Revenue Management: #8 Revenue Recognition in Educational & Training Institutions

Educational Institutions and training centres typically collect course fees at the time of enrolment, sometimes for a one-day workshop and sometimes for a year-long certification course. You might also charge separately for course materials or evaluation. But when can you actually recognize that income? Would you be able to recognize it on payment? Spread it across the course period? What happens if a student cancels midway?

How do institutions manage revenue when learning is delivered over time?

Revenue Recognition Scenarios in Education & Training

Education institutions and training providers often deal with varying course durations, delivery models (online, in-person, hybrid), and fees collected upfront. Though the five-step revenue recognition model remains constant, the timing and allocation of revenue depend on the learning service's structure. Here are common revenue recognition scenarios for this industry:

Upfront Free for Long-Term Course

When a learner enrols in a course that runs for several months and pays the full fee in advance, the institution cannot recognize the entire amount immediately. Instead, the revenue should be spread out across the period the training is delivered.

Example: A $6000 certification course runs for 6 months. Revenue should be recognized at $1000 per month during the course period.

Short-Term Workshops & Seminars

For one-day or short-duration workshops, revenue can often be fully recognised once the sessions are delivered, assuming there is no refund window.

Example: A $500 weekend workshop is recognized on the day it occurs.

Course Materials & Exams

Institutions that charge separately for materials, exams, or certification must split those payments and recognize those amounts individually.

Example: $1200 total course fee, including $900 for training for three months and $300 for materials. Revenue should be recognized $300 upfront and $300/month for three months.

Cancellation, Refunds, and Attendance-Based Pricing

Refund policies and partial completions must be factored into recognition. If a student drops out after 1 month of a 3-month course, only one-third of the revenue should be recognized unless a refund is issued.

Example: A $900 course is cancelled after 1 month. You must recognize $300 and defer or refund the rest based on the policy. Credit note will be created, and the deferred $600 will be reversed to the customer as credits or issued a refund.

These scenarios show that educational institutions must align revenue with actual learning delivery and not merely based on fee collection. Automating this alignment avoids revenue overstatement and ensures compliance.

Scenario :

A training company signs up a student for a three-month Data Analytics certification program for a fee of $3000. The payment is made in full at the start. The course includes three months of training and $600 worth of course material.  

Zoho Billing for Education Institution Revenue Recognition

Zoho Billing enables learning platforms to automate revenue recognition by setting up roles that separately reflect course delivery and service components.

For the above scenario, you can configure the recognition rule as follows,

Component	Recognition Frequency	Recognition Method	Recognition Time
Course Material	Once	One-Time (Daily)	Period Start
Training Session	Monthly	Evenly Distributed	Period Start

 

Although $3000 is collected upfront, only $600 for the course material can be recognized immediately according to the performance obligation. The remaining $2400 will be spread evenly across the three-month training period.

Reports in Zoho Billing

i) Recognized Revenue Report

Two months into the course, the course material is delivered, and one month of training is pending.

Component	Recognized Revenue	Description
Course Material	$600	Recognized fully at the start
Training Session	$1600	out of $2400 for two months of training given
Total Recognized	$2200	Recognized in two months

 

ii) Deferred Revenue Report

After two months, it will be left with the training session payment alone as deferred.

Component	Deferred Amount
Course Delivery	$0
Training Session	$800
Total Deferred	$800

 

iii) Revenue Waterfall Report

Month	Course Material	Training Session	Total
Month 1	$600	$800	$1400
Month 2	----	$800	$800
Month 3	----	$800	$800
Total	$600	$2400	$3000

 

Best Practices for Education Institution Revenue Recognition

• Separate Instructional & Non-Instructional Items: Classify course material, training, certification, and exam components distinctly
• Align Revenue with Course Delivery: Ensure the recognition rule is set based on course delivery and that the revenue is recognized when the student receives the instruction.
• Set Return/Refund Policy Clearly: Establish a clear policy and terms to account for students who drop out or cancel courses after signing up.
  

 

Up Next: Revenue Recognition in Media & Publishing

• Topic Participants

• Hari Hara Sudhan. S

  

• 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

• Recent Topics

• Make Camera Overlay & Recording Controls Visible in All Screen-Sharing Options

  Hi Zoho WorkDrive Team, Hope you are doing well. We would like to request an improvement to the screen-recording experience in Zoho WorkDrive. Current Limitation: At the moment the recording controls are visible only inside the Zoho WorkDrive tab. When

• Send WhatsApp voice messages from Bigin

  Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce this enhancement we've made to Bigin. Bigin's WhatsApp integration now supports audio messages, so you can record and send voice messages. This makes it easier to handle customer questions

• CUSTOM FUNCTION GIVE ERROR #EVAL!

