Revenue recognition
Cash received is not revenue earned. The gap between them is where deals get restructured after signature and where quarters get restated.
This structures the question and tells you what to ask. Revenue recognition is a technical accounting matter under standards such as ASC 606 and IFRS 15 — conclusions on a material or unusual contract need your auditors or a qualified accountant, not a checklist.
The shape of the question
Recognition follows the transfer of control to the customer, worked through in five steps: identify the contract, identify the distinct performance obligations, determine the transaction price, allocate it across the obligations, then recognize as each is satisfied.
Most disputes happen at step two and step four. What sales sold as one thing is frequently several obligations for accounting purposes — software plus implementation plus support — and the price has to be allocated across them on standalone selling price, not on how the quote was written.
Terms that change the answer
These belong in a pre-signature review, because after signature the only remedy is an amendment the customer has no reason to agree to:
- Acceptance clauses — a customer right to reject can defer recognition until acceptance.
- Termination for convenience — a short-notice exit can shorten the contract term for accounting purposes, however long the stated term is.
- Contingent or milestone fees — variable consideration, constrained until it is probable there will be no significant reversal.
- Material rights — a renewal or upgrade priced below standalone value can itself be a performance obligation carved out of today's price.
- Extended payment terms — payment far from delivery can introduce a financing component.
- Side letters. Any promise made outside the contract is still part of the contract. They are the single most common cause of restatement, and by construction finance does not know they exist.
Working with sales
Recognition treatment is a deal input, not a post-signature discovery. A concession that costs nothing commercially can move revenue across a period boundary, and by the time finance sees the signed paper the trade has already been made.
Give revenue:chief-revenue-officer and revenue:pricing-and-packaging a small set of standard
structures that recognize cleanly, and route anything outside them through review before signature —
alongside legal-risk:contract-review, which owns the legal exposure the same clauses create.
Deferred revenue is an obligation
The deferred balance is work owed, not money banked. Track it by cohort and obligation so you can answer what it is composed of and when it releases. A balance nobody can decompose is one that surprises you.
Sources
references/sources.md in this skill lists the outside authorities that settle the questions
here — what each one is authoritative for, and what you may do with it. Check them before
answering on anything they cover, and cite what you used. Most are free to read and not free
to reproduce; the use note on each is binding.
Tooling
Subledgers that carry recognition schedules: NetSuite Advanced Revenue Management, Zuora Revenue, Maxio, Chargebee, Stripe Revenue Recognition, and similar.
Spreadsheet schedules hold up until contracts carry multiple performance obligations or take mid-term modifications. That is the point to move, not a revenue threshold.
Never
- Recognize on invoice date or cash receipt as a shortcut.
- Allocate price across obligations the way the quote happened to be laid out.
- Let a side letter exist.
- Conclude a material or novel contract's treatment without your auditors.
