Alliance profit-share accounting with every number traced to the ledger and the agreement clause
Each quarterly allocation traced to the ledger and the agreement clause
See one case, screen by screen ↓It is the quarterly work of settling a collaboration: both parties' sales and costs by territory, each share, cost reimbursements, development true-ups and one net payment, computed under the definitions in the collaboration agreement. Alliance Profit-Share Accounting builds each partner's statement with agents that read the agreement, map the ledger and check the partner's report, with every number tied to its ledger line and clause.
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A biopharma company with co-development and co-commercialisation partners owes each one a statement every quarter: both parties' sales and costs by territory, each share, cost reimbursements, development true-ups and one net payment — all under definitions written into the collaboration agreement. Net Sales, Allowable Expenses, the FTE rate, opt-outs, the exchange-rate method and royalty tiers. Today that is a spreadsheet per partner, rebuilt by hand from ERP extracts and partner reports.
The definitions drift. A committee letter changes the FTE rate, an opt-out notice takes a study out of the shared pool, a royalty tier is crossed mid-year — and the spreadsheet keeps last year's logic. Partner figures are taken on trust, questions run on email with no shared evidence, and an error surfaces months later in a dispute or a partner audit that re-opens every quarter it touched.
Estimated split of elapsed days for one quarter's partner statements, by hand and with the solution. The totals match the working solution's dashboard: 43 days in Q4 2025, 19 days forecast for Q3 2026.
Specialist agents read the agreements, map the ledger, check each partner’s report and calculate every share; the alliance accounting lead decides each finding.
Northwind Bio closed Q3 2026 on September 30. It is Wednesday 7 October, and Omar Haddad, the alliance accounting lead, has four alliances to settle — Larkspur Pharma, Aldenmark Biotech, Seiren Pharmaceutical and Brightwater Bio. Estimates go to partners on October 14, finals on November 14. Here is what happens, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Northwind Bio sits in the centre, each partner around it, and every arrow points the way the money moves, as thick as this quarter's net settlement. So far Northwind pays $3.1M and partners pay $31.1M. Seiren has agreed and e-signed, Brightwater is on its flash estimate, Aldenmark has 2 findings to decide, and Larkspur's report and the ERP extract arrived at 06:10 — its arrow is dashed: not built yet.
“Line width follows the net settlement · click an arrow for its statement”
The Corventa statement opens beside the map: Aldenmark pays Northwind $21.3M — $21.25M as drafted. Three lines carry it: $56.00M of U.S. and Japan share and costs from Aldenmark, $40.15M of royalties to Aldenmark and a $5.40M development true-up. Each line has its clause, and each source — Aldenmark's report, the ERP extract, §7.2, §1.5, the steering committee minutes — opens at its passage.
“$21.25M as drafted · 2 findings could move it”
Year-to-date net sales outside the U.S. and Japan passed $250M in Q3, from $210.0M before the quarter. $40.0M falls in the 22% tier and $142.5M in the 24% tier: $43.00M owed, against $40.15M accrued. The finding cites the ERP extract and §7.2, highlighted beside it, and shows its effect: Northwind pays $2.85M more — above $1M, so the controller signs.
§7.2: “Tiers apply to cumulative Net Sales in the Calendar Year; the rate changes in the quarter in which a threshold is crossed.”
Omar applies the royalty finding and the statement recalculates: Aldenmark now pays $18.40M. The second finding is next. Aldenmark charged $3.60M of global brand campaign to the profit pool; the Joint Steering Committee approved $2.0M for 2026, so $1.60M leaves the pool and Northwind's half is $0.80M. The recommendation is to ask Aldenmark.
“Ask Aldenmark puts the agreement figure in the statement, marked pending, and drafts a question with the evidence attached.”
Ten documents are in: the ERP extracts, Henrik Vos's ex-U.S. profit and co-promotion cost reports, the shared CRM details, the agreement and its amendments, the 2026 committee letter, the VLT-318 opt-out notice and the supply agreement. The agreement reader finds 14 terms in force from 3 documents in 6.2 s; the ledger mapper places 1,206 ledger lines in 11 agreement categories and ties them to the trial balance in 3.8 s; the two checkers raise 3 adjustments and 3 questions.