  CUSTEM FUNCTION CREATE KYA ZOHOSHEET ME US FUNCTION KO USE KIYA LEKIN DATA TO SAHI HAI LAKIN DATA SHEET ME NAHI LAG LAHA HAI KRUPYA SOLVE KARE MY CODE IS float ADDTWO_TWO(float NO1, float NO2) { ADD = NO1 + NO2; return ADD; }

• Samsung Keyboard Issues with Notebook

  Dear Users, We're sorry to inform you that some of our users are experiencing certain issues like scrolling, delay/lag, cursor placement especially within the text notes. This occurs mainly due to Samsung Keyboard compatibility with Android 13 and some

• Zoho Books | Product updates | October 2025

  Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From iOS 26 updates to viewing reports as charts, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Zoho Books Updates for Apple Devices At WWDC 2025, Apple

• Zoho Developer Community Hackathon 2025 is LIVE!

  Hey developers! It’s that time of the year again — the Zoho Developer Community Hackathon 2025 is officially open for registrations! If you’ve been waiting for a chance to stretch your skills, try something new, or finally bring that idea to life, this

• Zoho Books | Product updates | September 2025

  Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From PayNow payment method to applying journal credits to invoices and bills in other locations, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Integrate

• Zoho Workdrive for Office, "vsto runtime not found"

  Hi all, I have been trying to get ZohoWorkdrive_MS-addin_1.4.exe installed, but I keep getting the error "VSTO Runtime Not Found!" - even though I have installed it ... Anyone else hear had problems with the MS addin?  FYI, I am using O365 on A Dell laptop running Win 10 Home - fully patched and up-to-date.  I have tried compatibility modes and running explicitly as Administrator - the usual steps. Any advice would be appreciated.

• Can no longer export as pdf

  In NOTEBOOK I am no longer able to export notes to pdfs as I used to be able to. When I hit that command it asks where I want to send it, but no matter what I chose there is no pdf attachment that shows up in order to send. Nothing happens.

• Emails are going to notification folder and not in inbox

  emails are going to notification folder and not into inbox

• How can I prevent the Zoho Vault extension from automatically logging me out?

  Hi, I want the Zoho Vault Chrome extension to never log out. How can I do this? It only allows me to log out for 1 week, and the same applies to the Android app.

• Zoho CRM App - Links

  Hi  Is there are plan for making Custom Links available in the Zoho CRM Android App? I can't see them being added? Thanks Gene

• Templates

  Trying to sort out / get rid of unwanted invoice templates, the error msgs are not at all helpful. Surely it's easy to amend the error msg by including a list of the names of the customers / vendors that use it, denying deletion or making it inactive

• Contacts limit in basic vs standard - what counts? Are customers contacts?

  I’ve been using books for a number years for my small business. I only ever work with 20 clients at any given time. I do purchase services from a number of vendors to run my business, so there are some comtacts there too. I used to use the basic package,

• Finding missing records

  I have a challenge and I am not really sure where to start with it. I can't find any similar threads on here, can anyone help: I have two forms, FormA and FormB. Both forms have records that contain a field called Job_Number. What I am trying to achieve

• Prevent Unapproved Quotes from Exporting to Zoho CRM Finance Module

  Is it possible to prevent unapproved quotes in Zoho Books from being exported from Zoho Finance module inside Zoho CRM?

• Updates for Zoho Campaigns: Merge tag, footer, and autoresponder migration

  Hello everyone, We'd like to inform you of some upcoming changes with regard to Zoho Campaigns. We understand that change can be difficult, but we're dedicated to ensuring a smooth transition while keeping you all informed and engaged throughout the process.

• Process between CRM and Campaigns to ensure double opt-in contacts?

  I would like to ask for a few clarifications to ensure we fully comply with best practices and legal requirements: According to the documentation (Zoho Campaigns CRM sync – Default option), the best and recommended way to sync contacts is by using the

• What's New in Zoho Inventory | August – October 2025

  Hello customers, The last quarter has been incredibly productive! We've released a powerful slate of new features and enhancements in Zoho Inventory designed to give you better control, greater efficiency, and expanded functionality across your inventory

• Let's Talk Recruit: Meet Zia, your all-in-one AI assistant (Part-2)

  Welcome back to Let’s Talk Recruit series. In Part 1, we introduced Zia and how AI is reshaping the way recruiters work. This time, we’re taking a closer look at how far Zia has come and how each update continues to simplify your everyday tasks. When

• Zoho Developer - Feature Request Platform

  Zoho Developer is one of the most underatted platform in zoho ecosystem, however, it may just be what zoho needs to welcome more people to use Zoho Services. The more developers you have creating zoho creator applications and zoho extensions the more

• Last/Previous month in relative date filter

  In the relative date filter, what is the difference between "Last 2 months" and "Previous 2 months"? So, if we are on 25-July, then is my understanding correct of the following: Last 2 months :=:      25-May~24 July Previous 2 months :=:     01-May~30-June Thanks.

