Agency

The problem

Licensed is not the same as covered on the day.

California does not let anybody procure engagements for an artist without a licence from the Labor Commissioner, and the remedy an artist reaches for is the commission. The courts may void the contract or sever it — that is somebody else’s coin to flip. And a licence is a history: a renewal that took effect three weeks late, a bond that ran out before the shoot, a contract form filed but never approved. Each of those is a booking made without cover, and none of them shows up by looking at the certificate on the wall.

$103,264

in attorneys’ fees awarded in 2020 against an agency booking adult performers — licensed since 2003 — on top of a year of commissions disgorged. Among the findings: fees charged that were not on the schedule it had filed.

Labor Commissioner, TAC 52663 →

$50,000

the surety bond a California talent agency deposits with the Labor Commissioner before a licence is issued or renewed. A bond that ends before the job leaves the job uncovered, whatever the licence says.

Cal. Labor Code § 1700.15 →

10%

the most a New York theatrical employment agency may take from a single engagement. A statutory ceiling, not a clause in a contract — and Agency will not record a commission above the one you enter.

N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 185 →

The door does not ask whether you are licensed. It asks about two dates.

The day the booking is made, because confirming it is the act of procuring the engagement. And the day of the job. A booking in a state entered as requiring a licence is refused unless a licence was in force on both, with the bond, the approved contract form and the filed fee schedule that state asks for. Refused with the reason written on it, and no override — an override is a button somebody presses at five o’clock on a Friday.

How it works

A history, not a certificate on the wall

Enter the rules, and where they came from

Per state: whether a licence is required, the bond, whether contract forms must be approved and fee schedules filed, any commission cap, and the statute you read. The demo ships five rows traced to their statutes, and every screen that applies one says it is what was entered, not the law.

Record every term as it actually ran

Each licence and each bond with the day it began and the day it ended — the dates on the certificate, not the day the application went in. The gaps between terms are counted, and every confirmed booking inside one is surfaced with the commission it carried.

Pencil, then confirm

A booking is pencilled first and confirmed through the door. A commission over a state’s cap is not recorded at all. Money that has already moved is written down as it moved, and if the agency kept more than the line allows it goes in the books in red rather than off them.

What it will never do

It records the money. It never touches it.

An agency that handles performer pay needs a ledger of what came in and what went out, with dates. It does not need its software to become a money transmitter, or to become the place every performer’s legal name is kept.

No custody of funds.What the client paid and what the performer was paid, with the dates from the bank. There is no button anywhere in the program that sends money, and there will not be one.

No identity documents.Working names, and whether a W-9 is on file, when it arrived and where it is held. No legal name, no date of birth, no identification, no taxpayer number. Age records are the producer’s to keep; a spreadsheet of legal names at a booking agency is a breach waiting for a date.

The jurisdiction table is yours, not ours.We ship a starting point traced to the statutes and say so on every screen that uses it. We will not sell you an opinion about fifty states dressed up as a feature.

Flat fee. Never a percentage of a fee or a commission.Software that took a share of your commission would be a second agent on every booking. Ours costs the same in a month you book nobody.

Pricing

Priced per agency, not per booking

A price that rose with every booking would be a commission wearing a different hat, and it would make the one thing you should always do — write the booking down — cost money.

One state

$175/month

An agency licensed in a single jurisdiction.

Licence and bond terms as a dated history
The booking door, as of the day it is made and the day of the job
Contract form and fee schedule filings
Roster with W-9 status, no identity documents
Year-end 1099 list

Most agencies

$400/month

Up to six jurisdictions, unlimited roster and bookings.

Everything in One state
Per-jurisdiction rules: licence, bond, filings, cap
Commission over a cap refused at the point of recording
Exposure: confirmed work re-asked against the history as it now stands
Gap days counted per licence and per bond

Agency, national

$850/month

Unlimited jurisdictions, and the starting table reviewed each quarter.

Everything in Agency
Unlimited jurisdictions
Quarterly review of the starting jurisdiction rows
Terms ending within sixty days flagged
Priority support

Flat fee, billed monthly, cancel whenever. Never a percentage of a fee or a commission. Your bank statement says Agency Software. Your licence key is emailed to you within two working days of payment.

Checkout is our own bitcoin server, not a card processor — nobody we had to apply to and nobody who can close the account. The button takes you straight to it. Give your email address there — that is where your key is sent.

Questions

The ones we actually get asked

We are licensed. The certificate is on the wall.

Good. Now: was it in force on every day you made a booking this year, and on every day those jobs were worked? Was the bond? Was the contract form approved before you used it, and was every fee you charged on the schedule you filed?

The certificate answers none of those, because it only tells you about the term printed on it. An agency licensed since 2003 lost a year of commissions, and among the findings were fees that were not on its filed schedule. Agency asks the question about the dates, which is the only way anybody else will ask it.

Does it actually stop a booking?

Yes. A booking the door refuses stays pencilled, with the reason on it, and the Confirm button does nothing but say why.

There is no override. Fix the licence, the bond or the filing, and the same button works. A commission over a state’s cap is refused earlier still: it is not recorded at all.

What happens to work we already did in a gap?

It shows up under Exposure, with the commission it carried and, where you entered one, how many days are left in the look-back. California’s statute says no action on a violation more than a year before it is brought.

It is not a finding that anything is owed. It is the list somebody else would make, made first.

Do you do the 1099s?

Agency prepares the list, not the form. Where the agency paid the performer, it totals the year from the paid-out dates and shows whose total crosses the line with no W-9 behind it — the line the IRS moved from $600 to $2,000 for payments made after December 31, 2025.

It holds no taxpayer numbers and files nothing. Hand the list to whoever does.

Is this legal advice?

No, and every screen that applies a rule says so. The jurisdiction rows are a starting point traced to the statutes named beside them, and each should be checked with a lawyer before you rely on it.

What Agency does is hold what you tell it and apply it to every booking on every date, which is the part software is genuinely good at and the part a memo cannot do.

What do I actually get when I pay?

The demo on this page is the whole program, running on invented records. Paying gets you a licence key — one line of text, emailed to the address you give at checkout within two working days. Paste it into the program and from then on it keeps your own records. Until then, nothing you type into it is kept.

The key is checked inside the page, on your own machine. It never calls us, so there is still no account and nothing about your business goes anywhere. If you ever stop paying, your records stay exactly where they are, read-only, and Export still hands you every one of them.

Nobody will ask whether you are licensed this morning. They will ask about the day you booked her.