“Ledger totals must tie before any statement is built” — and unmapped lines stop the build.
The draft statement shows U.S. pre-tax profit of $463.21M split 50/50, an $82.10M ex-U.S. share from Larkspur and a $34.48M development true-up, netting to $129.22M with 6 findings to decide. Open sales and marketing and its trail appears: cost centres CC-4410 to CC-4460, the field force at the 2026 FTE rate, and the committee letter that sets that rate at $286,440.
The calculator is deterministic — no language model in the arithmetic, and the same inputs always give the same statement.
Larkspur opted out of chronic graft-versus-host disease, Study VLT-318, effective April 2, 2026. Its $4.80M of Q3 costs stay with Northwind and leave the shared pool, which falls from $100.80M to $96.00M, so Larkspur's 60% charge falls by $2.88M. The finding cites the R&D project ledger, the opt-out notice and §4.6 — and it works against Northwind.
The checkers report both directions — in Northwind's favour and the partner's.
The memo writer reads the statement, last quarter's signed memo and the policy library, then classifies each flow. The U.S. profit share and co-promotion costs owed to Larkspur go to cost of products sold; the ex-U.S. share is collaboration revenue, shown apart from product revenue; the development true-up reduces R&D expense. Product supplied under the supply agreement is a distinct good to a customer, under ASC 606.
The memo writer drafts; Dr. Maya Chen, the assistant controller, signs.
The Larkspur arrow is solid now: Northwind pays $129.2M, with 6 findings to decide. Aldenmark pays $18.4M with one left. Across the four alliances Northwind pays a net $104.1M for Q3, and 7 findings wait for a person.
Ingrid Holm at Aldenmark wants to deduct a USD 1.2M increase in the Japan returns reserve from Q2 Japan Net Sales. The reply writer drafts the answer: §1.14(c) allows a returns reserve only to the extent it rests on the historical return rate, trued up each year — so please send the calculation. Omar reads it and decides whether to send, escalate to the committee or mark it resolved.
The reply writer never concedes or settles an amount, and never sends — a person does.
The same quarter, seen by the people who carry it — what their close looked like, and what it looks like now.
Specialist agents read the agreements, map the ledger, check each partner’s report and calculate every share; the alliance accounting lead decides each finding.
Reads each collaboration agreement, amendment, supply agreement and committee letter and keeps the terms that drive the money — Net Sales, Allowable Expenses, FTE rate, splits, cost shares, exchange rate, clocks, audit rights — each with its clause.
Maps product P&L, gross-to-net, cost-centre and project ledger lines from the ERP into each agreement's categories, by product, territory and quarter.
Tests every mapped line against the agreement — Net Sales deductions, Allowable Expenses, FTE rates, opt-outs and royalty tiers — and proposes each adjustment with its amount, its clause and its ledger line.
Checks each partner's report against the agreement and Northwind's own records — exchange-rate method, signed supply price, CRM detail counts, approved budgets.
Computes each territory's pre-tax profit, the shares, cost reimbursements, development true-ups and the single net payment, and writes every step to the calculation trail.
Drafts replies to partner questions with the clause and the evidence attached, proposing a way forward and a date.
Drafts the quarterly ASC 808 memo from the final statement: scope, unit of account, the classification of every flow and the disclosure table.
Decides; the controller signs. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask in plain words, or say what to change. Every answer shows the passage behind it.
Why does Northwind pay Larkspur this quarter?
Because Northwind books every U.S. sale and Larkspur books the rest of the world. Each quarter Northwind owes Larkspur half of U.S. profit plus its U.S. costs; Larkspur owes Northwind half of ex-U.S. profit and its 60% of development. The draft nets $245.80M of U.S. share and costs against an $82.10M ex-U.S. share and a $34.48M development true-up: Northwind pays Larkspur $129.22M. Payment is due Nov 29.
Which costs did the agents keep out of the shared pool?
Four items, each with its clause: a $2.90M bad-debt provision taken out of the Net Sales deductions — only write-offs count; $0.75M of field-force cost — planning rate $312,000 against the 2026 FTE Rate of $286,440; $4.80M of VLT-318, which Larkspur opted out of; and $0.70M of co-promotion details not in the CRM. The first three favour Larkspur and the last favours Northwind — the agents report both directions, which is what a partner audit would find.
