Revenue Management: #4 What if there are uncertainties in project or service delivery?

Revenue Management: #4 What if there are uncertainties in project or service delivery?

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. 

    Access your files securely from anywhere







                            Zoho Developer Community





                                                  Use cases

                                                  Make the most of Zoho Desk with the use cases.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  eBooks

                                                  Download free eBooks and access a range of topics to get deeper insight on successfully using Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Videos

                                                  Watch comprehensive videos on features and other important topics that will help you master Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Webinar

                                                  Sign up for our webinars and learn the Zoho Desk basics, from customization to automation and more

                                                   
                                                    
                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Ask the Experts


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner




                                                            • Sticky Posts

                                                            • Community Learning Series | Digest #5 — September 2020

                                                              Dear customers, We're happy to bring you the September edition of our #CommunityDigest! Keep track of your subscription KPIs right from your smartphone: Last month, we enhanced our Android mobile app to help our customers get daily updates on their business health. We got to know from a lot of customers that this has made their job much more easier because they no longer have to keep a reminder to manually check on the previous day's revenue or activations. If you have not downloaded it yet, here's
                                                            • Community Learning Series | Digest #4 - August 2020

                                                              Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. I'm happy to bring you the fourth edition of our #CommunityDigest with some brand-new updates from us. 1. Daily Business Updates (for Android users) The Zoho Subscriptions Android app has got a cool new update: You can now get a push notification to your smartphone that lets you know how many activations and cancellations have taken place, and what's the net revenue for the previous day. The best part is, you can tell the app when exactly you
                                                            • Community Learning Series | Digest #3 - July 2020

                                                              Dear customers, We hope you're staying safe and healthy. We're glad to bring you the July edition of our #CommunityDigest. New community members can view our previous newsletters here. This time, we have two major updates and three interesting topics for you: 1. Zoho Subscriptions Developer Community Since the inception of Zoho Subscriptions, our team believed that the recurring billing platform we provide should be able to offer an extensive API library that empowers businesses to automate most
                                                            • Introducing: Community Learning Series | Digest #1 - May 2020

                                                              Dear customers, We hope you are staying safe and healthy. Helping businesses manage their customer subscriptions more efficiently has always been, and always will be, our goal at Zoho Subscriptions. We strongly believe this is possible if we grow together as a community and share what we know with each other. To nurture this shared learning experience, here is our brand-new Community Learning Series! ​ Welcome to the first edition of our digest! Each edition of our community digest includes guides


                                                            Manage your brands on social media



                                                                  Zoho TeamInbox Resources



                                                                      Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                                        Zoho Books Resources


                                                                          Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                            Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                              Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                                Qntrl Resources


                                                                                  Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                                      Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                                      • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                                        CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                                      • Kaizen

                                                                                        Kaizen

                                                                                      • Functions

                                                                                        Functions

                                                                                      • Meetups

                                                                                        Meetups

                                                                                      • Kbase

                                                                                        Kbase

                                                                                      • Resources

                                                                                        Resources

                                                                                      • Digest

                                                                                        Digest

                                                                                      • CRM Marketplace

                                                                                        CRM Marketplace

                                                                                      • MVP Corner

                                                                                        MVP Corner






                                                                                          Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                          Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                          Get Started Now


                                                                                            Zoho Show Resources


                                                                                              Zoho Writer Writer

                                                                                              Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                              Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                                Zoho CRM コンテンツ








                                                                                                  Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                                      ご検討中の方




                                                                                                            • Recent Topics

                                                                                                            • Elevate your CX delivery using CommandCenter 2.0: Simplified builder; seamless orchestration

                                                                                                              Most businesses want to create memorable customer experiences—but they often find it hard to keep them smooth, especially as they grow. To achieve a state of flow across their processes, teams often stitch together a series of automations using Workflow
                                                                                                            • Custom Buttons for Mass Actions

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, We’ve just made Custom Buttons in Zoho Recruit even more powerful! You can now create Bulk Action Buttons that let you perform actions on multiple records at once, directly from the List View. What’s new? Until now, custom buttons were
                                                                                                            • Zoho Assist not rendering NinjaTrader chart properly

                                                                                                              Hi everyone. Just installed and testing Zoho Assist. I want to display my laptop' screen (Windows 11) on a monitor connected to my Mac mini. The laptop is running a stock trading program called NinjaTrader. Basically, when running, this program displays
                                                                                                            • Involved account types are not applicable when create journals

                                                                                                              { "journal_date": "2016-01-31", "reference_number": "20160131", "notes": "SimplePay Payroll", "line_items": [{ "account_id": "538624000000035003", "description": "Net Pay", "amount": 26690.09, "debit_or_credit": "credit" }, { "account_id": "538624000000000403", "description": "Gross", "amount": 32000, "debit_or_credit": "debit" }, { "account_id": "538624000000000427", "description": "CPP", "amount": 1295.64, "debit_or_credit": "debit" }, { "account_id": "538624000000000376", "description":
                                                                                                            • Question regarding import of previous deals...

