following a chronological order:

corrections made on the first Income are automatically reused on the next one
only new or previously quarantined errors appear
duplicate manual corrections are avoided

This approach significantly improves efficiency and consistency during onboarding or back catalog ingestion.

Relationship with Other Concepts

Rules are tightly connected to the following concepts:

“Handling Data Errors”, where Rules are created
“Statement Templates”, which define their scope of application
“Royalty Statement Incomes”, which activate them
“Reprocessing”, which allows recalculating historical results

Understanding Rules is essential for scaling royalty operations reliably in Reprtoir.