Key takeaway
Identify the event that makes a payment due, the evidence that it happened and the separate evidence that cash arrived. A signed amount alone cannot settle all three.
Separate the amount, condition and receipt
A proposed license can contain a headline amount without establishing when the owner can use that money. The amount may depend on a defined delivery, acceptance, an invoice or another negotiated event. Read the actual agreement rather than inferring a trigger from a sales page. This is a commercial review method; counsel and finance advisers should resolve the agreement’s legal and accounting treatment.
Handshake’s public licensing page says its estimate is not a purchase offer and ties actual payout to factors including due diligence and licensing terms. micro1’s referral FAQ separates Workflow rewards, conditional on onboarding and a minimum-revenue threshold, from Corpus rewards, conditional on company-data acceptance. Attribution is a separate condition. A company license payment and a referrer’s reward are separate streams. Neither page establishes the payment clause for an actual VOID transaction.
Create one timeline per payment stream. Identify the payer, payee, currency, condition, evidence and unresolved term. Avoid a single label such as deal value that combines a company’s possible license receipt with someone else’s conditional referral compensation.
A hypothetical signing-to-cash timeline
Suppose an invented agreement states USD 60,000 is invoiced after written acceptance, with payment due 30 days after a valid invoice. This assumption is chosen to demonstrate cash exposure; it is not a named program’s term, market norm or accepted offer. Calendar dates are illustrative, and weekends, disputes or other clauses may change a real schedule.
The owner has already spent USD 18,000 preparing the permitted package. A separate, hypothetical third-party delivery fee of USD 3,000 is payable only after the owner receives the license cash. That fee is not a VOID seller referral fee.
| Illustrative event | Evidence | Cash implication |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1: agreement signed | Executed version and authorized signatories | Amount stated; no receipt established |
| Day 10: package delivered | Release manifest and delivery record | Delivery established; acceptance still pending |
| Day 20: written acceptance | Named reviewer’s acceptance of identified package | Assumed invoice condition satisfied |
| Day 21: valid invoice received | Invoice and receipt confirmation | Assumed 30-day payment period starts |
| Day 51: payment due | Agreement and accepted invoice dates | Due date; bank receipt still a separate fact |
| Day 54: funds received | Bank confirmation and reconciliation | Cash confirmed; reconcile fees and deductions |
Calculate the exposure as well as the upside
If all USD 60,000 is received and the stated costs are incurred, the illustrative cash remainder is USD 60,000 minus USD 18,000 preparation and USD 3,000 delivery fee: USD 39,000 before tax and any omitted costs. That is a scenario calculation, not profit recognition, a valuation or a forecast of likely earnings.
If the opportunity ends without a license receipt after preparation, the owner’s cash loss is USD 18,000 under these assumptions. The conditional USD 3,000 fee is not incurred because its assumed trigger never occurs. If instead payment is late, the USD 18,000 has been spent while the expected receipt remains uncollected; do not show USD 39,000 as cash already available.
The earnings calculator can model entered receipts and costs, but a calculator cannot determine whether an acceptance condition was met or whether the payer will pay. Keep the payment status alongside the scenario. Do not attach a probability to the upside unless there is a defensible basis for one.
Identify the evidence needed when the timeline stalls
If acceptance is disputed, ask which delivery version is under review, which agreed check failed and who can decide the correction. If the invoice is rejected, identify the missing requirement rather than treating signature as a substitute for a valid invoice. If funds are overdue, compare the payment terms, accepted invoice and bank records before declaring a completed receipt.
A useful issue log records the event, required evidence, responsible person and next bounded action. In a hypothetical stalled case, the buyer accepted package 002 but the invoice names package 001. The owner corrects the reference through the agreed process and verifies the effect on the due date with the responsible parties. The article does not assume that correction automatically preserves or resets the clock.
Ask counsel about dispute, cure, termination and collection provisions before relying on them. Ask finance about taxes, withholding, foreign exchange and accounting recognition where relevant. Those questions cannot be resolved by this illustrative timeline.
Keep VOID’s referral role transparent
VOID charges no upfront seller referral fee. It may receive conditional compensation from a receiving program, disclosed before a named introduction. That compensation is not the company’s license proceeds, and permission for an introduction does not approve a sample or execute a license. An introduction, program acceptance and payment are different events.
Use the offer-comparison tool when there are actual written terms to compare. Before spending, record the maximum preparation exposure you can tolerate and the evidence required to move to the next stage. A bounded timeline helps an owner see uncertainty without turning a public payout claim into expected cash.