                                                                                                              Good afternoon, I'm working on importing some older deal records from an external sheet into the CRM; however, when I manually click "Add New Deal" and enter the pertinent information, the deal isn't appearing when I look at the "Deals" bar on the account's
                                                                                                            • Auto Capitalize First Letter of Words

                                                                                                              Hi I am completely new to ZOHO and am trying to build a database. How can i make it when a address is entered into a form field like this: main st it automatically changes is to show: Main St Thank You
                                                                                                            • Adding Social Media Buttons to Basic Campaigns

                                                                                                              Hi, I'm quote new to using Zoho Campaigns and I can't work out how to add Social Media Buttons into my basic campaign? In MailChimp there's a button that brings the icons into your campaign for you. I've tried adding the social media icons as 'buttons' in Zoho but it's not looking great. Can anyone help? Thanks!
                                                                                                            • Dropshipping Address - Does Not Show on Invoice Correctly

                                                                                                              When a dropshipping address is used for a customer, the correct ship-to address does not seem to show on the Invoice. It shows correctly on the Sales Order, Shipment Order, and Package, just not the Invoice. This is a problem, because the company being
                                                                                                            • An Exclusive Session for Zoho Desk Users: AI in Zoho Desk

                                                                                                              A Zoho Community Learning Initiative Hello everyone! This is an announcement for Zoho Desk users and anyone exploring Zoho Desk. With every nook and corner buzzing, "AI's here, AI's there," it's the right time for us to take a closer look at how the AI
                                                                                                            • Best way to schedule bill payments to vendors

                                                                                                              I've integrated Forte so that I can convert POs to bills and make payments to my vendors all through Books. Is there a way to schedule the bill payments as some of my vendors are net 30, net 60 and even net 90 days. If I can't get this to work, I'll have
                                                                                                            • Link(s) between Notes

                                                                                                              Hello Everyone, It would be great if links could be created between notes. Let's say we have 5 Notes A, B, C , D, E. I would like to be able to link Note A to Note B but not in other way, so no link appears in Note B linking to Note A. An so on, linking
                                                                                                            • Regex in Zoho Mail custom filters is not supported - but it works!

                                                                                                              I recently asked Zoho for help using regex in Zoho Mail custom filters and was told it was NOT supported. This was surprising (and frustrating) as regex in Zoho Mail certainly works, although it does have some quirks* To encourage others, here are 3 regex
                                                                                                            • Need Easy Way to Update Item Prices in Bulk

                                                                                                              Hello Everyone, In Zoho Books, updating selling prices is taking too much time. Right now we have to either edit items one by one or do Excel export/import. It will be very useful if Zoho gives a simple option to: Select multiple items and update prices
                                                                                                            • Feature Request: Assign Documents to Already Entered Bills, Expenses, Invoices, etc.

                                                                                                              Hi Zoho Team, We are regular users of the Documents module in Zoho Books and appreciate its ability to keep financial records well-organized. However, we’ve noticed a limitation: There is no way to attach a document from the "Documents > Files" section
                                                                                                            • I don't see any WITHDRAWL transaction at all

                                                                                                              Hi I manually imported my bank statement to Zoho books today and I am a complete newbie. I have been reading the knowledgebase but unable to fix this. I only see "Uncategorized 91 DEPOSIT transactions". I don't see any WITHDRAWL transaction at all. Also,
                                                                                                            • Shared inbox unable to see replies

                                                                                                              Hi we are a small company me and someone else, we have a shared inbox for our sale@ and contact@ however we have this issue where by if i reply to an email or the other person reply to the email, it does not show it to them and therefore we end up replying
                                                                                                            • Sync desktop folders instantly with WorkDrive TrueSync (Beta)

                                                                                                              Keeping your important files backed up and accessible has never been easier! With WorkDrive desktop app (TrueSync), you can now automatically sync specific desktop folders to WorkDrive Web, ensuring seamless, real-time updates across devices. Important:
                                                                                                            • Workdrive on Android - Gallery Photo Backups

                                                                                                              Hello, Is there any way of backing up the photos on my android phone directly to a specific folder on Workdrive? Assuming i have the workdrive app installed on the phone in question. Emma
                                                                                                            • Zoho Books | Product updates | August 2025

                                                                                                              Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From the right sidebar where you can manage all your widgets, to integrating Zoho Payments feeds in Zoho Books, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience.
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #136 - Zoho CRM Widgets using ReactJS

                                                                                                              Hey there! Welcome back to yet another insightful post in our Kaizen series! In this post, let's explore how to use ReactJS for Zoho CRM widgets. We will utilize the sample widget from one of our previous posts - Geocoding Leads' Addresses in ZOHO CRM
                                                                                                            • 404 error at checkout

                                                                                                              Our customers are getting a 404 error at checkout. Anyone else with the same problem?
                                                                                                            • FONT Sizing in Notebook

                                                                                                              Hi Kishore - What is the status of adding font sizing to the application? I have several things that I have pasted directly into Notebook and the fonts are HUGE! I would like the ability to highlight them and reduce the font to a legible size. Nothing
                                                                                                            • Can managers Upload documents to their direct rapports?

