War-game a royalty audit ladder by proving each stage class has a named owner, a measured age-out, and a reverse path before draft stages start governing every royalty claim.
Royalty audit ladders fail when "audited" means a status without a decision artifact, when teams dual-count a draft stage as both approved and live, and when high-risk franchise classes still pin to one thin auditor because the stage inventory is incomplete. The review needs one written inventory of audit stages, one owner who can deny a risky shortcut, and a documented consequence when a failed stage ages past the deadline.
Name each audit stage
State which franchise classes the ladder covers, the effective date, which stages change, how evidence packs are versioned, and what happens to audits already in flight. Name the markets that feel it first and the royalty promises that depend on coherent audit handling. If the memo mixes a royalty audit ladder with an assortment cut ladder and a franchise exception path, split them.
Write the decision you will make if the war game finds nothing new. Also write the reverse criteria: the missed stage, coverage gap, or partner deadline that would force a ladder rollback within a stated window.
Who must sit
- Franchise ops. Stage timing, age-out math, and what the royalty forecast hides if exceptions soften after the policy.
- Finance. Dual-counted stages, credit load, and the message that would leave orphan royalty gaps open past lock.
- Legal. Contract risk, disclosure load, and relationship damage with franchisees when audits jump overnight.
- Merchandising. Assortment promises that break in process, and the first ninety days of thinner compliance after a soft stage.
- Skeptic. The claim that looks strongest and is least sourced.
Attach the same source pack to every seat: open audits, stages in flight, protected franchise classes, coverage commitments, and the age-out policy you actually intend to use. Secret data for one seat creates fake agreement.
Run the private fire
Feed Pingpong the ladder memo, the stage exhibits, and the seating briefs. First pass steelmans the ladder. Later passes attack from franchise, finance, legal, and merchandising seats. Final pass turns surviving objections into phased stage rules, mitigations, or a changed recommendation.
Pair with the franchise ops lead seat, an assortment cut ladder, the merchandising ops lead seat, and an invoice dispute ladder. More operating decisions live in the war-game decisions hub.
Ship the ladder only when approved and blocked stage labels can be reproduced from stored royalty exports without a verbal override.