The Manager's Settlement Sheet: Getting Your Cut Right Every Night

Settlement is the most consequential fifteen minutes of a show and it happens in the worst possible conditions: late, loud, tired, with a promoter who has already mentally gone home. Whoever arrives with the numbers written down controls it.

The order money comes off

This sequence is the industry norm, and getting it wrong is where manager commission quietly goes missing:

• 1. Commissions, off the gross. Agent and manager percentages are calculated on the guarantee or the gross, before costs. A 10% agent commission on a $2,000 guarantee is $200, not 10% of what survives the van.

• 2. Fixed costs. Crew day rates, hired backline, the engineer. Owed whether or not the night went well.

• 3. Expenses. Travel, accommodation, per diems — whatever the band agreed comes off before splits.

• 4. What remains is the pool the band splits.

If your agreement puts commission on net rather than gross, step 1 moves to the end. Knowing which one you signed is the whole point of commission on gross or net.

What to check against the promoter's numbers

• The headcount. Compare their count to yours. If you ticketed the show yourself you have an exact number; if not, count what you can — scanned tickets, guest list, your own eyes on the room.

• Comps. Every comp is a ticket that didn't pay. Agree the comp allowance in advance and check it at settlement, because unchecked comp lists grow.

• Deductions. Agreed deductions only. "Production" appearing at settlement for the first time is a conversation to have then, not next week.

• Merch cut. If the venue takes a percentage, confirm the rate and whether it applies to soft goods and music equally. Many venues take nothing on recorded music and this is frequently forgotten in the artist's favour.

• Deposits already paid. The balance due tonight is the fee minus anything received in advance. Obvious, and regularly missed at 1am.

Get it signed

A settlement both parties signed is a settlement neither can revise by email on Thursday. It doesn't need to be elaborate — the figures, the deductions, the amount received, the method, and two signatures. If there's a discrepancy you couldn't resolve, write the discrepancy on the sheet and both sign anyway, noting it's unresolved.

Then pay people that night, or tell them when

The thing that erodes a band's trust in a manager isn't a bad settlement, it's an opaque one. If money is being distributed later, say the date at the time. Silence after a settlement is read as something to hide, even when the reason is simply that the bank transfer clears Tuesday.

Bring the sheet with you

Musavise's gig tracker prints a settlement one-pager per show, pre-filled with the deal, the deposits already received, the balance due tonight and your own ticket counts, with blanks for the venue's headcount, comps and deductions — plus the payout split, so the commission line and everyone's share are computed in the right order and printed with a tick box against each person as they're paid.

All of it lives in one free Musavise account — free means free, within honest limits, and your data exports whenever you want it. Create your free account; it takes about two minutes.