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.
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'sCommunity 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 youCommunity 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 mostIntroducing: 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
I need to know the IP address of ZOHO CRM.
The link below is the IP address for Analytics, do you have CRM's? IP address for Analytics I would like to know the IP address of ZOHO CRM to allow communication as the API server I am developing is also run from CRM. Moderation Update: The post belowImporting into the 'file upload' field
Can you import attachments into the file upload field. I would expect it to work the same way as attachments do, But can't seem to get it to work.Zoho recruit's blueprint configuration is not functioning as mapped
Current Status: Zoho Blueprint is not functioning as configured. Issue: We are moving a Candidate status in Zoho Recruit "for active file" but we encountered: "Status cannot be changed for records involved in Blueprint." This happens to various clientMulti-currency and Products
One of the main reasons I have gone down the Zoho route is because I need multi-currency support. However, I find that products can only be priced in the home currency, We sell to the US and UK. However, we maintain different price lists for each. ThereSuper Admin Logging in as another User
How can a Super Admin login as another user. For example, I have a sales rep that is having issues with their Accounts and I want to view their Zoho Account with out having to do a GTM and sharing screens. Moderation Update (8th Aug 2025): We are workingBlocklist candidates in Zoho Recruit
We’re introducing Block Candidate, which helps recruiters to permanently restrict a candidate from applying to current/future job openings. Once the candidate is blocked, they will no longer be able to participate in the recruitment process. This willLayout Rules Don't Apply To Blueprints
Hi Zoho the conditional layout rules for fields and making fields required don't work well with with Blueprints if those same fields are called DURING a Blueprint. Example. I have field A that is used in layout rule. If value of field A is "1" it is supposed to show and make required field B. If the value to field A is "2" it is supposed to show and make required field C. Now I have a Blueprint that says when last stage moves to "Closed," during the transition, the agent must fill out field A. NowFrom Zoho CRM to Paper : Design & Print Data Directly using Canvas Print View
Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce a new addition to your Canvas in Zoho CRM - Print View. Canvas print view helps you transform your custom CRM layouts into print-ready documents, so you can bring your digital data to the physical world withAdmin asked me for Backend Details when I wanted to verify my ZeptoMail Account
Please provide the backend details where you will be adding the SMTP/API information of ZeptoMail Who knows what this means?Zoho Desk - Upsert Ticket
Hi Desk Team, It is common to request more information from end-users. Using forms is a great way to ensure all the required information is collected. It would be great if there were an "upsert" option on the Zoho Form -> Zoho Desk integration which wouldAll new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs
The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest updateClient Side Scripts for Meetings Module
Will zoho please add client side scripting support to the meetings module? Our workflow requires most meeting details have a specific format to work with other software we have. So we rely on a custom function to auto fill certain things. We currentlyIntroducing Multiple Sandbox Types and Support for Module's Data Population
Register here for the upcoming Focus Group webinar on Multiple Sandbox | Help documentation to learn more about the new enhancements Hello everyone, Sandbox in CRM is a testing environment for users to create and test new configurations like workflowZoho CRM for Everyone's NextGen UI Gets an Upgrade
Hello Everyone We've made improvements to Zoho CRM for Everyone's Nextgen UI. These changes are the result of valuable feedback from you where we’ve focused on improving usability, providing wider screen space, and making navigation smoother so everythingCRM 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 filesCreator Offline
We had online access setup and working on our iphones. We have just set it up on an 'Android Tablet' and it is not downloading all the images? We use it to show customers our catalogue. Any ideas. Offline components all setup on both devicesDrag 'n' Drop Fields to a Sub-Form and "Move Field To" Option
Hi, I would like to be able to move fields from the Main Page to a Sub-Form or from a Sub-Form to either the Main Page or another Sub-Form. Today if you change the design you have to delete and recreate every field, not just move them. Would be nice toEnable or disable any Field Rule!
Hello Zoho Forms Community, We are excited to announce a powerful new enhancement to Field Rules that gives you greater control and flexibility in managing your form logic! Previously, if you wanted to temporarily deactivate a field rule, you had twoMarketing Tip #20: Increase traffic with strong meta titles and descriptions
Meta titles and descriptions are what people see first on search results before they ever click through to your website. If your pages use generic titles or basic descriptions, you miss the chance to stand out, and search engines may not know which pageDifferent form submission results for submitter and internal users
I'm looking for suggestions on how to show an external submitter a few results while sending internal users all the results from the answers provided by the external user. The final page of our form has a section with detailed results and a section withKanban view on Zoho CRM mobile app!
What is Kanban? The name doesn't sound English, right? Yes, Kanban is a Japanese word which means 'Card you can see'. As per the meaning, Kanban in CRM is a type of list view in which the records will be displayed in cards and categorized under the givenNot able to delete a QC nor able to revert or create a cycle of manufacturing for QC failed Jobs
Not able to delete a QC nor able to revert or create a cycle of manufacturing for QC failed JobsDheeraj Sudan and Meenu Hinduja-How do I customize Zoho apps to suit my needs?
