Touring Bookkeeping & Settlements
Every show settled. Every cost accounted for.
Income and expenses tracked by date and venue — so you always know exactly where the tour stands, financially speaking.
What this gives you
Financial records that keep up with the schedule.
When you're moving between venues and dates, the last thing you want is a pile of unreconciled receipts waiting at the end of the run. This service keeps your books current as the tour progresses — each show settled, each cost placed where it belongs.
You'll come away from each engagement knowing exactly what it returned: gross income, venue costs, production expenses, and what remained. Not as a rough estimate, but as a clear record you can rely on.
You can expect
- A clear settlement for each date — income, costs, and net result
- Books that stay tidy whether the tour runs for two weeks or six months
- A tour summary you can share with management, co-producers, or your accountant
- Less time spent on paperwork — more time on the work that matters
The difficulty of touring finances
Managing money across venues is genuinely complicated.
Each venue has its own deal structure. Some pay a flat fee; others work on a split after costs. Some issue a settlement on the night; others take days or weeks. Meanwhile, production costs arrive at different times, and shared expenses between performers need to be recorded somewhere.
It's entirely possible to end a successful tour without a clear picture of what each show actually earned — or whether the overall run was as profitable as it felt. That uncertainty isn't a personal failing; it's just the nature of touring finance when there isn't a proper system holding it together.
The paperwork tends to pile up at the worst moment — when you're exhausted from the road or about to begin the next run. At that point, catching up feels daunting, and things start to slip through.
Our approach
A ledger shaped around how tours actually work.
Per-show settlement records
Each date gets its own record — venue income, door splits, production costs, and any shared expenses. Nothing bundled together in a way that obscures the picture.
Ongoing reconciliation
You send us receipts, confirmations, and settlement sheets as they arrive. We process them promptly so the books stay current rather than building up between dates.
Tour-end summary
At the close of the tour, we prepare a clear financial summary — total income, total costs, per-show performance, and overall result. Plain figures, readable by anyone.
Working together
A calm process, even mid-tour.
We ask for minimal effort from you during the run itself. A quick message when a settlement arrives, a photo of a receipt — that's generally all it takes. We handle the classification, reconciliation, and record-keeping on our end.
If something looks unusual — a payment that doesn't match the agreed split, a cost that needs clarifying — we'll raise it with you calmly, without alarm. Most things are straightforward once you have a system that's actually designed for touring.
Between tours, you'll have a set of records you can hand to your accountant or revisit for planning. The work done on one tour makes the next one easier.
How we work together
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01
A brief setup conversation
We review your upcoming dates, venue deals, and cost structure so the ledger is ready before the tour begins.
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02
You send; we record
Settlements, receipts, and payments come through as they arrive. We process them and keep the ledger current.
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03
Regular check-ins
Short updates during the run so you have a clear picture without having to ask. No surprises at the end.
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04
Tour-close summary
A complete financial picture once the run is done — ready to share with co-producers, management, or your own records.
Investment
Priced by the scope of the tour.
Because every tour is different — in length, number of dates, income complexity, and the volume of documentation involved — this service is quoted based on what your specific run requires.
The typical range is $600–$3,000 USD per tour, depending on the scale and scope of the engagement. Smaller runs with a handful of dates tend to sit at the lower end; longer international tours with multiple income streams and shared cost arrangements take more work.
We'll give you a clear quote after a short conversation about your upcoming schedule. There are no hidden additions — the figure we agree covers the work we've described.
What's included
- Pre-tour ledger setup and structure
- Per-show income and cost recording
- Individual settlement sheets for each date
- Reconciliation of receipts and payments throughout
- Tour-end financial summary document
- Questions answered throughout the engagement
Typical range
$600 – $3,000 USD
Quoted per tour, based on scope
How it works in practice
A method built around the rhythm of touring.
Settlement bookkeeping for touring productions requires a different structure than standard business bookkeeping. A show's finances are event-driven — each date is a discrete financial unit with its own income and costs, which then rolls into the overall tour picture.
Our approach tracks each show as its own record first, then aggregates across the tour. This means you can interrogate any single date — ask what the Edinburgh show cost to produce, or what the net from the Bristol night was — without having to unpick a combined spreadsheet.
Progress is visible throughout the tour, not just at the end. After a few weeks of working together, you'll have a clear sense of how the tour is tracking against your expectations — and so will we.
Typical timeline
Setup conversation and ledger structure agreed
Settlements and receipts processed as received
Check-in on the books and any outstanding items
Final reconciliation and summary document delivered
What we need from you
Settlement sheets and venue confirmations as they arrive, receipts for production costs, and a brief conversation to set up the structure before the tour begins. We make this as straightforward as we can.
Working with confidence
We get this right, or we sort it out.
Bookkeeping should give you confidence in the figures. If something isn't clear, or if you feel a record doesn't reflect what actually happened, we want to know. We'll look at it carefully and resolve it promptly — not defensively.
Before we quote for your tour, we'll have a free, unhurried conversation about your situation. There's no obligation to proceed — if it turns out we're not the right fit, we'll say so honestly.
We've been working with touring performers long enough to understand that trust is built gradually. Our job is to be consistent, accurate, and straightforward — so that trust develops naturally.
Our commitments to you
- A free initial conversation with no pressure to commit
- Clear pricing agreed before any work begins
- Attentive, unhurried work throughout the engagement
- Any discrepancy investigated and resolved without fuss
Getting started
A simple path from here.
Get in touch
Send a message with a brief description of your touring schedule — upcoming dates, rough scale, what you're finding difficult to keep track of.
We have a conversation
A free call or exchange to understand your tour's structure and what the bookkeeping needs to cover. We'll be straightforward about whether we're the right fit.
We set up and begin
Once you're happy with the quote, we set up the ledger structure and you can focus on the tour. The books are in good hands.
Ready to talk
Let's get your tour books in order.
A short conversation is all it takes to find out whether we're a good fit. There's no pressure and no commitment involved.
Talk to us about your tourOther services
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