---
title: "Glossary: rating terms"
description: "Every term a TrackForge Rating Report uses, with what it means and what it does not mean: letter before caps, coverage cap, floor, tiers, the four states, each reason a work is not checked and who it sits with, projected letter, outlook, money at risk, no amounts, composite, component, route, attributable share, income weight and largest works."
image: "https://trackforge.studio/docs/img/trackforge-social-card.png"
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://trackforge.studio/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Glossary: rating terms

The words a TrackForge Rating Report uses, each with what it means and what it does not. The [method statement](/docs/certification/rating/method-statement) sets out how they fit together. Where the rule book has a plain name for a term, the heading is that name.

## The letter

### Letter

**Means:** the grade on the scale from AAA to D, describing the registration condition of the catalogue on its date. Each letter's wording is on the [scale](/docs/certification/rating/method-statement#the-scale).

**Does not mean:** a valuation, a credit rating, a legal opinion on title, or a forecast of income. Never shown without the rest of the rating.

### Letter before caps

**Means:** the letter the composite reaches on the scale before any coverage cap or floor is applied. It shows what the scores alone would give.

**Does not mean:** the letter issued. The letter issued is the letter before caps lowered by the lowest cap that applies, and it is also the lowest across the ranges of any estimated inputs.

### Coverage cap (coverage ladder)

**Means:** a limit on the letter set by how much of the catalogue, by weight, could be checked. Title coverage, and registration coverage at each route, cap the letter in steps: the less that could be checked, the lower the highest letter allowed. The worst step met applies.

**Does not mean:** that defects were found. It limits how high a letter can go on thin evidence; it says nothing bad about the works that were checked. Below the coverage minimum there is no letter at all.

### Floor

**Means:** a rule that caps the letter when a given share of the catalogue carries a serious class of defect, whatever the composite says: for example a large share of a route's income unregistered. The floors are listed in the [method statement](/docs/certification/rating/method-statement#from-scores-to-a-letter).

**Does not mean:** a minimum letter. A floor never raises a letter; it only lowers one. An immaterial route never triggers one.

### Composite

**Means:** the weighted mean of the component scores, out of 100, over the components that were assessed, registration weighing most and risk least. The letter before caps is read from it.

**Does not mean:** the share of works that are sound, or a percentage of income collected. Not-checked works are outside it, and it is not the letter.

### Projected letter

**Means:** the letter the catalogue would have if every acknowledged, uncontested item now with a society landed as sent. Shown on the "why this letter" page with each item's date with the society and expected-by date, never beside the letter on page 1. Capped by every floor that caps the letter.

**Does not mean:** a promise or a forecast. Contested items never move it, and it never replaces the letter. It is committed in the issue plan and not yet a rule in the rule book.

### Outlook

**Means:** the direction of travel from work now with the societies, given three ways: a word (positive, stable, negative or developing); a signed weight, the share of the catalogue's weight in flight, positive where it would raise the letter and negative where it would lower it; and the change in measured money in pounds those items carry, or "no amounts". Developing means a material part depends on another party agreeing.

**Does not mean:** a prediction that the letter will change, or a value. Like the projected letter it is not yet a rule in the rule book.

## Levels

### Tier 0: catalogue check

**Means:** a check from public registries and identity data only. It reports what those sources show and what they could not show.

**Does not mean:** a rating. A tier 0 check carries no letter and applies no coverage minimums.

### Tier 1: catalogue rating

**Means:** tier 0 plus the owner's attestation and the owner's exports from the societies it collects through, with statements, agreements and registration history where supplied. Coverage minimums apply and a letter is issued when they are met.

**Does not mean:** that statements were reconciled to the bank. That is tier 2.

### Tier 2: asset integrity assessment

**Means:** tier 1 plus a cash bridge from statements to bank, reconciliation of the population, exceptions and independence disclosures.

**Does not mean:** anything offered today. It is defined in the rule book and not yet offered.

## States

### Sound

**Means:** the evidence read shows this work in order on this component or at this route, on the reading's date.

**Does not mean:** that nothing can be wrong. It covers only the classes TrackForge reads: thirteen defined classes are not read yet and a sound result says nothing about them. For risk, sound means no known conflict was found at PRS, MCPS or The MLC, not that no risk exists.

### Defective

**Means:** the evidence read shows a named defect, with its class and, where measured, its amount.

**Does not mean:** that the work earns nothing, or that anyone acted wrongly. A registration defect at one route costs the work only that route's share of its income.

### Not checked

**Means:** no evidence could answer, for one of six recorded reasons, each of which sits with the client, the society or TrackForge (below). The work is left out of the score and counted as a coverage shortfall. The rule book's id is `unverified`.

**Does not mean:** sound, defective, or a choice to leave something out. Not checked never improves or harms a score directly.

### Not relevant

**Means:** the question does not arise for this work: a right the owner does not hold, or a route that does not collect for this kind of right. The rule book's id is `not_applicable`.

**Does not mean:** a defect or a gap in coverage.

## Why a work is not checked

Every not-checked state carries one reason. "Who" is the party the reason sits with.

### Not supplied

**Who:** the client.

**Means:** the client has not supplied the evidence that would answer: the society export, statement or agreement this check reads. For risk it means no reading of the work at PRS, MCPS or The MLC, the routes that can show a dispute; the usual answer is the client's export of that society account. (`not_supplied`)

**Does not mean:** that the society lacks the work, or that the client withheld something on purpose. It means the evidence was not in front of TrackForge.

