Our previous post taught us how Zoho Billing makes life easy for businesses with its automated revenue recognition rule. However, certain businesses have more challenges that an automated system cannot handle, and there are certain situations where automated revenue recognition is not feasible. For example, construction services paid in advance but with uncertain start dates can make the revenue recognition rule look inappropriate. Some manual interventions are needed to handle this scenario.
Manual revenue recognition in Zoho Billing helps you handle these uncertainties. It is used when the timing and amount of revenue cannot be determined accurately through automated rules. This is common in industries such as construction, where project completion is tied to milestones that may occur at irregular intervals.
Example 1:
Imagine a construction firm signs a $50,000 contract to renovate a commercial building. The client pays the entire amount upfront, but the agreement specifies that the revenue will be recognized only as key project stages are completed. Each milestone carries a defined value or percentage of the total contact, say,
Design & Approval Phase: $5000
Demolition & Site Preparation: 30% of the total contract value
Structural & Roofing Work: 40% of the total contract value
Interiors & Handover: 100% of the remaining
Milestone | Recognition | Completion Date | Amount Recognized |
Design & Approval | Fixed Cost | 12/Jan/2025 | $5000 |
Demolition & Site Preparation | 30% of the total contract | 20/Feb/2025 | $15,000 |
Structural & Roofing Work | 40% of the total contract | 25/Apr/2025 | $20,000 |
Interior & Handover | 100% of the balance | 30/Jun/2025 | $10,000 |
Total Revenue Recognized= $50,000 |
The company ensures that its financial statement accurately reflects real project progress by only reporting revenue when each phase is completed, rather than relying on an automated schedule that may not match the actual work done.
If you look at the revenue recognition report, it will show up like this,
i) Recognized Revenue Report
At the end of the project,
Month | Recognized Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $5000 |
Feb 2025 | $15,000 |
Mar 2025 | $0 |
Apr 2025 | $20,000 |
May 2025 | $0 |
Jun 2025 | $10,000 |
Total Recognized | $50,000 |
ii) Deferred Revenue Report
As the project progresses, deferred value gets recognized.
Month | Deferred Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $45,000 |
Feb 2025 | $30,000 |
Mar 2025 | $30,000 |
Apr 2025 | $10,000 |
May 2025 | $10,000 |
Jun 2025 | $0 |
iii) Revenue Waterfall Report
Billing Date | Total Billed | Jan 2025 | Feb 2025 | Mar 2025 | Apr 2025 | May 2025 | Jun 2025 | Recognized Revenue | Deferred Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $50,000 | $5,000 | $15,000 | $0 | $20,000 | $0 | $10,000 | $50,000 | $0 |
The project owner ensures that revenue is recorded accurately only after each milestone is completed, and this is done manually without any specific frequency.
Example 2:
A software consulting firm signs a $120,000 contract to implement an in-house ERP solution with a client. The client pays the amount upfront, but the project involves phases that don't follow uniform timelines/deadlines.
The defined timelines are,
Requirement Analysis & Resource Planning: $10,000
System Customization: 25% of the total contract
Testing & QA: 35% of total contract
Deployment & Support: Remaining contract value
Milestone | Recognition | Completion Date | Amount Recognized |
Requirement Analysis & Planning | Fixed Cost | 15/Jan/2025 | $10,000 |
System Customization | 25% of the contract value | 10/Mar/2025 | $30,000 |
Testing & QA | 35% of the contact value | 25/May/2025 | $42,000 |
Deployment & Support | 100% of the balance | 30/Jul/2025 | $38,000 |
Total Revenue Recognized= $120,000 |
When you look at the revenue recognition report for this software deployment, it will show up as follows,
i) Recognized Revenue Report
At the end of the deployment,
Month | Recognized Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $10,000 |
Feb 2025 | $0 |
Mar 2025 | $30,000 |
Apr 2025 | $0 |
May 2025 | $42,000 |
Jun 2025 | $0 |
Jul 2025 | $38,000 |
Total Recognized | $120,000 |
ii) Deferred Revenue Report
As the development progresses, deferred value gets recognized.
Month | Deferred Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $110,000 |
Feb 2025 | $110,000 |
Mar 2025 | $80,000 |
Apr 2025 | $0 |
May 2025 | $38,000 |
Jun 2025 | $38,000 |
Jul 2025 | $0 |
iii) Revenue Waterfall Report
Billing Date | Total Billed | Jan 2025 | Feb 2025 | Mar 2025 | Apr 2025 | May 2025 | Jun 2025 | Jul 2025 | Recognized Revenue | Deferred Revenue |
Jan 2025 | $120,000 | $10,000 | $0 | $30,000 | $0 | $42,000 | $0 | $38,000 | $120,000 | $0 |
Manual revenue recognition is critical when automated rules don't serve the purpose. As we saw through construction and IT consulting examples, Zoho Billing allows businesses to recognize revenue at the right amount and time, ensuring financial statements remain aligned with real project progress.