                                                                                                              Admin employees have the ability to upload documents to employees' files; however, managers do not have add/manage button - is it possible for managers to upload their direct reports' documents, such as absence documents or 121 documents. Is there something
                                                                                                            • Leave balance display for next year

                                                                                                              Is there a way to not have a rollover or not limit the leave balance depending on the date. For example an employee has 10 days leave balance and wants to apply for January leave in December. They cant because the rollover doesnt show the leave balance
                                                                                                            • Please add an “Auto-Apply Unused Credits” toggle

                                                                                                              Hello — please add a simple org-level option to automatically apply unused credits (credit notes, excess payments, retainers) to new invoices and/or bills. An ON/OFF toggle with choices “invoices”, “bills”, or “both” would save lots of manual work for
                                                                                                            • Zoho Books not working/loading

                                                                                                              Hi! I haven't been able to access/load Zoho Books for the past hours. I get a time out (and it is not due to my internet connection). Could you please check this asap? Thank you!
                                                                                                            • WhatsApp Channels in Zoho Campaigns

                                                                                                              Now that Meta has opened WhatsApp Channels globally, will you add it to Zoho Campaigns? It's another top channel for marketing communications as email and SMS. Thanks.
                                                                                                            • Introducing Profile Summary: Faster Candidate Insights with Zia

                                                                                                              We’re excited to launch Profile Summary, a powerful new feature in Zoho Recruit that transforms how you review candidate profiles. What used to take minutes of resume scanning can now be assessed in seconds—thanks to Zia. A Quick Example Say you’re hiring
                                                                                                            • Custom Fields with Data Types for Expense and Payments Received in Zoho Books

                                                                                                              Hi all, We are glad to present to you, the option to create Custom Fields for the Expense and Payments received modules in Zoho Books. This also comes with an icing on top of it - Yes, the custom fields can now be created with different data types. Types like Text, Number, Decimal, Amount, Auto Number and Check Box are supported as of now. Rush to the gear icon at the top right corner, select 'More Settings', choose 'Preferences' in the left pane. Click the Expense/Payment preferences where you can
                                                                                                            • Custom Fonts in Zoho CRM Template Builder

                                                                                                              Hi, I am currently creating a new template for our quotes using the Zoho CRM template builder. However, I noticed that there is no option to add custom fonts to the template builder. It would greatly enhance the flexibility and branding capabilities if
                                                                                                            • [Webinar] Automate sales and presales workflows with Writer

                                                                                                              Sales involves sharing a wide range of documents with customers across the presales, sales, and post-sales stages: NDAs, quotes, invoices, sales orders, and delivery paperwork. Generating and managing these documents manually slows down the overall sales
                                                                                                            • Follow-up emails via Workflow Automation not staying in the same thread

                                                                                                              Dear Zoho Support Team, I am currently using Workflow Automation in Zoho Campaigns to send follow-up emails. In my test case, I noticed the following behavior: All emails in the automation have the same subject line. If the follow-up email is sent within
                                                                                                            • Zoho Cliq - Incident alert (Server outage - IN DC) | August 28

                                                                                                              We've received server down alerts and are currently investigating the issue (IN DC) to find the root cause. Our team is actively working to restore normal operations at the earliest. Status: Under investigation Start time: 09:44:21 AM IST Affected location:
                                                                                                            • Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM Integration – AI-Powered Sales Automation

                                                                                                              Hello Zoho Community 👋 I’m excited to share a recent integration we’ve worked on at OfficehubTech: ✅ Claude + MCP Server + Zoho CRM This integration connects Zoho CRM with Claude AI through our custom MCP Server, enabling intelligent AI-driven responses
                                                                                                            • How to conditionally embed an own internal widget with parameters in an html snippet?

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, I'm trying to create a dynamic view in a page using an HTML snippet. The goal is to display different content based on a URL parameter (input.step). I have successfully managed to conditionally display different forms using the following
                                                                                                            • Sync more than one Workdrive

                                                                                                              Hello Please I'm facing some difficulties since some days. In my company we have many zoho accounts in different organisations. And I have to find a way to sync all these Workdrives. I spend many hours to search it on zoho Workdrive but no solution. Could someone help me ? Any idea how I can achieve it ? Thanks in advance. Regards
                                                                                                            • How can I see content of system generated mails from zBooks?

                                                                                                              System generated mails for offers or invices appear in the mail tab of the designated customer. How can I view the content? It also doesn't appear in zMail sent folder.
                                                                                                            • Limitations on editing a message in Cliq

                                                                                                              Hi I've checked the documentations and there's no mention of how many times a message can be edited. When trying with code, I get various numbers such as ~1000 edits or so. Please mention if there's a limit on how many times one can change a message via
                                                                                                            • Problem with reports due to "Connected" items change - Yes this IS a problem

                                                                                                              Now that the change has been made to use "connected" items I can no longer run the reporting I need in CRM. I should be able to start with Deals as the parent, connect down to the Account (Account_Name) on the deal as the child, then to any child items
                                                                                                            • CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive

                                                                                                              Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage files
                                                                                                            • Next Page