### Too recent to appear

**Who:** the society.

**Means:** the work or release is newer than the society's record has caught up with. A later run reads it. (`too_recent`)

**Does not mean:** that anyone has failed, or that the work is unregistered.

### Waiting for the society to publish it

**Who:** the society.

**Means:** the registration is in the society's queue and the society has not yet published it. (`pending_publication`)

**Does not mean:** that the society has accepted it. An acknowledgement proves only that a file entered the queue.

### Not reached in this run

**Who:** TrackForge.

**Means:** TrackForge's run did not read the work at this source: it stopped short, or never read this code there. (`lookup_budget_exhausted`)

**Does not mean:** a gap the client must fill. A rating is not issued while any work is in this state, whatever its weight: the reading is finished first, so it appears only on a check or a draft, which keeps its letter.

### Source could not be read

**Who:** TrackForge.

**Means:** TrackForge could not read the source, or the source did not say whose the work is. TrackForge reads it again. (`source_unavailable`)

**Does not mean:** that the client failed to supply anything, or that the work is missing at the society.

### Reading past its age limit

**Who:** TrackForge.

**Means:** TrackForge's only readings of this source are older than its age limit, so none may decide. TrackForge reads it again. (`stale`)

**Does not mean:** that the old reading was wrong. It is too old to rely on.

## Money

### Money at risk

**Means:** measured amounts attached to defects: a figure a society shows for the work, or a statement line, each with its source, shown in pounds from whole pence. Only registration leaks, usage unmatched at The MLC and unclaimed shares carry amounts.

**Does not mean:** an estimate of what the catalogue is losing, a valuation, or a total of everything wrong. Amounts never change a score or the letter. Estimates of value belong in the Fix plan, outside the rating.

### No amounts

**Means:** no measured amount exists for this component or item.

**Does not mean:** £0, or that nothing is being lost. It means nothing was measured.

## Building blocks

### Component

**Means:** one of the five questions every work is surveyed on: identity, title, registration, collection and risk, each with a weight in the composite.

**Does not mean:** a separate rating. A component score is an input to the composite.

### Route

**Means:** a society or collective that collects for the owner and pays out: PRS for Music, MCPS, ICE, The MLC, PPL or SoundExchange. The rating's scope is set by route, not by where a work is used.

**Does not mean:** a territory. Income collected abroad by a sub-publisher, or by a society the owner joined directly, is outside the routes.

### Attributable share

**Means:** the owner's share of a work, from nothing to the whole, which scales the work's weight. Its source is stated for every work: declared by the owner, from the owner's Workspace draft, from the society's chain, or assumed whole.

**Does not mean:** a verified ownership share or a legal opinion on title. "Assumed whole" means no share was declared and the work counts at 100%; the rating counts how many works are assumed.

### Weight

**Means:** a work's share of the catalogue for scoring: mostly from its demand in each channel and partly equal across works, scaled by its attributable share. Weights sum to one.

**Does not mean:** the work's income or value.

### Income weight

**Means:** a work's weight at one route from demand alone, without the equal share, scaled by its attributable share. Floors read it, so works nobody plays cannot trip a floor.

**Does not mean:** money the work earns. It is a share of measured demand.

### Largest works

**Means:** the works with the highest weight. Demand comes from statement lines where supplied; otherwise from Spotify lifetime plays where Spotify shows any for the work; otherwise from YouTube views, converted into Spotify-equivalent plays at the catalogue's own plays-per-view ratio where a channel mixes the two; the weight is mostly demand with an equal part for every work, scaled by the owner's share. The report shows the top 20 and where to look each up. See [largest works](/docs/certification/rating/method-statement#largest-works).

**Does not mean:** the highest-earning works on the owner's statements, unless statements were the demand measure; or the works most likely to be defective.

### Coverage

**Means:** how much of the catalogue could be checked, by weight and by count, per component and per route. Not-checked works are the shortfall.

**Does not mean:** how much is sound. A fully covered catalogue can be badly defective.

### Channel

**Means:** a way a work earns: digital mechanical, physical mechanical, performance, neighbouring rights or sync. The channel mix is the share of income each carries.

### Materiality

**Means:** whether a route carries at least the materiality threshold of the catalogue's expected income. An immaterial route's defects are listed and cost their share of the registration score but never cap the letter.

**Does not mean:** that defects at an immaterial route are ignored.

### Estimated input

**Means:** a declared input not yet measured from settled statements (the US share, the SoundExchange share, the channel mix), with its value, basis and range. The letter issued is the lowest across the range.

**Does not mean:** a guess left unstated. Every estimate shows its basis and the letter at each end.

### Leak, risk, opportunity

**Means:** a leak loses money now; a risk could lose money later; an opportunity is income not yet earned. Leaks and risks move the grade; opportunities are listed, never scored.

### Attestation

**Means:** the owner's statement of the works covered, the rights held, society memberships, the channel mix and who remediated. It fixes the population before any lookup runs.

**Does not mean:** evidence of any state. It decides nothing about registration.

### Grading scope

**Means:** works removed from the population because their income belongs to someone else under an agreement, each with a reason, the person attesting, a date and evidence, all disclosed.

**Does not mean:** works set aside because they are defective. A defective work stays in.

### Cluster

**Means:** a work with its versions, stems and mixes, counted once for identity coverage.

### Rule book

**Means:** the versioned rules and numbers this method encodes. Published by its hash, timestamped before the first rating under it; every rating names its version and hash.

**Does not mean:** a document a reader needs to read the rating. This glossary and the [method statement](/docs/certification/rating/method-statement) say the same thing in words.

### Remediated by

**Means:** who fixed registrations between this rating and the last: nobody, TrackForge, a connected company, the owner or a third party. Always disclosed.

Source: https://trackforge.studio/docs/certification/rating/glossary/index.mdx