How Do I Use IC to Account for Merch
Please note, this doc contains helpful instructions regarding merchandise accountancy within IC.
For information regarding accounting for income when it is collected directly by a payee (for example, for merch sales that are reported to the catalog), follow the helpful instructions in our Best Way To Account for Income Collected by a Payee doc to account for this income accordingly.
For information regarding accounting for royalties when merchandise / product is purchased by or advanced to a payee, please see the doc here.
Accounting for merch is as easy as accounting for any other royalties within IC! To do so, simply follow the instructions for your scenario below.
If your merch is associated with an existing Release
If your merch is associated with an existing Release - let's say you just released a limited edition t-shirt sold alongside a band's new album - you can simply assign the merch Items from your data source reporting and any associated expenses (for example, manufacturing costs from your Additionals) directly to the corresponding Release itself, and these income and expense transactions will simply be folded into the Release balance.
If your merch is accounted for separate from a Release
If your merch is not to be accounted for in a corresponding Release, but accounted for separately, you can simply create a new "Merch" Release or Release(s) associated with each applicable Artist to track your Merch balances separately, as shown below:
Once you have created this Merch Release, you can simply assign all corresponding merch Items and any associated expenses to this Release within the system. Additionally, if your merch balances are uncrossed from your Artists' Releases, you can simply add a Ledger to each Merch Release contract to ensure payable - or recouping - merch balances do not affect balances on the recording side.
If you've got catalog merch that is not to be accounted for to your payees
If your data source imports include merch which is considered catalog (i.e. label profit / overhead) and is not associated with a payee in the system, you can simply create a Label Artist and an associated Merch Release assigned with an "Ignore contract" to simply pass those transactions through the system and ensure they are not accounted for to your payees.
