Stale-master drift

Stale-master drift: Stale-master drift happens when a licensor rate or contract term changes mid-term but the change doesn't propagate to every dependent spreadsheet or system. The original workbook updates; downstream files keep using the old rate. The licensee continues reporting at the wrong rate until an audit finds the gap — sometimes years later.

Stale-master drift is one of the most common sources of royalty audit findings. It is a structural risk of spreadsheet-based workflows where rate data lives in multiple files maintained independently.