01
Send the deal and statement
Your publishing agreement, the royalty statement you want checked and, where useful, the prior statement for continuity.
Independent royalty reconciliation
Your publisher calculates your royalties. We check the calculation.
Vizbar reads the publishing agreement behind your deal, reconstructs the royalty calculation independently and shows you what reconciles, what needs an explanation and which contract provision matters.
Built for game developers
Agreement-aware
Human-reviewed
Royalty Check / Q3 2026
Reconstructed payable
Project Northstar
2 items to clarify
€54,603
Publisher statement reports €48,211
✓
Developer share
Clause 7.2 · 60% of Net Receipts
matches
!
Marketing recoupment
Clause 8.4 · lifetime cap may be exceeded
€6,392
✓
Opening recoup balance
Reconciles to prior period
matches
Input
Publishing agreement
Input
Royalty statement
Output
Independent reconstruction
Output
Questions worth asking
How it works
One deal. One statement. A second set of eyes.
You should not need to rebuild a publishing model in a spreadsheet every quarter just to understand whether the statement follows the deal you signed.
02
We reconstruct the rules
Revenue share, recoupment, deductions, caps, escalators, reserves, territories and the other commercial mechanics that actually drive the number.
03
You get a clear reconciliation
What matches, what does not, how much may be affected, the relevant clause and a precise question to put to the publisher.
Agreement-aware
The statement is only half the story.
A royalty statement can add up perfectly and still apply the wrong rule. Vizbar checks the arithmetic against the commercial terms behind it.
Publishing agreement
7.2 The Publisher shall pay Developer 60% of Net Receipts following full recoupment of the Advance.
8.4 Approved Marketing Expenditure shall be recoupable up to an aggregate lifetime cap of €50,000 unless otherwise agreed in writing.
9.1 Statements shall show Gross Receipts, permitted deductions, recoupment movements and royalties payable for the period.
8.4 Approved Marketing Expenditure shall be recoupable up to an aggregate lifetime cap of €50,000 unless otherwise agreed in writing.
9.1 Statements shall show Gross Receipts, permitted deductions, recoupment movements and royalties payable for the period.
Statement reconciliation
✓
Revenue share60% correctly applied
PASS
✓
Advance recoupmentOpening balance continues from Q2
PASS
!
Marketing deductionsCumulative amount appears above cap
REVIEW
✓
Platform deductionsConsistent with contract definition
PASS
!
Currency conversionSource rate not stated
ASK
The report
Not a black box. A trail you can follow.
Every material finding should point back to the number, the calculation and the provision that made us look twice.
Example finding
€6,392 requires an explanation.
The statement includes €11,500 of marketing expenditure this period. Based on the documents supplied, cumulative marketing recoupment appears to have moved beyond the contract's stated lifetime cap.
Question for the publisher
Amber
Can you show how the Q3 marketing deduction is permitted under clause 8.4, given the cumulative amount already recouped in prior statements?
Green
No material inconsistency found in the item checked.
Amber
The documents leave something material to clarify.
Red
A potentially material discrepancy merits professional review.
Scope
A smoke detector, not a forensic audit.
Vizbar is designed to make routine publisher-accounted royalties easier to inspect. It does not pretend to see data you do not have.
What Vizbar checks
- Revenue shares and royalty tiers
- Advance and recoupment movements
- Contractual deductions and caps
- Marketing, localisation and porting treatment
- Statement continuity across periods
- Reserves, currencies and payment mechanics
What Vizbar does not claim
- We do not audit the publisher's underlying books
- We cannot identify revenue omitted from every source we cannot see
- We do not provide legal advice
- We do not accuse a publisher of wrongdoing
- Ambiguous or serious issues may require a lawyer or royalty auditor
Who is behind Vizbar
Built by someone who knows how to ask the second question.
Vizbar was founded by Ben Touati, a journalist and editor covering the games industry and the changing economics of creative work. The idea is deliberately simple: when a deal is complicated enough to deserve a contract, the money flowing through that contract should be inspectable too.
Founding pilot
Have a statement you want a second set of eyes on?
We are opening a small number of founding checks for studios with publisher-accounted royalties. Tell us what you have. We will tell you whether it is a fit before you send confidential documents.
FAQ
The questions we'd ask too.
Is this an audit?+
No. A formal royalty audit can require access to the publisher's underlying records and may need to be performed by a qualified professional under the contract. Vizbar is an independent reconciliation of the agreement and the statements or other information you provide.
Does Vizbar replace my lawyer or accountant?+
No. Vizbar is built to make routine checking easier and to make better questions obvious. Where the answer depends on legal interpretation or a formal audit, we will say so.
What if nothing is wrong?+
That is a useful result. A clean reconciliation gives you a documented second look at the statement and a baseline for the next period.
Can you find revenue the publisher never reported?+
Not from a royalty statement alone. We can only reconcile against the documents and information available to you. Missing underlying revenue can require platform data, publisher records or a formal audit.
What happens to my documents?+
For founding checks, document handling and retention are agreed before you send confidential material. We request only what is needed for the reconciliation and do not publish customer documents or findings.