Hi Everyone, I'm Meenu Hinduja and my husband Dheeraj Sudan, run a business. I’m looking to tweak a few things to fit my needs, and I’d love to hear what customizations others have done. Any tips or examples would be super helpful! Regards Dheeraj SudanZoho Desk blank screen
opened a ticket from my email, zoho desk comes up blank, nothing loads. our receptionist also gets the same thing under her login on her computer. our sales rep also gets same thing on zoho desk at his home on a different computer. I tried clearing cache/history/cookies,is there any way to change the "chat with us now" to custom message?
is there any way to change the "chat with us now" to custom message? I want to change this textDeprecation Notice: OpenAI Assistants API will be shut down on August 26, 2026
I recieved this email from openAI what does it means for us that are using the integration and what should we do? Earlier this year, we shared our plan to deprecate the Assistants API once the Responses API reached feature parity. With the launch of Conversations,Capture Last check-in date & days since
I have two custom fields on my Account form, these are "Date of Last Check-In" and "Days Since Last Contact" Using a custom function how can I pull the date from the last check-in and display it in the field "Date of Last Check-In"? and then also display the number of days since last check-in in the "Days SInce Last Contact" field? I tried following a couple of examples but got myself into a bit of a muddle!Any recommendations for Australian Telephony Integration providers?
HI, I am looking for some advice on phone providers as we are looking to upgrade our phone system, does anybody have experience with any of the Australian providers that integrate with CRM Telephony? So far we are looking at RingCentral and Amazon Connect, and would love to hear feedback on any of the other providers you might have tried. Thank youWhy is the ability Customize Calls module so limited?
Why can't I add additional sections? why can't I add other field types than the very limited subset that zoho allows? Why can I only add fields to the outbound/inbound call sections and not to the Call Information section?CRM gets location smart with the all new Map View: visualize records, locate records within any radius, and more
Hello all, We've introduced a new way to work with location data in Zoho CRM: the Map View. Instead of scrolling through endless lists, your records now appear as pins on a map. Built on top of the all-new address field and powered by Mappls (MapMyIndia),Enhance Appointment Buffers in Zoho Bookings
There was previously a long-standing feature request related to enhancing the way appointment buffers work in Zoho Bookings, but it looks like the original post has been deleted. I am therefore adding a new request that Zoho Bookings adjust how appointmentSubscriptions for service call
So we install products and we want to offer a service contract for the customers yearly service calls to be billed monthly. So ideally at some point we want to email them a quote for their needs. WE will choice it our end based on the equipment. It wouldAdd RTL and Hebrew Support for Candidate Portal (and Other Zoho Recruit Portals)
Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to set the Candidate Portal to be Right-to-Left (RTL) and in Hebrew, similar to the existing functionality for the Career Site. Currently, when we set the Career SiteDelay in rendering Zoho Recruit - Careers in the ZappyWorks
I click on the Careers link (https://zappyworks.zohorecruit.com/jobs/Careers) on the ZappyWorks website expecting to see the job openings. The site redirects me to Zoho Recruit, but after the redirect, the page just stays blank for several seconds. I'mHow to add interviews through API
I'm trying to add an interview without much luck. The documentation gives examples of adding just about everything except an interview. However, the issue might be the way I'm formatting it, because the documentation is unclear to me. It seems as if the xml should be passed in the url, which seems unusual. I've tried the data as both plain and character escaped, but nothing seems to work, nor do I even get an error response. https://recruit.zoho.com/recruit/private/xml/Interviews/addRecords?authtoken=***&scope=recruitapi&version=2&xmlData=<Interviews> <rowConnection to other user
Zoho Cliq handles sharing of Custom OAuth Connections that require individual user logins.How to invite friends on other social media platforms to one of my group chats in arattai?
Hello, I have formed chat groups in arattai. I want to invite my friends on other social media platforms like WhatsApp/ FB to one of my groups. Different friends would be invited to different groups. How to share an invite link of one of my groups toCliq does not sync messages after Sleep on Mac
I'm using the mac app of Cliq. When I open my mac after it was in sleep mode, Cliq does not sync the messages that I received. I always have to reload using cmd + R, which is not what I want when using a chat application.Optimum CRM setup for new B2B business
Can some advise the most common way to setup Zoho CRM to handle sales for a B2B company? Specifically in how to handle inbound/outbound emails. I have spent hours researching online and can't seem to find an accepted approach, or even a tutorial. I haveFacing Issues with Sites Mobile font sizes
my page renediaz.com is facing issues mobile view, when i try to lower font sizes in home page, instead of changing the size, it changes the line spaceNext Page