# Who can license royalty dispute records? | SourceX

Canonical: https://refer.sourcex.si/questions/who-can-license-royalty-reconciliation-disputes-records
Last updated: 2026-10-19

Introduce the CEO, who can approve a licensing discussion about company data, with the franchise finance head as sponsor and first contact. The finance head owns the royalty receivable and knows where dispute notes live; the royalty analyst confirms which records exist; general counsel reads the franchise agreements; the POS administrator flags card data. Export access is not authority. Whether anything can be licensed stays unknown until SourceX's rights review.

This decision tree is part of the [royalty reconciliation disputes guide](/guides/workflow-royalty-reconciliation-disputes). The guide explains which records make a disputed royalty readable. This page answers one narrower question: who, inside a franchisor, can say yes to a conversation about licensing them?

## Who touches royalty dispute records day to day

Five roles handle these records. Each can describe something; none is automatically the person who decides.

- **Royalty analyst.** Runs the monthly reconciliation, flags variances and can export everything in the royalty platform. Knows where gaps are.
- **Accounts receivable lead.** Books royalty invoices, late charges and credit memos in the franchise ERP.
- **POS administrator.** Manages the feed of franchisee transactions, if the franchisor receives one, and knows what card and customer fields it contains.
- **Franchise finance head.** Owns the royalty receivable, approves credits and knows how many disputes a year reach a decision.
- **Franchise administration or legal operations.** Files each agreement version and knows which locations signed which.

## The tree: five questions in order

Walk these with the franchise finance head. Each answer either moves forward or opens a branch that needs another sign-off.

1. **Did the franchisor create the record itself?** Credit memos, approval notes, late charge decisions and internal reconciliations usually are franchisor records. If yes, continue. If the record is a franchisee's own sales report or POS data, take the counsel branch first.
2. **What do the franchise agreements say about franchisee data?** Franchise agreements set what the franchisor may collect from franchisees and how it may use it, and different signing years may say different things. Item 6 of the disclosure document describes recurring fees such as royalties and the formula used to compute them, but use rights sit in the agreement itself. General counsel answers this branch.
3. **Does the data include card or customer details?** If the franchisor receives transaction-level POS data, ask what fields it holds. The PCI Data Security Standard applies to all entities that store, process or transmit cardholder data, so the POS administrator and finance should confirm whether such fields are present before anything else happens. Card numbers are rarely needed to describe a royalty history, which is why this branch often ends with the fields being excluded rather than reviewed.
4. **Who signs contracts about company data?** The CEO; at a founder-led franchisor, usually the founder. This person is the introduction.
5. **Is anything changing authority right now?** A sale, refinancing or restructuring can move decision rights. [Franchisor bankruptcy](/industries/franchisor-bankruptcy) shows how far that can shift, and an [earnout](/questions/what-is-an-earnout) can make royalty history part of the deal itself.

## Roles compared

The evidence asset for this page: each role, what it can tell you, and whether it can open a licensing discussion.

| Role | Holds or knows | Can authorize a licensing discussion? | Part in the introduction |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty analyst | Reports, variances, exports | No | Confirms record classes and years |
| Accounts receivable lead | Invoices, late charges, credit memos | No | Confirms how credits link to disputes |
| POS administrator | Transaction feed and its fields | No | Flags card and customer data |
| Franchise finance head | Dispute process, volumes, approvals | No | Sponsor and first contact |
| General counsel | Franchise agreements by version | Advises | Rules on franchisee data before licensing |
| CEO | Company decisions on data | Yes; authorizes and signs | The person introduced |
| Board or owner | Ultimate authority | Consulted where governance requires it; the CEO signs | Added only where governance requires it |

## Why technical access is not enough

A royalty analyst with admin rights can export seven years of sales reports in minutes. That says nothing about whether the franchisor may use them for anything beyond collecting royalties. Three things separate access from authority:

- **The data came from separate businesses.** Franchisee sales figures are supplied under agreements, and those agreements govern reuse.
- **Payment data carries its own rules.** Card fields bring PCI obligations, and customer details bring privacy duties.
- **Licensing is a company commitment.** Only the CEO can open a discussion that might end in a contract. How licensing payments are structured, for example as a [fully paid-up license](/questions/fully-paid-up-license-meaning), is a decision for the CEO.

[Why data rights matter](/proof/why-data-rights-matter) explains the principle in plain terms.

## Two franchisors, two paths (Illustrative)

Two fictional franchisors, written for this page.

| Question | 140-person fitness franchisor | 310-person quick-service franchisor |
|---|---|---|
| POS data received | Monthly totals from franchisee reports | Transaction-level feed |
| Card fields in the feed | None | To be confirmed by the POS administrator |
| Agreement versions in force | Two | Six, across 14 signing years |
| Person introduced | CEO | CEO, with the franchise finance head as sponsor |
| Extra review | Counsel on franchisee report use | Counsel on six versions; PCI scope check |

Same kind of records, very different trees. The fitness franchisor's path is short. The quick-service franchisor's path runs through counsel and a PCI check before anything could be licensed, but the introduction is still to the CEO.

## What only SourceX's rights review can settle

The partner identifies the executive and notes which branches apply. SourceX's rights review decides which records the franchisor can license, what must be aggregated, de-identified or removed, and whether franchisee consent is needed. Buyer interest and any offer also stay unknown until then. SourceX licenses approved business data directly from companies for AI training and evaluation, and manages the agreement, rights review, data preparation, delivery and payout.

The introduced company needs 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded; franchisee staff work for separate companies), a documented operating history, rights to license and an authorized contact. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 90% of the data is in English. Partners sign the Channel Partner Agreement before submitting; the first valid introduction within the 90-day window is credited when the company submits a verified application. The [system map](/guides/royalty-reconciliation-disputes-records-across-systems) shows which records each role holds, and the [referral brief template](/resources/royalty-reconciliation-disputes-referral-brief-template) puts the named executive into the note.

## Next step

> **Refer a company. Earn up to $100,000.** Default reward: 25% of Actual Supplier Payout, capped at $100,000 cumulatively per referred company. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.

Once the tree names the CEO and the branches counsel must review, [register as a partner](/register), check the franchisor on [who qualifies](/who-qualifies) and read the [program terms](/terms) before the franchise finance head makes the introduction.

## Sources

- https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-436/subpart-C/section-436.5
- https://listings.pcisecuritystandards.org/merchants/
- https://refer.sourcex.si/terms