Revenue recognition based on revenue tracker

Automate revenue recognition based on scheduled revenue allocation.

Overview

This is an extension of another Accountability function which automates the generation of accrued and deferred revenue transactions based on defined rules of when revenue should be recognized. This was developed in response to agencies wanting to recognize their revenue based on the timing schedule they have defined on the revenue tracker. Here’s a use case example: 

Let’s say the agency has created an estimate for a job that will be performed over a 5 month period starting in September 2020. 

• This job is to be billed to the client in 2 separate installments, 50% up front and 50% at the completion of the job. 
• There is $50,000 of revenue associated with the estimate and the agency wants to recognize the revenue in even monthly amounts of 20% ($10,000 per month).

The agency would set the Estimate Start Date to September 1 2020, then they would then open the Revenue tracker for the estimate and spread the revenue evenly across the 5 months from September 2020 to February 2021.

Let’s assume the agency billed 50% of the estimate on September 1. In the September accounting month, the billing would have caused 50% of the revenue ($25,000) to be recognized, but the agency wants only the 20% ($10,000) assigned to September in the revenue tracker to be recognized

Prerequisites

Revenue Tracker

This functionality references the revenue schedule you have defined for each job through the Revenue Tracker. Learn more about Accountability's Revenue Tracker functionality here.

Steps

1. Navigate to Accounting>Revenue Tools>Revenue Recognition. Select the accounting month you are working on. This would normally be done towards the end of the month- end close when all client billing has been completed and we want to review/adjust the revenue recognized on all jobs. 
2. Selecting To Revenue Tracker as the Recognition Method will display the following values for our example job:

   Estimated Revenue	Revenue Tracker  to Date	Billed  Revenue	Revenue Tracker Less Billed	Previously Accrued/ (Deferred)	Balance to Accrue/ (Defer)
   $50,000	$10,000	$25,000	$15,000	($0)	($15,000)

3. When you click Create Accruals/Deferrals, a Deferred Revenue transaction of $15,000 would be generated for this job.  You can select multiple jobs at one time and the system will generate all of the accruals (or deferrals) in one click. 

When managing the revenue recognition process from this page, the option to auto-reverse the accruals or deferrals in the next accounting month is automatically selected.  If you want to manually reverse these transactions at various times, simply uncheck the box. 

Recognition Method of "Revenue Tracker - Current Month" 

In addition to the Recognition Method of adjusting revenue to reflect the value defined in the revenue tracker cumulatively , you can choose the option "To Revenue Tracker - Current Month"  to reflect the values defined in the revenue tracker for the current month.  

The first example below is for the option "Revenue Tracker".  It shows the difference between the Revenue Tracker and Billed Revenue to-date to determine the balance to accrue in the selected Accounting Month. 

 

The next example below is for the option "Revenue Tracker - Current Month" which takes the scheduled revenue from the Revenue Tracker for the current month and uses the difference between that and the billed value to determine the balance to accrue.