Draft the reply to Aldenmark on the Japan returns reserve
To Ingrid Holm, cc Lena Ortiz: Thank you for your letter of Sep 28. Section 1.14(c) lets a returns reserve be deducted only to the extent it rests on the historical return rate, trued up to actual returns each year. Could you send the return-rate calculation behind the USD 1.2M increase? If it follows the historical rate, we will include it in the Q2 revision; otherwise we propose to take it in the year-end true-up. The draft is on the question for you to send.
Hold any adjustment over $500,000 for Maya's sign-off
Done. Statements now go to Dr. Maya Chen when any single adjustment is above $500,000 (it was $1,000,000). On Veltrimab that brings two more findings into her review: the $0.754M field-force rate correction and the $0.70M of co-promotion details not in the CRM. The change is in Settings and on the audit trail.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
Who signs, above what amount, and which checks run on every statement build are settings — each change recorded on the audit trail.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Controller sign-off — any single adjustment above | $1,000,000 | $500,000 · $1,000,000 · $2,500,000 |
| Who signs as controller | Dr. Maya Chen | Dr. Maya Chen · Omar Haddad |
| Signs the ASC 808 classification memo each quarter | Dr. Maya Chen | Dr. Maya Chen · Sam Patel |
| Send to partner | Required | Electronic signature with meaning, name and time |
| Opted-out studies leave the shared pool | On | On · Off — opt-out notices are read the day they arrive |
| Unit costs checked against the signed supply price | On | On · Off — draft amendments are never in force |
| Royalty tiers on cumulative calendar-year sales | On | On · Off — the rate changes in the quarter a threshold is crossed |
| Partner amounts converted with the agreement's rate method | On | On · Off — recomputed from the reporting currency |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample alliance data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate. Accounting standards named as context: FASB ASC 808 and ASU 2018-18 (collaborative arrangements), ASC 606. People, companies, products and studies named on this page are fictional — characters and sample data in the working solution.
It is the quarterly work of settling a collaboration: both parties' sales and costs by territory, each share, cost reimbursements, development true-ups and one net payment, computed under the definitions in the collaboration agreement. Alliance Profit-Share Accounting builds each partner's statement with agents that read the agreement, map the ledger and check the partner's report, with every number tied to its ledger line and clause.
The agreement reader extracts the terms in force for the quarter — Net Sales, Allowable Expenses, FTE rate, splits, cost shares, opt-outs, exchange-rate method, royalty tiers, clocks and audit rights — from agreements, amendments and committee letters, each with its clause. Drafts and unsigned amendments are never treated as in force. The allowability checker then tests every mapped ledger line against those definitions.
No. The partner data checker recomputes exchange-rate conversions, supply prices, CRM detail counts and budgets, and any difference becomes a finding and a question with the evidence attached. Partner data itself is never edited.
Yes. The accounting memo writer drafts the quarterly memo from the final statement: the arrangement, the unit of account, how each flow is presented and why, and the disclosure table. The assistant controller reviews and signs it.
Yes. The controller sign-off threshold ($500,000, $1,000,000 or $2,500,000), who signs the statement and the memo, and each statement check — Net Sales deductions, FTE and detail rates, opt-outs, exchange-rate method, supply price, global brand budgets, royalty tiers — are settings. You can also describe a new check in plain words. Every change is on the audit trail.
Yes. Agents propose adjustments; the alliance accounting lead decides each one. The controller signs statements with an adjustment above the threshold, statements go out with an electronic signature, and replies to partners are sent only by a person. The arithmetic itself is deterministic.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your collaboration agreements, ledger extracts, partner reports and a past quarter's statements — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on one of your own past quarters first.
Every accrual line tied to its contract, change order and invoice.
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1-min demoMedicaid Rebate Invoice ValidationSuspect units disputed with claim-level evidence, and the dispute letter drafted.
1-min demoWe'll run Alliance Profit-Share Accounting on one of your own past quarters and its collaboration agreement.