While we learn the manual recognition process, we will explore these specific industry types in future posts and provide a detailed walk-through of how these businesses record their earnings.
Our next post will start with the SaaS industry, where revenue recognition follows a very different pattern. Unlike milestone-based revenue recognition, SaaS depends more on a recurring billing cycle.
Stay tuned as we explore revenue recognition for SaaS businesses in a few days.
Recent Topics
Zoho Books integration with Google workspace
How do I integrate Zoho books with Google Workspace? The steps outlined on the Zoho help sections do not correspond to the actual user interface in Google Workspace. Zoho books is installed on admin level for all users, all users can access it from the
Fields of Look up in Custom Modules
We need to create a custom module in Books for Proforma Invoices Now I created a Custom Module and added a Table and in the table added a lookup field and chose Items Now I want Specific fields of the item such as Tax, Item Cost etc but it only displays
Share work items across projects and users
Hello everyone, We're thrilled to introduce a new feature in Zoho Sprints: "Share work item" Collaboration across projects and users is now easier with the introduction of the Share work item feature. You can now share work items with users who are not
Payment Terms Changing Upon Invoicing
Hello! Our standard payment terms for 95% of our customers are Net 30, and all of our customers that these terms apply to have that setting n their customer profile. However, over the last week or so, when an invoice is generated the majority of these
How do I get a refund for email seats?
Hi, I've been using Zoho for awhile and have been paying for 2 seats. Recently, I created another 9 seats, but I also found out that Zoho does not support cold emails, so these 9 seats created for this purpose became useless. It's within 24 hours that
Work Orders / Bundle Requests
Zoho Inventory needs a work order / bundle request system. This record would be analogous to a purchase order in the purchasing workflow or a sales order in the sales cycle. It would be non-journaling, but it would reserve the appropriate inventory of
Narrative 1 - The significance of a business account
Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system - BTS Series Narrative 1 - The significance of a business account Setting up a proper business account is a crucial step that is often overlooked when launching a ticketing system for your service company,
Changed hosting for domain, Zoho mail stopped working.
I have changed hosting fro my domain and from that time my zoho email stopped working
we need to add a Customer Number field to the PDF document templates
Hello everyone. We are currently using Zoho Inventory for our small business operations and have found it to be a valuable tool. However, we’ve encountered a specific requirement: we need to add a Customer Number field to the PDF document templates (such
Joining Two Reports
Hello Guys, I have three modules: - Orders - Custom module - Clients - Contacts - Basic Pay I am using the order module to store the revenue share amount for each order which will be paid a sales rep The Orders are child or clients so I am pulling a report
Power of Automation :: Notify users Automatically when @Mentioned in Tasks Description
Hello Everyone, A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate
Recording a payment in foreign currency not allowed
Hi, my base currency is CHF. I made an invoice in EUR, which have been paid with an extra amount (which are the fees I guess). When I record that payment from the invoice page, I can select the EUR bank account. But the amount received is above the invoice
Introducing WhatsApp integration and quick editing capabilities in Zoho Sign
Hi there, Zoho Sign already helps users collect signatures via email and SMS, and we're happy to announce that you can now send documents and authenticate recipients right through WhatsApp. Some of the key benefits include: Communication with recipients
Order Wise Expense Tracking and Reporting Possible?
Hi, We are a manufacturing firm and take up several orders at the same time. Each order will be associated with a single sales order and then once completed to a single invoice. When recording expenses, is it possible to associate each expense with a
Zoho Flow Needs to Embrace AI Agent Protocols to Stay Competitive
Zoho Flow has long been a reliable platform for automating workflows and integrating various applications. However, in the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-driven automation, it risks falling behind competitors like n8n, which are pioneering advancements
Layout Rule Fields Appear in "Verify Details" Pop-up — Confirmed Working
Hey everyone — just wanted to share a quick discovery. I created a Layout Rule in the Deals module that makes two fields show up (and required) when the stage is set to Closed Won or Closed Lost — one pick list and one text field. To my surprise, those
Can you please let us know how we can use Zoho for multi store?
Hello Team, Can you please let us know how we can use Zoho for multi store because when we connect our plugin to Zoho and we create a product and then on another store when we create product with same name then product already exist error occurs, so how
Zoho One Home Dashboard - My Tasks (Projects) & My Overdue Work Items (Projects) have no data.
The title basically covers the situation. I've set up the dashboard cards, and for a while, they were showing data. Now, they are both blank. Is anyone else experiencing this, or has anyone else experienced this, and if so, is there a fix?
Zakya - Release in North America?
