Royalties

Thanks for reaching out to the Community, Dawn Dockrill.

To handle author royalties in QuickBooks, you'll need to create a service item for royalty payments, link it to an income account, then use the Sales by Item or Sales by Customer reports to track royalty income from specific books or sales channels.

Here's how to add a new service item:
 

1. In your left navigation bar, go to Sales, then Products & Services.
2. Click New and choose Non-inventory or Service.
3. Enter a Name for the product or service and an SKU if you track them.
4. From your Category ▼ drop-down list, pick a category that best describes the product/service. If you sell your item, confirm the I sell this product/service to my customers checkbox is selected.
5. In the Description on sales forms field, enter a description. This is what our customers will see on their sales form.
6. Specify an amount in your Sales price/rate field. If you charge a variable rate for services, you can leave the sales price/rate field blank, then add your price when you fill out the invoice or sales receipt.
7. Choose an account you'll use to track your sales from the Income account ▼ drop-down.
8. In your Sales tax section, sales tax is applied by default based on location. For more specific options, or to make the product or service nontaxable, hit Edit sales tax.
9. When you're done, select Save and Close.

Next you can add a service or product's purchasing details and track/manage product/service items you sell. You can refer to our Add product & service items article for detailed information on the process.

I've also included a link to another thread for QuickBooks Desktop, which covers receiving royalty payments as an author: How do I receive royalty payments as an author in Quickbooks?

Please feel welcome to send a reply if there's any additional questions. Have a great Wednesday!

@Dawn Dockrill 

You may consider using the Project feature available in QBO Plus and Advanced.

@Dawn Dockrill 

Have you tried using the product's 'Description' field to include the author's name?  You can filter by that field on sales reports to see sales by author over a date range.    

I'm ok with searching for sales by product. But I want that sale to calculate a percentage and create a royalty payable to a vendor.

I have products & Services set up but I want that sale to calculate a percentage and create a royalty payable to a vendor.

@Dawn Dockrill 

"But I want that sale to calculate a percentage and create a royalty payable to a vendor."

That's not something QB can do automatically.  You'd have to set up the author as a vendor, calculate the royalty, and enter a bill/issue payment to the author for the calculated amount.