• Tags get removed from notes on mobile

  I don't know why this keeps happening even after all these app updates but if you log out and log back into the app or you reinstall it, all the tags you assigned to your notes get taken off, but if you go on the desktop version the tags are still there.

• Show Zoom Link in Recipient's Calendar

  We set up meetings within a record, selecting the "Make this an online meeting".  We use Zoom. Most of the recipients go to their calendar (usually Gmail or Outlook, corporate) to join the Zoom meeting, but there is no Zoom link in the calendar. Can this

• How to fetch custom fields for time entries in Zoho Project API v3

  In the previous Zoho Projects REST API, we were able to retrieve custom field details for time entries, including picklist options, using the endpoint: GET /restapi/portal/[PORTAL_ID]/timesheetcustomfields In the new Zoho Projects API v3, we tried using

• VAT rates - exempt and out of scope

  Good Evening, UK based company here. I am a bit confused in respect of setting up VAT rates for exempt goods and services; at present I am simply leaving the VAT rate blank in the transactions in order to prevent any VAT appearing in the VAT return. When

• Introducing Lead Capture: Empower exhibitors to capture leads effortlessly

  Events provide a great opportunity for exhibitors to generate awareness and engage with potential customers. Efficiently distributing attendee information to exhibitors through a seamless and secure way is of paramount importance. Introducing Lead Capture

• Work Order Creation Issue

  Dear Team, I would like to inquire about the daily limit for Work Order creation in Zoho FSM. Yesterday (02/05/2025) at around 6:30 PM GST, I attempted to create a Work Order, but I have been unable to do so since then. Please find the attached image

• Accessing shared mailboxes through Trident (Windows)

  Hi, I have a created a couple of shared mailboxes. The mailboxes are showing up on the browser based Zoho workplace, but I cannot seem to figure out how to access my shared inboxes through Trident (Windows). Am I missing something or is this feature not

• URGENT: ChatGPT Extension Failing With “gpt-3 Access Error” (Priority Support)

  Appreciate support reviewing this urgently. I am a Priority Support member and need immediate clarification on a recurring issue involving the ChatGPT extensions inside Zoho Desk. Both extensions — including the version created and published by Zoho —

• Zoho Desk iOS update: Custom buttons, follow/ unfollow option on tickets

  Hello everyone! In the most recent Zoho Desk iOS app update, we have brought in support to access the custom buttons configured on web app(desk.zoho.com). Using custom buttons you can seamlessly execute predefined actions directly from their mobile devices,

• Zoho pdf suit

  Pl. design products with following feature: 1. Please add all features given in Ilovepdf website to work on pdf files. It is mandatory to use pdf in court work. 2. Courts have prescribed New Times Roman, pl. add this font as well 3. Indexing, signature

• Zoho Not Working

  Today Zoho not wokring

• Dynamically autofill fields with URL parameters

  I have a zoho form embedded in my organization's WP website. Our users find their account with a search tool, and then can select to open this page with the embedded form. The URL of the page holds the parameter that I need, but I cannot figure out how

• User Automation: User based workflow rules & webhooks

  User management is an undeniable part of project management and requires adequate monitoring. As teams grow and projects multiply, manual coordination for updating users & permissions becomes difficult and can give way to errors. User automation in Zoho

• Integrate Projects for Desk KB article release tasks

  Could you please look into the possibility of integrating project tasks for Zoho Desk article release processes? We are looking for an internal integration between Zoho Projects and Zoho Desk's KB article drafting, reviewing and releasing tasks. We could

• Issue in Annual Leave

  We created a policy to credit 21 days at the Start of the Year An employee has taken 16 days of leaves thought the year, so we expect to see 5 Leaves remaining right? But Zoho People is Showing 12 Days of Leave Balance Available If we check the Leave

• Use the searchBy parameter to find user by email address

  I'm trying to find a user is Zoho Desk via the Api. In the documentation I see that there is the possibility to add a searchBy parameter in the request. But I can't find how the search values should be formatted. I've tried multiple things and get either

• Zoho CRM Community Digest - September 2025 | Part 2

  Hello Everyone! Mid-September vibes: fresh tips, smart hacks, and practical Zoho CRM updates all in one place. Let’s dive in. Product Updates: The All-New Address Field! The new Address field type makes it easier to capture complete addresses in one structured

• Zoho Vault API: Create new Secrets

  Hello, I attempt to Post Secrets to the vault, since the encrypted entries are almost impossible to decrypt, since there is no documentation on how to decrypt them. Like with the lack of documentation on how to descrypt, there are missing information regarding on how to create new secrets/post secrets. Source: https://www.zoho.com/vault/api/#create-a-new-secret When I try to send JSON Informationen as a POST-Request I only receive the error message: {     "operation": {         "result": {             "error_code": "",

• Next Page