At Zoholics it was pitched like Zakya was already released in North America. However, when looking for it I couldnt find it. There isnt an integrated app available in Zoho. I figured maybe it was being released at Zoholics. Now over a month later, its
Custom Field Mapping in Outlook
I have 10 custom fields in Zoho is there a way to create and map them to the outlook contact?
Custom module - change from autonumber to name
I fear I know the answer to this already, but thought I'd ask the question. I created a custom module and instead of having a name as being the primary field, I changed it to an auto-number. I didn't realise that all searches would only show this reference.
Enhanced Zoho CRM and Office 365 calendar synchronization features!
Dear customers, We're excited to share some significant improvements to our Office 365 calendar synchronization features, aimed at providing you with more control and a more personalized experience. What’s new Choose your Office 365 calendar: During the
Problemas de usarmos no Brasil
Somos usuários a exatamente um ano do Zoho Recruit, agora migramos para o Zoho One. Temos enfrentado por diversas vezes problemas da ferramenta não estar realmente preparada para funcionar corretamente na lingua portuguesa. Problema esse não específico
CERTIFICADO DIGITAL - BRASIL
Olá, Temos o ZOHO ONE e no Sign vemos de forma simples a assinatura digital, temos nos BRASIL certificado digital, de no CERTISIGN homologado pelo GOVERNO do BRASIL, há possibilidade de gerar a assinatura diante deste certificado?
Zoho Duplicate Reference Numbers
I have 2 accounts through zoho. On one account if I enter a bill with the same number as a previous bill I get a warning message saying that there is already a bill with this number. However on the other account I do not get this message. How do I turn
integration between Zoho Site and Zoho Learn
integration between Zoho Site and Zoho Learn so that when a user registers on the Zoho Site, their account is automatically created in Zoho Learn!! the use case i have pro plan in zoho site and zoho learn and i have puted the zoho learn domain in zoho
Automation #6 - Prevent Re-opening of Closed Tickets
This is a monthly series where we pick some common use cases that have been either discussed or most asked about in our community and explain how they can be achieved using one of the automation capabilities in Zoho Desk. Typically when a customer submits
Not able to list or add contacts
I am not able to get a list of contacts via api request. Tickets for example are listed via api even without orgId, so it shoud be similar. What is missing to reach the requirement. My aim ist to add a contact via API and then add a ticket with the contact
See contrat information from an account under the ticket
Hi there, How can I program something to display created and selected contract on the ticket itself so my agents see it and can support correctly according to the contract and SLA ? Thank you :)
Weekly time log view
The Weekly Time Log view is pretty nice. My users really like it when I show it to them. They like being able to pin ongoing tasks. Anyway, it's sort of hard to find. It is grouped with the Add Time Log button as a pull down. In my opinion, it should
Any Impact of Amazon Listings API on E-commerce Integration?
Amazon sent the following message about changes to their APIs. Our only Amazon app / integration is Zoho Inventory's eCommerce for Amazon US, so the message below in bold gives us concerns about if Amazon's warning is referencing Zoho's Amazon US integration.
Working with Products that are non-tangible
How does one create a 'service' in products? Is there a way to disable inventory functions for things like Sofware as a service? The services module doesn't look to be much help either. Not sure how to do this in CRM
ePOD Devices
Has anyone tried and tested and devices that deliver ePOD (electronic proof of delivery)? We would like our drivers to use an ePOD device to get the customer signature The app should then be capable of updating the sales order to show delivery.
API Integration
Why are we unable to do API Integration for Job borads
Remind/Recall Document API
When I recall a document through the Sign API, I would like to be able to specify the reason that gets sent in the user notification email. Same with including a unique message when sending a document reminder through the API. Is there a way to include
Zoho Books API Creating Invoice and Address API
I'm trying to create an invoice with zoho books api and i get the following error: Error creating invoice in Zoho Books: { message: 'Request failed with status code 400', details: { code: 15, message: 'Please ensure that the "billing_address" has less
Convert Multiple PO in 1 Bill
Does anyone know how to convert multiple POs in 1 Bill? Thank you
merge the Multiple POs to single PO if Vendor of PO"s --in Zoho Inventory
HI Merge the Multiple POs to single PO if Vendor of PO"s are Same ----in Zoho inventory Please provide any work around to achive this .
How to add categories to community
In my Community, I would like to add several Categories but I don't readily see how this is accomplished. Currently, I have one category in my community with several forums. But I would like to add more categories. Thanks.
Knowledgeable Image Quality is very poor, any recommendations how to improve this?
Hi All, We are looking at migrating our current knowledge base to Zoho so it can be kept in one location. Our current KB utilises a lot of images to try and make it easier for users and less wordy. Unfortunately, when I upload an image within an article,
Next Page